We started the day off with our own devotion time where Brian (person in charge of Children of Hope) who told us a story of his life and how Pan De Vida started. This was an amazing story that we will not soon forget.
At our brekfast table we all had personal letters from different children. Many of us found the kids who wrote us these letters and spent some time with them. The morning was cold again and some of the children ( who are obviously not use to this kind of weather) were shivering. The sermon was translated for us while we sat amongst the children.
Now the fun began. We had time to spend with the children. We played some football, basketball, talked, and just mingled with the kids (team canada lost to team mexico by several touchdowns). Some of the older boys were a bit shy and stayed inside the van. So a couple of the guys figured that they would join them. The guys would wrestle a bit with the boys, and would grab passing kids and just throw them into the van. Before they had to leave the count was over 20 people in this van. A lady came up to these men and said that what they had just done for these children is more then if you were to build 12 walls. These children here just need someone to love them, play with them, and just someone to show the the love of christ to.
Some of us guys visited a site to which they were looking at purchasing for the boys. Currently the boys are in a temporary place and they are searching for a permanent place for them. This is a 3 acre lot that is suppose to cost them about $350,000.
For supper we went back to town where we were shown a some city sites including a beautiful catholic church, and a water channel built in the 1700's. This city has so much history and beauty and is growning so fast. In the last 10 years the population has grown from a couple hundred thousand to near 2 million.
Tomorrow we will start working on the grounds here. It sounds like some brick laying, and some minor repairs throughout the yard is in the schedule.
In Canada we are very focused on material things, and to them here it is not at the top of the list. We need to remember that we are here for the children, and to put a smile on there faces is worth more than any amount of work we could do this week.
Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,
"Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."
Mark 9:36-37
