This last Thursday I was in a particularly grumpy mood with no hope of it getting any better, any time soon. There was no good reason to be upset, I was just letting silly things bother me and I was letting myself sit in the grumpy pit that I had essentially created for myself. (Side note: The race isn’t just riding elephants and bungee jumping. You’re still a real person with real emotions and real bad days.)
Two sweet squad mate sisters agreed to go on a walk with me in hopes of clearing my head and returning home with some delicious coffee flavored candy. As we began our journey into town I was pretty convinced that my mood would indeed stay the same and this walk wasn’t going to help much. However, half way through this little adventure my favorite little Filipino friend spotted me. threw his hands up in the air and sprinted towards me with the biggest smile on his face. As I embraced him and twirled him around my mood immediately shifted. That’s what love will do.
This month life changing love came in the form of; a barefooted 6 year old with a head full of lice and arms more than ready to embrace me, 30+ street boys who care for you just as much as you care for them and are ready to help you at any moment, hosts who were more than incredible at serving us, loving us and helping us grow, watching a mother hear her babies heart beat for the very first time, teammates and squad mates who call you into greatness every single day, new friendships with unlikely people, the man down the road who has lost everything but still seems to smile every second he’s with us. This month love came crashing in radically through people who have a lot of reasons to not love.
Just in case you haven’t already figured it out, “Mahal kita” is “I love you” in tagalog. No words that I use could adequately describe how much it will change your heart to look a precious street kid in his big brown eyes and say “mahal kita” only to have it returned with “mahal kita. I will miss you”.
My heart was softened this month in a way that I wasn’t expecting. That’s what the love of God will do. In all its perfection it will come washing over you unexpectedly and you wont ever be the same again. It’s beautiful and my prayer is that these love surprises wont ever stop.
Mahal Kita, my friends! <3
1 more blog from the Philippines to come!
