The air here in Peru has turned cold. While a lot of the world is enjoying the warming of spring the rest of the world is heading into winter. The coolness of the evenings is making me have to put on a long sleeve shirt. We had been all day in a new town about 15 minutes from villa El Salvador. We spent the day walking around talking to people and inviting them to a church service at the local basketball court in the center of the town.
It was a interesting town filled with many houses, people, a market and lots of sand. We met a lot of different people. One man who was in the market and was awakened by us said that today he decided to follow God. We could not really figure out the whole story through translation, but it was something along those lines.
When we got back towards the church I found a couple of little girls to talk with and play with. We chatted and played games of me pretending to be different animals and they would guess which one I was doing. One girl was named naella and the other one was mariella. They were some other ones too that came from time to time. We played for a good while and then we went for a walk up to get some snacks. We ran through the streets holding hands and laughing. On the way there we started racing and a dog ran up and bit my back thigh. It was really weird and kind of hurt.
We got back and I went and ate dinner and after dinner I went next door to get my friends to go to the service at the park. We got to the service and we ran around for a good while spinning in circles and climbing on the bars for the basketball courts. Naella would go and sit for awhile and then she would run up out of nowhere and Scream ANDRES and jump up into my arms. It happened quite a bit. We then sat down for the message and Naella crawled up into my lap and before long fell asleep in my arms.
I sat there and looked up at the stars, and thought about my life and God and these new friends that I had made. I started to pray for this precious little girl in my arms. Asking God not to let her go and to hold her in His arms like I was doing at that time. I thought about how never again would I probably get the chance to see these little girls again. We were only going to be in this town for one day and probably never return. I thought about the beauty of a friendship and how important it is even if only for a couple hours. I thank God for those moments. The moments that tell us that God loves us and He loves people through us. Whether for days, months, years or just minutes and how important it is to cherish those moments and love the people around us.
