This is Roberto…he is full of smiles and love! He can’t communicate verbally except for grunts, but his facial expressions tell a lot. My team had on our hearts to go to the hospital to volunteer. We were directed to the children with mental and physical handicaps. We were able to feed them, play with them, and give lots of hugs!My heart connected with Roberto and I was able to spend the majority of my time at the hospital with him. He was full of smiles and very responsive to the attention, he would take my hand and place it on his head to rub, giggle as I pushed his wheelchair around (we made a train of wheelchairs and pushed the kids around the playground), and give a big smile whenever his name was spoken. I don’t know how much he could understand of what was said, but he recognized his name. I got to go back and visit him a second day, and when I walked up to his crib, he broke in to a huge smile and started giggling. I swept him up and sat in the swing with him, just rocking him and singing and laughing…it was such a special time to just look in to his eyes, pray over him, and tell him how much God loved him! He is so responsive to attention and he would just giggle and smile back!!
Roberto’s hand in mine 🙂
There are so many kids that they spend the majority of their days either in their wheelchair or crib. It broke my heart to see them all lined up, just waiting for someone to come feed them and love on them. It was such a blessing and priviledge to push them around and tell them how beautiful they are and how much God loves them! Their smiles warmed my heart!
Holding Paulo- a blind and handicap child at the hospital
“In the Light” drama we were able to perform for God’s Child- an organization that provides schooling and food for the poorest children around Antigua. There are 2500 kids in the program, but only 150 at this school. The drama is about 2 girls that God lovingly creates- the first becomes prideful and goes the worldly, destructive path and becomes trapped by the devil; the second girl stays in the light/close to the Lord and is full of life and joy. The “bad” girl becomes desperate to get out of the trap the devil has around her so she turns to Jesus who breaks her free. Both girls then dance and praise the Lord together! I really love this drama!! Chad explained the drama to the kids and told them of Jesus’ love for them!
(forgot to rotate before uploading, sorry 🙂
All 150 children had a field trip the day we were there, so we got to go along with them! We walked to a nearby stadium where all the high school bands and sports teams were parading. We got to hang out in the bleachers and play with the kids. They loved the attention- from the very first interaction with them until saying goodbye, there was always a child holding my hand or on my lap or playing with my hair…it was so fun just getting to love them and hang out. This is Paola on my lap…she loved being held, having her hair braided, and just holding my hands. So precious, at one point she held her hand next to mine and was just comparing them- the dark and light skin. I really love the Central/South American people- they are so beautiful!!
