Hi all,
I hope you are all doing well. It is really hard to believe but my four months in Honduras are coming to a close. I´m under the 3 week mark now. There is definitely a part of me that is excited to get home and see friends and family and another part of me that knows it is going to be really hard to leave. I can´t even think about saying goodbye to the kids yet so I´m not going to blog about leaving..instead I´ll share a story from a couple of weeks ago.
Every morning, each house starts the day at 6:30 with circle time, a time for worship and a short message. A couple weeks ago an older girl that works in our house shared the message. She is a sweet, quiet girl and has 7 other siblings at the orphanage. She told her story and shared her faith with us. She told us how several years ago her father died. Her mother could no longer take care of her and her siblings so they had to come to the orphanage. She began to cry and it was heartwrenching watching her relive that pain. In a really sweet and loving way she asked how many of the little girls missed their families. Their were lots of tears being shed as all the little hands went up. I can´t describe the overwhelming sorrow I felt for those girls. In the day to day moments, seeing the smiles and watching kids be kids, it is easy to forget where these kids come from. It´s easy to forget that every single one of them have experienced a lot of pain in their short lives. This girl concluded her story by talking about how much she loves God. Her faith was incredibly encouraging and inspiring. She told the girls that even when they miss their families and feel alone, God is their father. She said that we all have brothers and sisters in the family of believers. She ended by saying that no matter what we face in our lives (and I know she really believes this) that God is with us and is our strength to continue.
After her talk, I just couldn´t keep myself from crying. One of my little girls saw me and came up to me. She pulled herself up into my arms and started wiping the tears from my face with her hands as she said, ´´Don´t be sad, Kelsey. Don´t cry´´. As I saw how incredibly compassionate this sweet little girl was being and as I realized that I was having my tears wiped by a child who has suffered much more than I ever have, I was struck by such a beautiful picture of Christ´s love and compassion for each of us. We are shown compassion and we are given comfort so that we can share that with others. 2 Corinthians 1:3 says, ´´Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.´´ I pray that I will always remember the grace and compassion that I have been given and use that to keep my eyes open to those who need comfort around me.
I´m guessing this will be my last time on a computer here so the next updates will be in person. Love you all!
