San Pedro, Guatemala
November 2011
His brother is Diego. Diego is a fireball. He is energetic and feisty and gives a big thumbs-up when he sees us coming. However, Diego is picked on and bullied. The first day we were there, a boy put him in a headlock and I pulled the boy off. Diego cried and cried. He wasn’t physically hurt but his heart was broken by the rejection of his peers, something that seemed to happen continuously throughout our time there.
Their sister is Ana. She is beautiful. She is quiet and shy. When I sat beside her she sat close, but not touching. Over the next few minutes she inched closer and closer until we touched. I put my arm around her and she looked up at me with a sweet little twinkle in her beautiful brown eyes. When Ana writes, she holds the paper up to her face until it touches her nose. Those beautiful eyes are failing.
Abrahm, Diego, and Ana are orphans. Their mother died and their father abandoned them. Their poor, widowed grandmother struggles to provide for them. In a village of poverty, they are the poorest. They are rejected and outcast. Does anyone even see them? Does anyone see their hurt? Does anyone see their need? Does anyone even notice these little ones at all? God does. He sees them and knows them and loves them. And He told me to tell them so.
So we prayed over them. We prayed that God would heal Abrahm’s ear, calm Diego’s spirit, and restore Ana’s sight. He can do that! He is the God Who Sees…and heals and calms and restores. We had the privilege of washing their feet while we told them that Jesus washed the feet of those He loved. We had the privilege of providing new socks and shoes. Riley had the privilege of putting her own shoes on little Abrahm’s feet. We had the honor of visiting their home to meet their grandmother. Their home is a single room made of concrete with a mud floor. Their only furniture is a small mattress on the floor in the corner. A solitary light bulb hangs from the tin ceiling covered by spider webs. When we met their grandmother she told us she is a Christian. When we told her we had come to pray for her and share with her, she wept. We wanted her to know that God sees her. He hears her cries and He sent us to encourage her.
God saw Abrahm, Diego, and Ana’s needs and gave us the privilege of sharing with them. We were His ambassadors to San Pedro. We were His messengers. We got to tell them that the God of the universe sees them and He loves them very, very much.Later that night, Riley shared with me what God had taught her. He taught her that when you give something away (like the shoes she gave to Abrahm), “it’s not about how much I want it, it’s about how much someone else needs it”. What else do we have that is not meant to fulfill our wants but was provided by God to meet someone else’s needs? I look around and realize I have so much. Too much. We give away a bag full of dolls and stuffed animals for other children to enjoy this Christmas and we don’t even miss them. We clean out our closets to donate clothes to the homeless and can’t even remember what was there before. We give away coats and sweaters for families in the inner city and yet we still have plenty to keep us warm all winter. What if we gave sacrificially? That is my prayer for myself and my family this year. It’s my prayer for you, too. That God will show us that He has blessed us so that we can love, give, and share in His name, for His glory. I pray we will give until it feels like sacrifice and then come to realize that when we give for the good of others and the glory of God, it’s actually no sacrifice at all.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27
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