I'm finally here! Man, has it been awesome! I got here on Tuesday, and so far, it's been the best time ever. Legit. I'm not at the orphanage yet, but I am staying with Pastor Elvis, the pastor of the church that I helped with on the missions trip back in June. A lot has happened in the past six days, so I'll share the highlights/main points of each day:
Tuesday, I went to the church with Pastor Elvis and his family (Pastora Berenice, Danely, Danitza (Titis), and Gadiel (Gadi)). It was really awesome being able to see Carlos and his family again, along with the other kids. We got to the church as soon as Carlos and his sisters were coming home from school. Carlos saw me and ran over to me all excited, which made me smile. It was really cool to know not only that he remembered me, but that he was excited to see me as well. That night at the church, Pastor Elvis had me play two songs in Spanish (my D-string breaking at the end of the first one) and then had me lead the class for the kids, which was sort of difficult since I hardly knew much Spanish. Luckily, I had Caesar, one of the guys from the church who knew both English and Spanish, helping me lead the class, but I was supposed to be doing most of it. All I had to do was figure out games for the kids to play, but I couldn't think of anything. We played Zombies, which is pretty much tag, except that the person who was it was a zombie. Then, I just had the kids think of games because I couldn't think of anything else. After playing three more games, church was over, so we went home to Pastor Elvis's.
Wednesday, we went to the store, got some stuff to start painting the walls at the church, and went to the church. I got to see Carlos before he went to school. Here, you can go to school in the morning from 7 to 12, or from 12 to 5. At least that's what I gathered. Either way, you only go to school for 5 hours. Carlos and his sisters go in the afternoon, so I got to chill with Carlos before he went to school. Then, I started painting. Well, it wasn't painting. It was this paste-stuff that we put on the wall so that it turned into drywall. I don't know. Anyway, so me and Caesar did that, and when we finished, some people from the church showed up, and we ate "flutas", which is like long and skinny progies. It was muy delicioso. Then Carlos got home from school, so I played with him and some of the other kids around the area: Mona, Tuco, an older Carlos, Gavi, and Claudia. It rained for a bit, too, so we played in the rain which consisted of me spinning them around pretty much the whole time it rained. It didn't rain for long, but the kids loved it while it did. The last four kids I mentioned are pretty much orphans. They have a mom and a dad, but from what I gathered, they aren't the best people. The last several days that I've seen the kids, they're always by themselves, playing and doing whatever, along with their other two brothers and two sisters. At least that's what it looks like since those kids are together almost all of the time. There isn't really any discipline, so they do whatever they want pretty much. If it wasn't for the people at the church, they probably would literally do whatever. My heart gets heavy whenever I see them. Whenever I'm with them, the boys are always pretty clingy. Not so much older Carlos, but Tuco is. Whenever we're sitting somewhere, he always, and I mean always, wants to sit on my lap. He also always wants to ride on my back or shoulders. I don't mind at all. Someone needs to show him God's love. They really love playing Zombies, so that's pretty much what we did before and after it rained. I also spun them a million times, haha, which I also don't mind. I'm here for them, not me. Once it started getting dark, we left.
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| Me and Carlos in the rain. |
Thursday, we went back to the church and painted the wall from the day before. Carlos's teacher was sick, so he didn't go to school that day. I didn't get to hang out with him that much since I was painting, but I did for a bit. I actually didn't get to finish painting before we left. Luckily, Caesar said he'd finish it up for me. It was only a little bit, but still, I felt bad that he had to do it. That night, I went to this house church with Pastora Berenice and the kids. Pastor Elvis had to work (he does graphic design stuff, which is pretty sweet) so he stayed home. I don't remember what they called it, but it was pretty much house church. They had me lead the worship part, which I played the same two songs (Te Doy Gloria and Abre Mis Ojos, the only songs I know in español) as Tuesday, which was fine with them, thankfully.
Friday was a chill day. We didn't go to the church at all. I stayed at the house most of the day. I played with Gadi, the pastor's year old son, while Danely and Titis were at school, and when Danely and Titis got home, I played with Titis for a while. First, she took out this photo album and started showing me random pictures. Then, she took out Chutes and Ladders, which we played like six times. I'm pretty sure she beat me every time except for like once or twice. Once I thought six times was enough, I asked her if we could play a different game, so she took out Battleship. Mind you, this is a six year old girl who only speaks Spanish. After I finally got done explaining how to play in fairly broken Spanish, I found out that she doesn't know what letters are which. So much for that idea. We ended up going outside with Danely and playing with the neighborhood kids. We pretty much did a tic-tac-toe tournament, haha. Fernando, one of the older kids, saw my tic-tac-toe skills and thought I was really intelligent, which made me laugh just a bit. That night, we went to Rancho de sus Niños for a special program and to drop off some ID cards that Pastor Elvis made for the School of Ministry there. The program ended up being cancelled, so I just played with Danely and Titis the whole time. Then, I really wanted some ice-cream, so I asked if I could buy some for everybody, which I did. A whole tub of Cookies and Cream, haha.
