For the last week my team of three has been working at Hogar Los Gozosos, a special needs orphanage and school. It is a place where special kids find a place where they belong and a family. The moment I walked through the door I could feel the love from the kids radiating around me. The men and women work so hard to provide for each of the twenty kids that live at the orphanage cooking, cleaning, changing, playing, loving, providing therapy, and teaching. I feel so lucky that my team and I are able to come everyday and help even a little.
Our first couple of days at the school Jessica and I spent our time spraying for cucarachas (cockroaches). We had to go into each room in the whole school to spray against every wall. We had to go into every bedroom and spray under mattresses, inside dressers and behind them in the hopes that we could eradicate the problem. This is what an orphanage looks like in Guatemala, these things happen when you have a lot of people living in small places. This happens when you are blessed to receive donated items and boxes of clothes that often times are a breeding location for the bugs. So as awful as this job was, it needed to be done. It’s like what Jessica said, “I don’t mind this, because I know how much they need this.” Jessica gave me a completely different perspective on exterminating. Our job as missionaries is to enter into a culture and do anything and everything that we can to demonstrate God’s kingdom and his love. Sometimes God wants you to show love by killing a bug or two (or in my case directing Jessica toward the living cockroaches).
Each day as we returned my perspective shifted just a little toward praising God as we moved about our day. I had this dream that Jessica and I were spraying for cucarachas, we ended up finding a nest full of live ones. Jessica picked them up with her hand, as she always does, and we walked outside. Without even speaking she put one on the ground and stepped back, then she looked at me. Without hesitation I lifted my foot and squished the cockroach to a pulp! The whole orphanage started cheering and applauding me for my exponential growth. Even though this was only a dream I know that it can and will happen, because sometimes God wants you to show love by killing a bug or two.
Please check out the orphanages website. They have so much need to best support their students. This month they have only raised 1/10 of what they need, please consider helping them out!
