GUATEMALA - March 7

            Tomorrow is our last day and I can already tell we’re going to be a mess. The kids at this Center have stolen our hearts with their little hands and big brown eyes. It’s been indescribably glorious to get to know them and love on them.  Today we had a party for Lucky, the woman who runs the Center, whose birthday was yesterday. There was candy and cake and balloons and a piñata. Let me tell you, I’ve never cleaned so many sticky hands and faces in my life. We’ve taken so many pictures and videos of them, but I have a feeling that once we get back to the States, they will not suffice.

It’s the little things that will stick in our mind. The way a child smiles at us, the way they run over to us and put their hands up wanting nothing more than to be picked up and tossed into the air. The faces they make when they’re eating or sleeping or when they just konk out in your lap. That moment when you see them grow up just a little—for example Luis Fernando walked on Tuesday, he walked all the way across the little play area all by himself!  Of course, then he realized that we were all watching him and sat down and started crying.  

For me, I will never forget that moment when I put a little girl named Vilma down in her bed because she had a fever and we had to load up and head home. She looked up at me with those big brown eyes and got that face that she gets when she’s about to cry. Tears welled up in her eyes (and in mine as well), and I realized why it will be so hard to leave this place.

In that moment, when she looked at me like that, I became violently aware that I was all that she had. All of the love that I had shown her, as we played with balloons and she sat in my lap, made up a significant percentage of the attention she had gotten that day. That’s why these kids are so lovable—they NEED love the most. I can’t help thinking maybe that’s a small part of why God loves us. He can see how much we need His love, and it gives Him so much glory to give it to us.

Please be praying for us tomorrow. I know it’s going to be hard on us leaving. But even more importantly, be praying for these kids. Be praying that God brings people into their life that will love them as much as we have this week. Be praying for the teams that are coming next, that they will let God’s love flow over these children. And most of all, be praying about coming yourself. As I said, there is simply no describing what it’s like to love these children until you have been loved by them. It’s the best thing in the world. Hands down.