Today ZEO finally vi
sited the hospital in town and worked with the children. We had orginally thought we would be feeding infants, but for some reason we were unable to do that. Instead we spent time with all the handicapped children in the courtyard of the hospital. All the children were probably under 10 years of age, and confined to wheel chairs. I am still processing all this right now, so I’m still not sure how to explain it all well. The majority of them all suffer the same things – atrophied legs and contracted hands. We fed them milk out of bottles when we first arrived and then some soup and rice for lunch for those who could actually eat solid food. We spent most of the time simply smiling with them and pushing them around the yard in their wheel chairs.
It is so hard to see all the kids, more than 20 in this one room alone, without enough people to care for them and feed them. The sit in their chairs lined up agains the wall until volunteers come in to visit with them. I do have some photos, but am unable to post those right now. (Check Sarah’s site – she will be the first with photos up.) Some of the children just cried out, some smiled and laughed alot. Most don’t have function of their extremities, but they still feel emotions. I smiled till my face hurt, filled to the brim with joy when they smiled back and laughed. We pushed them around the yard in a train and they loved it!
Some of us, along with some other teams, will be going back tomorrow afternoon to visit again. What an experience. I realize that I have always had a hard time knowing how to interact with handicapped people, but after today, much of that fear of the unknown is broken. I can talk to them, a little in Spanish, alot in English, and it didn’t even matter! Simply the fact that I was talking to them, touching them, kissing them and laughing with them touched their hearts. They responded to the attention, and it blessed my heart. I wish we could have started this earlier this week, so we could have spent more time there. Oh well. 🙂 I know that God’s timing is always perfect!
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n other random news – we experienced an earthquake the other day!! I was sitting in the church getting ready for bed and the whole building just moved back and forth for a few minutes. It was crazy! I have never felt that before. We heard that one of the active volcanos burped up lava and caused the earthquake! Hmmm… welcome to Guatemala!
And while we are on the volcano topic, all of my team except myself, climbed Pacaya Volcano, and active volcano and were able to see the lava flowing right in front of them!! I was unable to go, but the pictures are amazing and it sounded like everyone had incredible fun. (Again, check Sarah’s blog for photos soon). They were literally just feet away from red flowing lava and could have roasted marshmallows over it!!
Tomorrow we are volunteering at a school, just to hang out with the kids, and while we are there we are going to perfom another drama and share the gospel. I am certainly looking forward to that again!
Oh, yeah! And tonight is the worship service in English at the YWAM church! YAY! Which reminds me of church last night. We attended the service at the church where we lived for a couple days. It is a Spanish speaking church, but with the YWAM missionaries too. They don’t normally translate into English, but because Racers made up about 80% of the crowd last night, one gal translated for us. We started with a great time of worshipping the Lord together, and then the pastor got up. He didn’t teach the message he had prepared, but God told him not too. I love that! He actually just encouraged all of us, speaking prophetic words over certain people and prayed over us. It was so refreshing to be in a service that we were not responsible for! The pastor prayed over Chad and my heart overflowed with joy for him. Chad serves all of us so much, but doesn’t often receive that outside encouragement, as it true with many leaders. We all were so blessed so much as God spoke life into people through Pastor David, at Iglesia Chrisitano Viday Fe. What a wonderful touch from God this week.
I apologize for all my long blogs, and no pictures. I will get some up as soon as I am able. I pray you are blessed!
