For the past week, I have gotten to experience a joy that knows no bounds. For the past week, my team and I have been playing, praying and loving on a small community called Aguilar.
The community is located in a valley within a rainforest. Um… it is completely gorgeous.
Since we have arrived, we have been without a translator and were left with leading a youth and adult service everyday for a local church where no one speaks any English. Luckily we have two people in the group that speak a little Spanish. So I guess that’s better than nothing.
At first I was pretty worried about how we were going to be able to build relationships with the people because of the language barrier, but as we went out into the community the first day and were greeted with open hearts and friendly smiles, that worry quickly began to change, especially when we met all the kids.
As we were walking around the first day, I saw a group of girls in a field doing cartwheels. So as a fellow wanna-be-cartwheeler, I went to go join them. Most of them fled as they saw me approaching, but one brave girl decided to stick around. She should have known better to trust a crazy blonde “gringa.” So we began doing cartwheels together and as we were doing them, a mass crowd of kids began to surround us. So I stopped to greet them, and again, they took off running. This time, though, I took off running after them, and not in some scary kind of way like a weirdo. All the kids went running, and they got the hugest thrill out of it. It was so much fun, but oh how I regret doing that later in the week, because chasing them for 20min or more everyday has become a routine now. Well at least I know I’ll be in good shape when I leave this place!!!
Anyways, later that day, we put on our first youth service. A lot of kids attended. At first they were all shy, distant and quiet, but that didn’t last very long when we started playing games. Now it’s hard for us to get them to be quiet, to settle down, and to let us have some personal space!
So everyday we have just been playing with kids and loving on them. Even though we can’t understand each other, it doesn’t stop us from enjoying one another. My teammates and I might not be able to hear their stories or be able to share in words who Christ is, but we can still show them the love of Christ through spending time with them and loving on them.
