This past weekend I was very blessed to go back to the children’s home where I stayed and lived at for three weeks a month and a half ago. I wanted to go back one last time to see all of the kids and say my final goodbye since I will be leaving Guatemala in a week in a half. Instead of just going back to visit, I got the opportunity to work with a dear friend of mine named Drew. Drew and his wife Cindy have an amazing ministry where they are counselors to children who live in orphanages and children’s home throughout Guatemala. My friend Henri and I from our team got the opportunity to go along with Drew to work with him for the weekend to help be vessel’s of reflecting God’s healing power and love within the children’s lives. Drew goes to the home once a month where he spends the whole weekend there teaching and demonstrating God’s love and healing power within their lives. He shares and lives out a message of God’s hope, love, and redemption in helping the children know that God loves them and that they are not alone. It was truly a great weekend of seeing the kids and being used by God within their lives.
God also used the kids to work in my life in ways they didn’t even know. When we pulled up there were six or seven of the kids waiting in the driveway and they didn’t know that I was with Drew. As Drew rolled down my window and they saw my face, they all started yelling, “Mr. Ryan!!!” As they yelled my name and ran to the car to crawl into the window to hug me my heart was so full of God’s love through them. I am tearing up even typing this now. I truly have fallen in love with these precious precious kids and I hope and believe that I will be back again to see them one day again!
I write this blog though to actually share someone else’s blog with you. Her name is Samantha and she also works with Drew counseling children and is volunteering at the children’s home living there working and loving the children with the love of God’s living love, living presence, and living hope! She wrote a blog about the essence of men becoming the men that God has created us to be. She also shares pictures and stories from this past weekend which I feel so blessed, humbled, and honored to be a part of. But as I read her blog where she talks about how her brothers are father figures to her little nephew within her family back home, memories of my uncle’s and even aunt’s love and care for me growing up came to mind. Memories of how my two grandfathers, uncles’s, and family fathering me and loving me came to mind. Both of my Mom, Dad, step-mom and step-dad love me very much and have always been there for me when I needed them, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my grandparents, for my aunts, and for my uncle’s. My aunts and uncle’s are like true older brothers and sisters to me and mean the world to me that I cannot find words to describe.
So I would like to share Samantha’s blog with you and encourage you to read it. I would like to dedicate it to my four uncle’s who have loved me and been there for me so much growing up as a kid, teenager, and even now in being an adult. my Uncle Dan, my Uncle Darren, My Uncle Rich, and my Uncle Pete. I also dedicate this to my four aunt’s who have loved me with so much tenderness, care, and love: my Aunt Susan, Aunt Dawn, Aunt Amy, and Aunt Nicole. Thank you to all of you for helping parent me, love me, and be there for me in ways that my parents couldn’t be. All of you have always been there for me when I needed you in different ways and in different times throughout my life that are so very special and meaningful to me that I will never forget and always be thankful for.
To all of you thanks for being my family and my friends…you truly are like the older brothers and sisters that I always wanted and hoped for! I love you all and wouldn’t have made it very far in this life without my aunt’s, my uncle’s, and my entire family!
Here is Samantha’s blog: http://samajoe.blogspot.com/2014/07/learning-to-be-men.html?showComment=1404853978653#c3643731035659042131
Thank you all for reading and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!
