He Let Us Help!

It is 1am after our last day here. in 2 hours we get up to head for the airport. I am just winding down after a long day and a short trip.

We got up this morning to get in a quick trip to the souvenir market. For the first time all week we saw some native culture and spent lost of money on it. On the bus ride out of there we stopped near a guy on the side of the road selling El Salvador national team soccer jerseys and flags. He approached our open windows and made a sale, then another, then another. In all he must have sold 7-10 items in 30 seconds. I think we made his morning. After that we headed to San Martin. It is a convalescent center for adults and some children with severe mental and physical problems. It broke our hearts to see a severely disabled, bed ridden, 23 year old (who looked about 12) who had been used as a drug mule as a child. (He had drugs sown up inside of him to smuggle them and it all went wrong). We played and danced with the residents. We fed them snacks and made crafts with them. Then we headed out for a quick lunch. After lunch we spent the rest of the day finishing up the painting and plumbing at the transition house. Kurt surprised us with a plaque that will go on the wall with our churches name on it and the following verse...

Zephaniah 3:17New International Version (NIV)
¹⁷ The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,




but will rejoice over you with singing.”

I thought that was pretty appropriate for young orphaned men, lost in a world that has hurt them, trying to build a foundation for a good life at this transition home. God will take great delight in you... He will save you... He will love you... He will rejoice over you with singing. For me that verse reminds me of when my children were infants and were sick with a fever. I remember one night I say in the living room and held my then infant daughter against my chest and sang to her all night long so that she would stop crying and sleep.

That is what God is doing with these orphan boys. And the amazing part is that he let us help.


--Hope to arrive home (In Benton) by about 5:30 tomorrow evening. See you all then.