Guatemala 2013: Day 4

              I saw one of the workers we had asked to write down his prayer requests on Day 3.

 He gave me an index card that read:

Sebastian X en Canil.

Orar por mi esposa. Ultimamente padece aun dolor de cabeza muy fuerte.

Yo Sebastian estoy bien solo quierro hacer la voluntad de Dios, en cual quier aspecto. 

Tengo una hija de 9 anos que estudia y un hijo del 5 anos.

Rough translation:

Pray for my wife. Recently she has very strong headaches.

I, Sebastian, want only to serve God in every aspect. 

I have one daughter who is 9 years that studies & a son that is 5 years.

Please pray for Sebastian and his family.

On the morning of Day 4 we headed to a school built into the mountains. 

The visit was centered around the story of creation.  

We read the creation story from The Jesus Storybook Bible & visited each classroom with different activities.  

Because we are made in God's image we made faces! 

I loved this guy's hair!

The kids LOVED taking pictures & eventually completely took me over. :)

We made graffiti boards.  In the middle it read:

Dios creo...

or

God created...







The kids drew& wrote words depicting all the things God created.

They were beautiful.

This little guy caught my eye and broke my heart with his bare feet sticking out of his old, dilapidated shoes.

The kids gathered in the gym for a show put on by two workers from Aselsi. They loved it. 
At the end, our pastor presented the principal with money we had raised through our support.  The principal replied that the money meant so much to them as they didn't have any balls for the kids to play with.
That made me cry.
Then I realized all the 5th & 6th grade boys were giggling.  Boys are the same everywhere. :)

After the assembly, the faculty informed us that they had gift for us.  They had bought bananas, soda crackers, and rice milk for us. This is a perfect example of the Guatemalan people.

No matter how little they have, they do not receive without also giving. 

That afternoon we visited the hospital in a local town. We divided into teams, delivering care packages we had bundled together and praying over families.  I was on the pediatric team, the clown came with us, making balloon animals for all the kids.

The hospital was poorly lit.  We walked into the first small room where four kids were crowded inside. The smell made me want to cover my nose, the equipment was old and dirty--a breeding ground for infection.

Multiple children had suffered burns. One mother told us that her helper had boiled water for dinner and confused it with the child's bath water. Some children were there to mend a break, others were ill.

One of us prayed in english over the family & the translator in spanish.  God was there. You could feel Him.

Then we walked into the NICU.  A room lined with 8 -10 tiny babies.  It was overwhelming.  A sight that immediately brought tears to my eyes.  The translator whispered in my ear,

"Our clown is crying."

As I prayed with a family over their little baby, they too prayed.  It filled me happiness to know that they know the Lord, His mercies, and will be comforted.

The last room we entered held this little guy, Marcurio.  During our prayer I opened my eyes to find that he fell from his pooh bear and was staring up at me smiling.  As I reached my hand down to him, he reached up to me.

Marcurio is 3 years old. 

He is a malnourished orphan who has been in the hospital for 2 months already.

 His size and the fact that he cannot sit unsupported suggest that he is only 6 months old.

God used this week to break me down.

And rebuild me.