San Jose El Naranjo

This week I was in the area known as San Jose El Naranjo with a team from Seacoast Grace Church in Long Beach. They were working in the community and were building a new house for Pastor Giovanni and his family and were also building a retaining wall behind the local elementary school. We also held a medical clinic in the school for all of the students and were able to give them supplies and anti-parasite medication.

Most days my work was translation, asking the kids questions about their health and diet.

Sometimes the answers were hard to hear, let alone translate.

One little boy who was in the first grade, w

hen I asked him if they drank cows milk in his house responded, " A veces no aguanto el hambre que tengo."

I then had to turn to the nurse and say, " Sometimes I can't stand my own hunger."

That is probably one of the worst things you could hear a child say.  To survive through the rest of the day and the countless other children I had to speak with, I just said a quiet prayer and smiled at the next kid that came to sit down at our station.

If there are ever times when I feel discouraged about my time here or lonely or like I am not really contributing, those moments are what slap me in the face and tell me, " See! I am God! I work through you when you are obedient. Don't worry about your own idea of success or progress. This is why I stinkin' brought you here."

I made sure that boy got something to eat that day and that he received everything we had to give him.

But he is a reminder that all around us, there are children and adults that simply don't have food. 

It is embarassing to think of how MUCH food I have at my immediate disposal and how wasteful I am with that.

I was really touched by how great of a team we had down 

and what hard workers they were. I didn't hear any complaints during the week and most of them were smiling and laughing while the work was being done.

Yesterday morning, as we were getting ready to head out, we stopped by a little farm on the outskirts of town to visit a lady who we were told was very sick. So we went to make a house call.

I met Catalina and the first thing I said to her was, " How are we doing in here?" to which she responded, " Oh, you know, I'm just dying. But it's all up to God anyways."

The nurses and doctor examined her and prescribed her some medicine but I grabbed a plastic chair and just sat by her bed and talked with her. At one point she asked me to sing something, so I sang How Great Thou Art in Spanish. She hummed along and then afterwards we chatted about family and getting older and all that kind of stuff. She wanted to have something to remind her of me so I found a tube of chapstick. She was very pleased with the gift.

The doctor had told her that she had a bad case of colitis and told her she needed to eat more fiber. I knew that I had some oatmeal cookies in my bag so I offered her one. She ate some of it but told me after he had left the room that she didnt like the way they tasted!

I guess overall this week has taught me a little bit more about how just BEING with someone, just sharing life with them is so powerful and truly has the power to encourage their spirit.

I am trying to find out where Jesus is every day and be brave enough to just sit at his feet, to listen and to love.