I love my host house and my host family and to think it almost didn’t happen…
On the first day here I volunteered to stay at Sandoo’s house with Sydney. Sandoo’s house could take six, Abby’s house could take five and the last house could take two. Originally Cierra and I volunteered to go to the house of two, we planed to let team Lovesick stay together at Sandoo’s house, and then the other five girls on our team would stay with Abby. After a little bit, it was made pretty clear the two was suppose to be the boys. Since our team, team L’Chaim, is seven we knew we would need to split. Two of us would stay with the four Lovesick girls at Sandoo’s and the other five would stay with Abby, so Syd and I would stay. Then I went to the store with Anna and Licy and when I returned I was told Cierra was staying with Syd (Rachel on team Lovesick is a nurse and Cierra needed tending to)and that I was going to Abby’s. I wasn’t pleased because no one had told me about the change and I didn’t even know where Abby’s house was, but when I learned Jessica had already moved my 60lb pack it was a lot less bothersome. Upon arrival I was oh so pleased to lean that there was an outhouse, and three beds between the five of us.
I hope I have made it clear how highly the odds were stacked against me loving this place , so that the greatness that is Lily and Abby can shine. Abby is a pastor, and very skilled in construction, he built a room onto the pig sty to keep enough wood for the winter, in 4 days. He and Lily have 4 children, Addy Florin, Alexandra, Andrea and Addy Manuel, and live on a very small stipend so they grow most of their food in the back yard. They take in missionaries who are doing work in the area, Lily feeds us, does our laundry and heats the water for our showers. She fixes the windows for us so that we can be cool enough to sleep. She makes us things we like to eat. Breakfast is waiting before we wake up and dinner is waiting when we get home from ministry. These things are already above and beyond any expectation but the part that really gets me is that they do it cheerfully. There is no resentment, no feeling that they desire indebtedness.
Abby reminds me of my grandfather, walking around his garden, showing off his plants. He builds and fixes things around the house. He tricks people into eating rabbit so they see how much they like it before the idea of what it is taints their opinion. He has a tattoo of “Elena”, which is Lily’s full name on his right arm. He loves his children and he cares for us as his own. When I heard the outside gate being opened in the middle of the night, I went out of our bedroom too find him and his little son Addie asleep on the living room sofa, I told him about the gate, he grabbed “the stick” from behind the couch and went out checking the gate and the entire parameter of the yard, he adjusted the gate and came back to report that it was one of the neighborhood dogs.
Their youngest daughter Andrea has had a sinus problem for several years that she has to have surgery for it, as a team we prayed for her and over the whole family. Abby had hurt his hand earlier that day, and the day before that hit his head very hard, the mistakes did not seem characteristic, we concluded he was distracted and the look on his face when we asked him about it seemed to confirm our suspicions, “I am not worried for me he said” and motioned to Andrea with sad and worried eyes.
I love these people!!!