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| Danely, Titis, me, and Gadi. |
Saturday was the program for the kids at the church. We play games with the kids, do a Bible lesson, do a craft, then give them breakfast. Caesar dressed up as a clown for the kids. He asked me to, but I told him that I really would rather not. I wanted to be myself with the kids. Plus, I really didn't want to put on face paint. If needed, I would do it for sure, but he said he didn't mind. About 15 kids came. It was a lot of fun. Of course, we played Zombies, which is their favorite game. We also played some other games that I've never played before. One of them was about a cat and a mouse, and the cat had to get the mouse, but everyone else held hands in a circle and had to protect the mouse from the cat. It's kinda hard to explain. Then, Pablo, one of the teenagers, taught the kids the story about Abraham and Sarah and how they had a son named Isaac. That's as much as I could gather. Then, I can't remember if they did a craft or not, but I know we had breakfast: eggs, bananas, oranges, bread, orange water (it's like orange flavored kool-aid, but they call it water) and donuts. It was really good. Then, Pastor Elvis had to leave to do some work, but he said that I could stay with the kids and play with them, so I did. It was awesome. A lot of spinning kids and Zombies, haha. I got a pretty bad sunburn from playing outside all day, but it was so worth it. Carlos's family made me dinner, but Pastor Elvis came back to pick me up before I could eat it, so I ended up just taking it with me. That night, I played with the neighborhood kids almost all night. It was a lot of fun. This day was probably the best day by far.
Sunday was church. We got there around 9:30am. I hung out with Carlos and some of the other kids until about 10:30, when church started. I was a little confused because only about fifteen people were there, but after service was over, I realized that it was like Sunday school. 12:00 was when actual church started. The service was really good. I knew almost all of the songs. I knew Abre Mis Ojos (Open The Eyes Of My Heart) in español, but the other songs I only knew the English versions to, which was fine with me. Then, they had me give a testimony about my experience here. Unfortunately, no one told me ahead of time about that, but God gave me the words to say. He always comes through. After my testimony, Luis, the worship leader, did a drama. I didn't really know what was going on, but it was something like a human video. Music was playing, and he was dancing, or something like that. Then was the sermon. I tried my best to understand what Pastor Elvis was saying, but I could only pick out a few words. Carlos and Jesús, another kid I met at the church, sat next to me, so I kind of just chilled with them. The sermon is more for the adults, so they really just sit there. Jesús listens, but only for a bit it seems like. Carlos doesn't listen at all, haha. I had to keep telling him to listen. I realized after that it really wasn't for him, and he probably didn't know what some of the things that Pastor Elvis said meant. Oops. After church was over, some people from the church made some pasta stuff and put them on tostadas. It was delicious. Pastor Elvis kept on trying to give me more, but I was full after 2. They weren't that big, but still. I don't like overeating. They also made this orange-colored kool-aid, which was amazing. I'm still not sure exactly what flavor it was, but it was good. Afterwards, I noticed all of the kids with these bags with what looked like ice cream in it, and I was curious about what it was. Jesús asked me if I wanted some, so I tried some of it. It was different, but really good. He ended up going to the store and buying me one even though I said it was fine. He's a cool kid. Once we all finished, we played some more. I then left with Pastor Elvis and his family to his home. For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant, which I thought was really cool of Pastor Elvis to take us there. When I first got here, he asked me what kind of foods I liked, and I told him Mexican and Chinese. He remembered. While we were there, he said something to me about how I am going to bring more people to the church, or something like that. That's what he made it sound like. He said something about me and him bringing more people into the church and something like things are blessed when I am there. That's as much as I could gather. I really hope I didn't understand him wrong, cause that was a really cool thing to hear. Afterward, we went back to Pastor Elvis's house. All of us were pretty tired, so the kids were acting really loopy. I was, too. I took out my camera and filmed us acting weird. Hopefully, I can put the video up on my Facebook or YouTube soon. Then, the kids went to bed, and later on, so did I.
Thankfully, one of the ladies from the church has wifi, and she asked me if I needed to use the internet. Of course, I said yes, so now, this is the complete blog. I've been helping at Pastor Elvis's church, Mision Familiar Bethlem, for the past month, and it's been amazing. I want to continue helping here while I'm working on getting to the orphanage, but without money to travel to the orphanage, I can't continue to visit them. It's only $4 to go there and back, but I don't have the money to travel at the moment. Even though I've been doing a lot of stuff at the church, I know God still wants me to be at the orphanage, so while I'm working at the church, I'm doing my best to visit the orphanage as much as I can so that they can get to know me more and really see my heart for orphans. So, please, If you can donate any amount, even if it's just $4 so I can visit the orphanage one time, that would be greatly appreciated. You can donate via PayPal by clicking the donate button at the top right of this page.
I've been writing down memorable moments each day, so I'll post them about every week or whenever I can get Internet. Please continue to pray for me as I continue doing God's work! Pray for the kids as well, especially older Carlos, Tuco, Claudia, and Gavi. Their family really needs prayer. All of the kids do. These kids needs Jesus, and I'm going do whatever I can to bring Him to them.
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| Alan, me, Octavio, Miguel, and Tuco. |
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| Moroni, Miguel, me, Octavio, and older Carlos. |
May God bless you abundantly! All glory and honor belongs to Him!
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