Here I am in Mexico again. I'm only here for a few weeks, I know, but my heart is singing with joy; joy in my good Father who will never leave or forsake me, and joy that for right now, He has led me here.

The following is a few glimpses of my life right now: the children. Just little instances, moments that made me stop and think, things about them that touched me.

 

A few days ago, I sat down next to Nayeli when she was reading something in her Bible and started talking to her about it. Then she started telling me about something it reminded her about, some memory with her family.

“It was raining,” she said, “And my uncle was crying because it was raining…”

“Why?” I asked, confused. “I love it when it rains!”

“Because the water would come all into the house,” she said.

I said, “Oh,” feeling ashamed of my thoughtlessness and amazed at my ignorance of true poverty. It sobers me to think of something so beautiful to me being something that would make a grown man cry. What these kids have seen and lived through…

 

The other night, bedtime prayers with one of the girls turned into a “telling God my whole life story” time. She told how her mom had left her with her grandma at only a year old. She told about how long it had been since she had seen her brothers.

“Please, let my brother come and see me!” she prayed. “Please let him come before Christmas. And please, help me learn to read."

 

 

David and Michelle Bonsell, the directors here at the school, are an amazing couple. My respect and admiration for them has grown lately, as I see them spend themselves for Jesus and these kids, day after day, year after year, full of faith and not complaining. I am so thankful that the children have "substitute parents" like that. But still, I can't imagine what it must be like for so many of them who have family members, but not a solid, healthy family they call their own.

It touched my heart to hear about the other day, when David and Michelle had the three littlest boys, brothers, in town. These boys have lived with them for several years now, and are probably the most 'at home' at the school out of all of them. But still... like I said. Well, apparently David was going to go into the store and get something, and one of the boys wanted to go with him. Then, on second thought, the little boy begged Michelle to come in, too. "Come on," he said, "Let's all go in together--like a family!"

Flor showed up yesterday, after having been gone for a week or so due to sickeness and family things. I was happy about that, since I hadn't seen her since I had been here. :) I had missed her.

A little while after that first happy reunion, I came into our room to get something. She was in here too, and we hugged again and exclaimed on how happy we were to see each other. She turned to me and signed, “Thanks to God you are here!”

I agreed with a smile, but she had more to say. “Remember when you were here before? You said to pray that you’d come back. Well, I did, and here you are!”