The smiles of children,
their energy, and excitement about life are contagious. That is one thing I continue to realize as I
spend time with children all over the world.
Wednesday Seth, Traci, Traday, Aaron, Krystle, Megan, and I had the
chance to go to two different barrio areas.
When we got there, we split into two groups and
started talking to kids and families with children about a carnival we are
planning at the small park in their area.
We will have one for the smaller barrio on
Saturday and one for the larger barrio on Sunday. As we walked around the larger one, passing
out flyers, meeting families and children, more and more people became
interested. We ran out of papers quickly
and headed back to the park where we were to meet the rest at some point. It didn’t take long, as we sat there, before
we were surrounded by kids. We didn’t
even have to do anything to attract them.
It seems that even without flyers, the word will spread to friends all
around the barrio and many will come.
Initially there were two
girls, one ten years old and the other eleven, who sat down next to us. We started asking them their names, ages, and
what they liked to do. One was Heti
(like Haiti)
and the other I may not remember or have heard correctly but was something like
Espernatti. One likes math and the other
espanol class. One loves sports and the
other doesn’t play often. It was fun to
see their different personalities and their friendship. They were so happy and so friendly. I took my camera out to get some pictures of
them and they were thrilled. They went
crazy taking pictures of everything and wanting a photo shoot of Megan, Krystle
and I as we waited for our friends. Aaron
started playing soccer (futbol) with the boys that were around when they
brought a soccer ball over to him. Some girls
were showing off on the monkey bars and we got to talk to them a bit too.
After our photo shoots and
excitement of the camera for awhile, Espernatti sat back down next to me,
looked up at me, smiled, and then took her blue bracelet off and handed it to
me. She said, “For you, my new
friend.” This sweet little girl, who has
so little, so willingly gave one of the few things she owns to someone she
barely even knew! I told her each time I
looked at this bracelet I would think of her and I would pray for her. She made my heart melt and made me want to
take her with me even more, her and her friend Heti. This little bracelet means a lot to me and I
will think of her all the time because of it.
She has so much to teach me about sharing, giving freely, trusting
people, opening up, loving without hesitation and SO much more!
These kids were the
sweetest, most respectful kids ever. I
was so glad we had the chance to hang out with them and invite them to our carnival
on Sunday. I am praying that we have an
opportunity to talk to them about God’s love as we paint faces, play games,
give out food, create balloon friends, and much more at the carnival. I want them to know how God sees them. I want them to see themselves and the value
they have because of Christ. I want them
to share that joy and God’s love with their friends. I want them to grow up confident in who they
are in Christ. Maybe I can be just a
little part of that. Before we left I
just silently prayed over these children and that area. One thing that made it
easier to leave today is that I will see them again on Sunday! God has more planned and I am in anticipation
of what is to come.
