Hello!
It’s week 3ish now and I’m still loving my time here in Ecuador. These past 2 weeks half of our squad has stayed working with Pan De Vida, while the other half has been working with an organization called Camp Hope. It’s a long- term facility for people with special needs of a wide age range. Personally, I’ve been working in la clase de paciencia, or the patience room. The students in this room are aged from 18 to 26. I’ve been having the most fun here! I would love to include photos, videos, or even just names of my new friends but because I’d also like to respect their privacy, I won’t be able to. I do wish you guys could see and love them like I have though. So instead of sharing personal information about my friends, here is how the Lord is working here!
Although the name of the room is patience, I have actually been learning quite a bit more about both joy and companionship. Each and every day, my friends from the patience room are so joyful. They have smiles bigger than I could describe and hearts softer than … anything. They like to hold my hand. They constantly offer their chair for me to sit down. They LOVE to dance.
And I just love to be with them. And I love to be with them simply because they are. I can see the hand of the Lord working so directly in their lives and every day the Lord shows me all the blessings so plainly and so simply. Through the smiles, through the soccer, through the hugs, through the crafts, through their friendship.
I think because of lies that I’m prone to believe, fed by the enemy, it’s easy for me to feel lonely. It’s easy for me to believe my value lies in the amount of people around me who see and love me. This lie is so easy to combat with my new friends by my side. How could I feel lonely when each day I open the door & I’m greeted as if I’m their favorite? Each day my hand is held and I’m seen. And I don’t think this concept stays in the patience room, but I think this time has given me a fresh perspective on the toxicity of the lie I’ve let write big parts of my story.
The Lord sees us each and every day, greeting us like we are His favorite. He holds your hand and gives you His seat. He dances when you want to dance and rests with you when you need to rest. He walks you around the park and shows you … life.
Forever thankful for the way my friends have shown life to me and I can only hope that what I feel now never leaves. This joy and this companionship are things that are included in my forever because of the inheritance we’re offered through Jesus!! Heck!!!!
Gregory Boyle (once again) really words what I feel right now quite well when he writes, “Kinship- not serving the other, but being one with the other. Jesus was not ‘a man for others’; he was one with them. There is a world of difference in that. “
With love,
Kelsey
