A Hug Worth More than Words

August 9

It’s Papi appreciation day today! But not till later tonight when Evelin gets back from Teguc. She left early this morning for her visa renewal interview. During our mentor time Gracie asked Jen and I to kind of evaluate and give our observations of the staff and their performance. She was going to meet with them one on one later on in the day to give them a little feedback and some reminders concerning their responsibilities. There’s also a new nanny who has been here since Saturday who is on a trial week to see if she is good for the job. At this point though, based on what we have observed, I think Gracie is going to have to find someone else. Not to be harsh or anything like that, but you kind of have to be picky when it comes to hiring people to work here considering the type of ministry this is.

After lunch, Gracie got a text from Evelin saying that she got her visa! Woohooo! We were all pretty excited about that. Praise the Lord! Two o’clock rolled around and I had quite a bit of cooking to do for the evening, so I decided to get started on that. I like to take my time. So I was in the kitchen pretty much the rest of the afternoon. I made Biko and wrapped it in banana leaves, taco soup, and corn bread, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone in the kitchen. We had the comedor set up for all of us to eat together. Evelin was running a little late, so we had to start without her. Alicia stepped up and volunteered to lead the prayer. After our meal, each of the girls had cards for Papi which Gracie translated for him one by one. He was quite surprised, but very touched and blessed. Papi does a  lot of behind the scenes work here at the mission, but he has also been such a good example of a loving father to the kids and the girls, so we just wanted to bless him and let him know how much he is appreciated.

Later that night we had a “pre-departure” moment with Heydi. I entered the patio and saw Jen hugging her because she was crying. She was already thinking about us leaving in a few days and how much she was going to miss us. I gave her a hug, but it was like no other hug that she had given me before. She didn’t want to let me go and she just wanted to be held. So I just held her tight and told her that I would always love her. My heart was breaking; when the time for us to leave comes, it’s going to be really hard to say goodbye. But it was at that moment that I realized that we really have been able to reach these girls’ hearts. We may have wrestled with them from time to time and had moments when we felt like they weren’t getting anything out of the things we try to tell them, but while I was standing there just holding her, I knew that we had touched her heart. It’s not about whether or not they participate in class, or whether or not we see a drastic change in their behavior…when it comes down to it, what matters the most is whether or not we were able to show them that they are worth loving. There’s more that I wish I could have said to her, but in that moment, a hug was worth more than anything I could have said.