In Guatemala, Racer Leslie Wakeland of S-squad leaned a lesson about finding joy in the middle of hardship.
Meet Macario.
Three weeks ago Macario was on a feeding tube. He was so ill doctors didn't think he would survive.
Macario is three years old.
We met Macario in the Nutrition Room of the only public hospital in the Guatemalan territory where we were working. The hospital serves over one million people but only has 120 beds with 7 operating rooms, only 3 or 4 are working and have the proper supplies.
Macario—whose name means “blessed” in Greek—shared the 7×15-foot Nutrition Room with a mother trying to feed her extremely malnourished five-month-old and two abandoned infants sleeping on a bed. Three-year-old Macario was not much bigger than the infants he was with.
We talked to him and touched him gently. Then he smiled. Oh boy, did he smile. In that moment I saw Jesus is his smile.
My heart broke and tears welled up in my eyes. In a sense, Marcario is sentenced to that bed until the Guatemalan courts decide what orphanage to put him in. He will most likely become a street kid.
But this is now God sets captives free!
I saw Jesus on his face; I saw a peace overwhelm his little 12-pound body, and I saw grace well up in his tiny heart.
Jesus was there in that Nutrition Room with an abandoned child.
See Jesus in the eyes of his people around the world. Apply here for January 2013 World Race routes–two include Guatemala.
