my mission trip to guatemala was amazing. i had a blast doing everything from playing soccer with the kids, speaking Spanish and translating the gringas, washing (by hand) dirty clothes, helping to pin & iron curtains, teaching english at the elementary school, giving my testimony to ~20 natives, organizing clothes, doing craft projects with the orphans, giving a devo to the feeding outreach children, climbing a hill in the pouring rain and trying to push our van out of a ditch, making an ugly tortilla, fellowshipping with some fabulous missionaries and their kids, buying food and supplies for one of the campus workers and praying with his family, falling on my butt while trying to play soccer in a cloud on wet cement, etc. etc. etc.
i was so blessed to have 3 of my friends from my MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) group brave the trip with me - and we were all so glad that we did. each of our talents/personalities worked well together while we served there.
one of our favorite things we did was hand-out the jammies that our MOPS moms had purchased for each of the 40 orphans. i bribed the kids to hurry and brush their teeth after dinner by promising them all gifts. they sat on the floor in a big group with large eyes, eager smiles, and some were so excited they were bouncing up and down on the floor. they had no idea what was in my big suitcase, they were just excited that they were going to get something/anything!i called out their names one by one, from youngest to oldest, and gave them their baggie with jammies inside. it was like the price is right...with the winner jumping up and smiling and running to the front of the room and the others would cheer and chant the child's name with glee. it was electric!!!!
hillary was sitting with one of the older boys whose name would be called close to last. he was visibly nervous about whether he would get some or not. hillary just kept whispering to him, "tu tambien, tu tambien" (you too, you too) after each of the other children's names were called...and when i called his name, this boy, usually frowny-faced and difficult to get to his heart, stood up with the biggest smile you've ever seen and was ecstatic to get his bag. and his smile didn't stop. :) that evening, the clouds in his mind floated away, and a beautiful rainbow filled their place! he may have been wearing Angry-Birds on his jammies, but his smile was as big as the sunrise!
out of 40 children, only 1 pair was too small (so i quietly escaped down to the storage room and exchanged them for a pair that fit him better). isn't that miraculous?! one of the boys had just arrived the day before and he was so excited that he laid out his jammies on the floor like a person and then he laid on top of them smiling crazy big. the missionary said he probably has never received anything before. the children may have been the ones receiving the gift, but it was really the 4 of us who were blessed that evening.wow.
and that was just one evening of my trip! i've got nearly 600 photos from my time there and many more stories... my prayer is that i won't let them simply be stories but beautiful moments of my life that impact me and change me from here on. perspective!!!
