July 4-9 Mission Team

Arrival
We arrived at the Malnutrition Center around 9:00 a.m. local time after a road trip that was only an hour in length, but felt like 500 years ago. We saw raw meat hanging in a store, women washing clothes in a concrete community laundry area and countless people stuffed into recycled school buses adorned with vibrant colors taking them to and from work in Guatemala City. As we unfolded ourselves from the Toyota van, we could hear the unmistakable sounds of kids at play.
I walked through the front door to a very open room with terrazzo floors that smelled mildly of bleach. At first, I didn’t see any kids and didn’t know what to expect. I think I was looking too high into the doorway because when I lowered my gaze, I saw a little girl (Martina) smiling at me with a customary “Hola”. She didn’t seem big enough to talk, but I found out later that she is four. She ran up to me and put her hands into the air for me to pick her up. Who could resist that smile? Soon we started into our projects to improve the cribs and painting, but the main project was to love and care for the 60 kids that called this place home for now.

Wilson

I visited the “Canary Room” where the youngest or most critical stay. The Canary room is organized with 2 kids to a glass walled room. The kids are kept in cribs that look like they are from a scene in a black and white movie. I looked left and there was Wilson. Wilson is 2 with hair as black and shiny as crow feathers. He saw me looking at him and a huge smile came to his face. After I fed him, we played patty cake and he laughed out loud. Only later did I find out that he only recently started to smile or laugh since he arrived at the center. It was time to put Wilson back into his crib and move on to a painting project. Wilson was having none of it. He cried and cried. I had to go back and get him. We have become fast friends and he has taken to me and he has taken me.

Coming Back

My family was on one of the initial teams that visited the Malnutrition Center in March of last year. I loved to see the look on my boys faces when they saw the pantry and the work of Orpan’s Heart here at the center. God is truly at work sending supplies through countless teams of Americans to feed and clothe with disposable diapers! I loved to remember when the pantry looked like a cave with a few bananas and a jar of peanut butter. Now, it looks like a fully stocked supply closet full of diapers, formula, baby shampoo and cleaning supplies. We see the same beautiful faces of the children that warm our hearts and keep us coming back to help. I watch my young sons play effortlessly with the kids here and I am moved to the point of tears….. Serving God on mission trip is great but serving with my family is priceless. I watch as fathers and sons paint the halls and spend their vacation time laboring to do what they would easily hire some to do for them in America. I hear the laughter of the children as they wander by the fresh paint. I wonder if they will remember that people cared for them from America at the center? Will they one day hear “Jesus loves me” sung in English and remember a white woman who came to play with them on the floor of the Malnutrition Center. Will a little boy remember a Gringo kid from America that pushed him in a swing? Will their hearts one day be filled with the love of Christ that will compel them to serve others they way they were served as children at the Malnutrition Center? Just wondering?? This experience is far beyond my expectations and filling me with a joy I have to work to have in my own daily” comfortable” life in America. I have stepped far beyond my comfort zone and found it is impossible to serve God without taking big leaps in life!!! My advice from the Malnutrition Center…Jump!