Week 2 Sept 16-20
The faithful staff was in desperate need of a vacation, so we moved into the house on Sunday night to take over the daily duties at the orphanage.
We pulled up to La Casa around 7 pm and immediately were overwhelmed with little hands wanting to carry our 50 lb bags. I was not allowed to carry anything into the house, including my guitar which was quickly released from my hands. As we entered the house, I found Peter holding my guitar and motioning that he wanted me to play. I wondered if I would have a riot in the middle of this chaos, but I pulled it out of its case and started to strum. I was immediately circled by the kids reaching out to touch me and my guitar. As I started to strum Lord I Lift Your Name on High, several kids and even adults started to sing it in Spanish. It was a delightful moment and I’m now trying to teach it to them in English because they want to sing it to our squad.
Soon, the announcement came that Shane had bought a bag of huge marshmallows…and we were going to have a bonfire. As I rose to walk outside with the kids, two arms circled around my waist. I looked down and saw Maylin, a 12 year old girl walking beside me. She didn’t say a word, we just walked outside together, her arms firmly circled around my waist. She pulled out a piece of newspaper for me to sit on and we sat down by the few branches that were burning, her arms never leaving my waist, my arm not leaving her shoulders. As other kids scrambled to be the first to roast their marshmallows, we remained still, as she seemed content just to sit with me, still not speaking a word.
After a few moments, Maylin pulled out an old iPod, stuck one of the ear buds in my ear and the other in hers and she leaned against me as we listened to beautiful, soothing Spanish music. And I just thought, “This moment is weighty.” I wondered how long it had been since she had been held by a mother. I murmured prayers over her of healing and restoration and protection. I didn’t know her name or age at this point. I didn’t know she had been sexually abused by her father for years and was told she couldn’t have any friends lest they find out. Later in the week I listened as she boldly shared her story in front of our team and the rest of the kids at La Casa.
Eventually, a roasted marshmallow was offered to her and she bit it in half and stuck the other half in my mouth. The iPod was taken from us by another girl wanting to use it, Maylin eventually joined in roasting marshmallows, the threatening rain began to fall, and the moment of rest was gone. But I was struck with the realization that although I had no words to communicate God’s truth, I could love these kids well by taking the time to sit with them, hold them, play with them, and pray over them.
5:10 am Alarm goes off
5:20 am We finally crawl out of bed
5:25 am The kids are already waking up. We help by reminding the kids “limpia” so they will clean their rooms. We find which beds were wet during the night and begin laundry. We help the little boys find their clothes for the day. A couple of us braid the girls’ hair. Jenni starts the coffee for us so that we can begin to talk to one another. And we help set the table for breakfast.
6:15 am Devotions begin, which we are leading this week with a teammate or Shane translating for us.
6:35 am Breakfast for the kids
7:05 am Most of the kids pile into the van and leave for school (with a couple of us riding along for crowd control.)
7:10 am We wash the dishes from the morning and begin preparing our team’s breakfast.
8:00-11 am We continue to clean, do laundry, sweep, mop, etc. while playing with the younger kids who don’t go to school. Some grab showers, we alternate spending alone time with God. We make a grocery list and send a few to the market to purchase food for our meals.
11:00 am We start making our lunch early as well as help the cook make tortillas for the kids’ lunch.
12:00 pm A couple of us leave with Shane to drop off Maylin for her school and to pick up the younger kids from school.
1:05 pm The kids arrive and immediately dive into lunch.
1:20 pm We begin the lunch dishes.
2:00 pm We help the kids with homework as much as possible, continue the laundry, and play games with the kids. I teach them some of the games I play with my youth group and they love them. I pull out my guitar and let the kids sit in my lap and strum as I play the chords. My strings won’t last very long with their enthusiastic playing, but I have backups. We jump on the trampoline or supervise their play with many shouts of “Cuidado” (Careful) as they flip into the net around the trampoline.
4:00 pm We start helping with dinner, laughing with our cook as she only accepts half of our tortillas that we pat flat with our hands before putting them on the griddle.
5:45 pm We hurry to eat our dinner before the kids eat.
6:00 pm Dinner for the kids
6:30 pm More dishes….all by hand washing and towel drying.
7:00 pm Evening activity: movie or night walk or games
9:00 pm Evening Devotions
9:30 pm Lights out for the kids
10:00 pm Team Time
11:00 pm We crash.
