This race is not what I expected. Let me tell you about my day. I woke up early and talked with Jesus. I went to the balcony and just listened to the birds, the wind in the trees and people talking. I felt the sun in my face and wrote in my journal.
Then I went downstairs for pancakes with bananas and peanut butter. Today part of my ministry was helping our cooks for lunch. So I washed the dishes and then was put to work cutting potatoes and carrots.
I spent pretty much all morning helping in the kitchen then was able to have time to do some laundry before lunch. (Yay for clean clothes!)
This afternoon, I walked a 15 minute walk to ministry. My team and another team prayed together for the day. Then we meet up with guys from our assigned house.
At the beginning of the month, I felt overwhelmed and useless. I didn’t know what to do and I can barely speak Spanish. I would keep asking the caretakers how can I help. What should I do? Most of the time they would tell me to sit with the residents.
So I sat. I started to get to know each of them. With my broken Spanish I would try to talk with them. I still often have no idea what they say back to me. But we have fun together. Moneco will give me a smirk and laugh. Nino will grab my hand and take me to different places or force me to sit beside him. Today he lights up when I walk in the room and takes me to the couch. He smiles at me and leans his head on my shoulder.
Later, I talk with Juan Carlos and I actually understand a little! We take a picture together and I tell him to smile. Then I ask to go with him to ‘up there’. So we walked up to the kitchen.
I follow him, he smiles and says more but I’m not sure what. I ask him who is favorite friends are and he tells me Moneco and Julio. I ask him his favorite color and he says blue. (I think I asked him that question several weeks ago and he said green. Lol)
But this is just a little bit and of the little interactions that has happened throughout the month. A lot of days are spent walking with Julio to his favorite spot to sit in the sun. Sometimes it looks like sitting in the living room with the tv on. Sometimes it is dancing and singing just to try and make them laugh. The other day it looked like putting together solar lights and putting them at each house.
This month has been hard. There’s been a lot of sitting and praying. Through that I have realized that God created all people for His glory. It doesn’t make sense at first glance, but the love and acceptance I have been shown in this place is just like Christ’s love. I rest in knowing God is good always.
Love ya!
