What is love? One of the definitions from the dictionary is
“a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent,
child or friend.”
The past month I have experienced so much love, whether I’m
giving it or receiving it.
I have seen complete strangers come together for one
purpose- to serve the Lord and to go deeper in their relationship with Him as
they live in community; and oh how they love each other- it’s beautiful. They
have learned to prefer each other over themselves. They give positive and
constructive criticism because they really do want to see their teammates grow
in their walk.
I have seen my teammates love on the forgotten. They have
danced their little hearts out, just to see a child smile. A child who may not
get to smile often. We have held children who do not know how to be held. We have
seen children come to our program with a frown on their face, and leave with a
smile.
The past few weeks I have developed a relationship with this
one 8 year old boy, named Alex. The second Sunday we were there he was playing
marbles with his friends. He tried to explain the game to me, and I think that
I pretty much got the jest of it. Once it came to actually start the Sunday
activities, I noticed that he was sitting by himself. I got him to join in with
us. For some reason he was frowning, so I tickled him until I could get him to
smile. Little did I know that we had just become best friends. A few days later
we were doing our program in his barrio. He came up to me, very excited- of course,
and started tickling me. We then started a tickle war between us and a few of
his other friends, Byron, Marcelo, and Javier. It was EPIC.
The next Sunday we had a very special children’s church. Nicaragua had
just celebrated Children’s Day, so we did a very special program with puppets,
new dances, 5 clowns, a few dramas and a piñata! Alex was late, but he ended up
coming and didn’t leave my side. He even came back for adult church at 3 pm. He
saw me and was so excited and just waved. As soon as the service was over, he
came over to me and told me “te quiero mucho.”
Jesus said in John
15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone would lays down his
life for his friends.” Jesus showed us great love by laying down His life for
us. The least I can do is live my life for Him and experience His love through
the people in Nicaragua.
