We just wrapped up day two working on the homes that we have been assigned to. We have a lot of hands to pitch in at each site for every task, and sometimes too many hands as we all step up at once to pitch in and complete a task. Everyone on the team was eager to get to work on these houses and see progress, and accomplish our goal, after all that is why we are here isn‘t it? That is what we signed up for when we decided to come to Guatemala right?
It seemed as though we were just standing around a lot at our site and feeling somewhat useless, getting a little impatient to get something accomplished and possibly starting to question our purpose here and then little by little we started to have an audience of small curious faces. First outside of the fence on the site that I am at and then slowly the children started to come into the area we were working. At first they were shy and did not want to come to close so we waved and I made silly faces at them and then the giggles started to come here and there. Then they saw our cameras and wanted to get closer to see what they were. I took a picture of one little girl whose name is Maeta and then let her take a picture of herself she had such a serious look at first and then she laughed at her image. Then I took one of us together and she thought that was pretty funny too. After that she followed me and we played patty cake together and pretty soon we were fast friends. She wanted to touch my face and my hair and was fascinated by my painted fingernails, touching them and then her own. Although we do not speak the same language we managed to get each others names down saying them several times to each other and giggling together as we tried to get them right. While I played with Maeta a few of the other children came and started to play with all of us and then when it was time for us to head to the bus for lunch the kids started to follow us and we had to have the interpreter tell them that they had to stay and we would be back. We thought that they were going to stay behind, but they ambushed us about half way down the trail and we had to have the interpreter again tell them they had to stay there. After some arm pulling and leg hugging they stayed behind.
After we came back from lunch the kids were not too far behind us and they seemed to have multiplied in number while we were away. Pretty soon we were all playing with them. Joe was playing catch with one little boy and the little guy was laughing so hard that he fell over. There was a teddy bear that we played keep away with, it was covered with dirt and would most definitely have been a long discarded toy back home, but to these kids it was something to be treasured and find joy in with these strangers that were here playing with them. I hope that I can speak for everyone that was on our work site and say that these kids were not the only ones who found joy in this simple game, we were laughing and running around right with them enjoying them as much as they were enjoying us. There is nothing more precious and beautiful to me than when a child laughs that deep uncontrollable belly laugh. Their precious smiles breaking across their faces in a way that you couldn’t help but smile back. I think that Barrett and Steve may have had a few welts when we left from playing catch with limes and then being pelted with them. Barrett had them using our empty water bottles as baseball bats and limes as balls. Those kids can hit!
When we were ready to leave yesterday it seemed that the site that we had come to work on was further along than we expected. How had that happened with all of that standing and waiting and playing with the children? Something miraculous always happens whenever we forget ourselves and focus on God’s purpose, and when we stopped thinking about the tasks that we thought we had to complete and started focusing on the people miracles started happening within us and around us. I know that we each are experiencing something that is profound. I can only speak for myself in this area, but when I started playing and laughing with the children I experienced a joy that was almost overwhelming. My love language is definitely not touch, but when I let go and the kids touch me and hang on to me I really was able to connect with them in a way that I would never have experienced had I not surrendered myself to the moment.
Last night in our devotion time we read 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 and it reminded me among other things that love is patient and I need to be patient and wait upon the Lord and when I do the blessings pour out like a waterfall.
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