This month my team and I are living and serving at an orphanage, Mi Casa Kids, about 30 minutes outside of San Salvador. We have been blessed to live in the girls’ house and labor along side the wonderful staff. We spend our mornings cleaning and painting while the kids are at school, our afternoons helping the kids with homework and daily activities, and evenings teaching them English. There are eight wonderful girls and seven joyful boys that I am truly grateful to know and have the opportunity to serve.
I’ve really seen the Father’s love shine through these children’s warm embraces, but I was especially touched our first evening with them. We arrived after a long day of travel, I was exhausted from waking up at 2:45am and a little stressed after our search for a Salvadorian sim card for the phone. But the moment we entered “the hogar” we were greeted by name and with open arms. There were even personalized welcome posters on the wall!
I had a similar experience the week before, as my team and I lead a Vacation Bible School at a church about 30 minutes outside of Quiche. Each day there were around 20-25 boys and girls ages 4 through 14. The main focus of our week was to teach English to the children, but we also learned to overcome the language barrier as we preformed skits, sang songs, and played games. I remember our first day arriving at the church a little uneasy about how to teach and communicate with the children, when they all came running out of the church towards us with arms wide open. We were welcomed with hugs and lavished with love simply because we were there!
These children loved us before they knew us and not for anything we had done but simply because they loved us. As I realized the purity of their love and how it contained no conditions, I saw how this is truly just a glimpse at the magnitude of the Father’s unconditional love for us! And I was reminded of the verse Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
