On our first day of VBS (Friday), the very first rotation in story time consisted of over 20 kids under the age of nine. The story for the day was "Jesus calms the storm." The first five minutes were great. Angelic little cherubs sat calmly and listened attentivly, but things quickly spiraled out of control. Suddenly I felt like one of the faithless disciples in the storm-rocked boat about to be overcome by waves of little Guatemalans. Lynn and Coleen managed to wrangle and exercise a bit of control, but for the most part, things were pretty caotic. It seemed like Eumelio, a rascally little fellow, was the center of the storm, and I had that confirmed yesterday too!
What a heart Jesus has for this place. It is immediately apparent. Some many children, many of whom are likely unloved by their own parents, are so wonderfully loved by Lourdes, Teresa and the rest of the staff. What a picture of a broken world, but one that Jesus has broken into with all of his glory and might! He has come to bring sight to the blind, and he makes the lame leap for joy. He is tranforming, redeeming and ADOPTING his people, and he delights in us.
It is apparent that these children are being trained in God's word. So far, they have known the stories and memorized the verses, but it is the Spirit's work to turn that knowledge into true faith. So we endeavor to dig a little deeper with them. It's not just about a powerful Jesus who tranforms fish and loaves into a banquet for the multitude. After all, within hours the people will hunger again. It's about the powerful Jesus who says: "I am the bread of life. Taste and see that I am good. Eat of me and you will never hunger again." Please pray that, in His perfect timing, He will draw each one of these children to Himself and use them to bring about greater healing to this very needy place.
We're all having a lot of fun here, too. Angie is really rocking the boat on our bus rides though. One day she's drenching us with soda that's spraying out of control from a punctured can. (Coleen's got it on video.) The next day she's smacking balloons in our face. Yesterday, Kristi celebrated her 43 birthday along with two of the girls at the orphanage who were celebrating their quinceañera (15th birthday bash). One of the girls wanted to know how old Kristi was, so Kristi asked me how to say 43 in Spanish. I told her ochenta y tres (which means 83), so that was lots of fun for me.
We made amazing progress on work projects yesterday. Existing building cleaned and prepped--ready for todays's construction, and transformation into an operating chicken coop. Two gardens weeded and planted. Mother weed that caused mold in one of the building cut down and removed.
Keep praying for us, and pray about how God would lead his people to have a continued partnership with this orphanage.
In Christ, David
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