Dance Parties, Pizza and Bubbles

Tonight's blog is from Kimberly & Leslie:

We started this morning with a quick team meeting and then hopped on the bus. We spent our time on the bus with a "prayer ride." It was amazing to use the places that we passed as prayer prompts; opening our eyes to realize that as we passed a bridge we may see some of the people who were sleeping there tonight as we go out to feed the people who have no homes.

Once we arrived at Guirola, we took a quick tour and then set up for a dance party with the children there. Some were confined to their wheelchairs, but that did not not stop us or them! During the dance party, some of us did face painting and tattoos and balloons. We were also able to help feed them their lunch before we left. It was so amazing to see the joy on the children's faces when they have so little as they danced and tattooed themselves and us!

(For their protection, we cannot post photos from this facility.)

For lunch, we found ourselves at Pizza Hut with about 30 people from San Martin (a home for special needs adults), where we quickly finished 20 pizzas, pitchers of soda and breadsticks! It was so fun to see how excited they were to have the rare treat of pizza and soda, which is an almost weekly occurrence at our homes! 

After lunch we had the privilege of taking them to the children's museum. They got to experience how to travel on an airplane, lie on a bed of nails, watch a video in the planetarium, play on a news station, shop in the market, enjoy the butterfly garden, gravity house and "BURBUJULANDIA!" (BubbleLand). It was so fun to hear them laugh and ooh and ahh at each different exhibit. 

Our team made a quick trip to the market to get souvenirs before we headed back to the mission house for "the King's dinner". One of our hosts at the mission house, John, explained why he calls it that saying, "When the people that are homeless hear the truck coming and see God's children bringing food to them, they feel like the King Himself has served them dinner that night". So, tonight we ate what we would be serving to them later - hot dogs, chips, an orange drink in a box and wafer cookies. In preparation for our first trip out to feed them later this evening, our other host Judy read us an excerpt from a book that made us reconsider how we view those less fortunate than us. We were looking forward to sharing God's love with these people tonight and the next 2 nights.

A common theme in our daily reflections as a team has been the attitude of gratefulness that we see from ALL of the people we have had the opportunity and honor to serve. This theme continued on our journey out tonight to feed the men and women and children without homes. Seeing them run toward us as they heard the truck arrive, some without shoes, was heartbreaking for sure, but most importantly eye opening to the provision that our King gives. Were it not for grace....