So after the visit to the blind school on Tuesday, we did our annual trip to one of the hardest places that we choose to go to (at least in my own opinion, but also evidenced in the teary faces on the bus ride afterwards.) Casitas Kennedy. You have read on my blog before that I have a hard time there, I feel the oppression as soon as I walk in the door and while at moments we can sometimes be less aware of the fact that we live in a horribly broken world, walking through that door is all the reminder you'll ever need. Children so scared and hurting and perhaps the worst part of it for me is that it feels like they are so alone. Anyway in an attempt to bring joy to those sweet faces we teamed up with Little Ceasar's for a pizza party and in normal form pieces of pizza were tucked and stuffed and hidden for later. They are still in survival mode and it's obvious.
Maybe one of the best things about broken and raw however is the lack of the ability to hide the need, to wear the mask, and in the innocence of a broken child, arms and love is really all they want and they certainly are not afraid to show you. They jump into your arms, they hang on for dear life when you leave, they hold your hand the entire time you're near them, they stroke your face with tenderness all for the sake of a loving touch that they go days/weeks/perhaps sadly longer than that without.
Here are some lovin on them pictures. Might I just say, that as difficult as it is, we are always the blessed ones who have been stretched and grown and our hearts made better for having seen and entering into their life if even for a few hours.
After Casitas we went to the mall to get some fast food and then headed up the mountain for one of our favorite devo's of the trip, at the Jesus statue. It is this HUGE statue with Jesus' arms outstretched that is lit up at night just looking over the city. It is powerful stuff. It was a great way to end a night where you felt as though you needed to be hunkered up underneath the arms of Jesus because hearts were weary.
Got up Wednesday morning to once again be builders both on this earth for some families and prayerfully for the kingdom of God as well. Let's just say the children's song about the wise man building his house on the rock will forever have new meaning. One team built an entire house on a HUGE slab of rock...I don't mean some dirt covering a pile of rocks, no I mean one huge slab of rock is all you see. It is the foundation of this house. The other house site provided it's own difficulties as well and it was certainly the hardest building day we've had. When the day was done however, we had built two houses with hours of pounding and spudding and sweating and two families would now have a home. The team felt a sure sense of accomplishment after this one.
Wednesday night out of the graciousness of some servant hearts we brought all the "Casa kids" up to the Mission House for the night and had an "adopt a kid" night. They slept with folks who their little hearts had gotten connected up with and played and played and played. It was great fun, with laughter, lots of laughter and hugs and investment time for some kiddo's who need it. Was a precious thing for me to watch as some of my favorite people on this earth loved on some kiddo's who have now captured this heart tightly.
Thursday we woke back up early to head back to Santa Ana and have the food/clothing/shoe distribution. Here's the great news from that day, this was the first time we have not had to turn anyone away at the end of the day and that was a great thing. Everyone got a bag of food to take home to their families, thank You Lord. At the same time another group of folks was holding a vbs with the kiddo's from the community in the park next to the church and from what I hear went really well. Came back Thursday night and had devo and the highlight of the day...grandma joyce and her servant heart made us cinnamon rolls for all of us to have after devo. OH JOY JOY JOY!!!!
Yesterday was another full day of great things as we built 2 more houses in Nuevo Oriental and got to play with the children there. A small group went to help at the feeding center there and enjoyed it very much. It is another great project, where 200 community children are fed each day, and are taught about Jesus while doing so. Some precious ladies serve there and I always love to see them. The kids are always the highlight though and they surround wherever you are building and it's my favorite part of building days. Little boys hammered nails yesterday til their little arms couldn't hardly swing the big hammers. Little girls blew bubbles, and colored, and got their nails painted. It was great.
We ended last night with dinner and devo at the Kluge's. Now let me just say...#1...it is my favorite diner in this country. Melissa always outdoes herself with the whole hospitality cooking deal. Once again we were not disappointed. There was cookie dough in a big bowl with plastic spoons to eat for dessert (among about 10 other choices) but NEED I SAY more??!! We had devo on their back patio with candles and it was great. Karen and I have certainly learned to love them as family and now the group has done the same and that's a beautiful thing. They are special people who are serving without a lot of hype and fanfare and are just day by day changing an entire community with their love and service. I am honored to know them, I really am!
This morning we are off to the Mi Esperanza house (and just for the record gonna try really hard to squeeze in a La Creperia run.) The boys are hanging out here for a bit and then coming down the mountain to meet us at Valley of the Angels and then tonight we'll go to the Santa Lucia resort and then on to the Santa Lucia Cathedral for our last devo together for this trip.
Gonna offer a way selfish prayer request at this point...it has been a great team this year and we've experienced 10 days of some really great things together. And while I always have a hard time coming off the group "high"...this one is especially hard on this heart because I go back to doing life hundreds of miles away from some of the people I love most in this world after having been with them nearly 24/7 for 10 days. If you could just pray for this heart that knows it's in the right place, but wishes it didn't have to be so far away from some of my nearest and dearest. Not a complaint. Just an honest prayer request from a grateful heart. Tagged onto that and maybe more importantly, please pray for our kiddo's who have locked heart with this group as well. Some major tears the past couple of days for them as well. We just all could use a dose of those prayers as we do this goodbye stuff. Thank you for praying us through.
Ok it's time now to get on that bus again, so I'll post pictures to catch you all up on these days later tonight. Just never seems to be enough time to get it all done at one time. Thanks for your patience. We love you all!!
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