Shining Like the Sun

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn" (Isaiah 60:1-3) 

I don't believe there's a more fitting scripture to describe this team. You know the expression "go big or go home?" That describes this team perfectly. When it's time to work, they work tirelessly and fight the breaks we require they take. When it's time to love on the kids here, they are running around the soccer field 100 miles an hour and hugging the life out of them. And when it's time to play, they do it with all their might. And they do it all in the name of Jesus, and shine His light in every single bit of it.

Yesterday was a fun break from physical labor for us. It started at church with Larry, Patty and Patty's family. David and Jenny bravely shared their testimonies, Greg gave the sermon, and then the team performed their human video. They all seemed to be so blessed by it, and we were blessed to be able to minister in that capacity.

After church we hit the open market to do some souvenir shopping, and you all have some wonderful gifts coming your way! We also had lunch, and although we would obviously eat lunch...I mention it because, based on Larry's recommendation of how delicious it is...many of your kids ordered the cow tongue as their entree! I'll let them share what that experience was like. Suffice it to say, yours truly couldn't even look at it, let alone try it. It looked udderly revolting. You could see taste buds for goodness sake!

Later that night, we went to the Reintegration House to visit the boys who have graduated from El Camino (boys home) and are now in university. It also happened to be the birthday of the house dad, so we had another fun celebration. There were card games, Ninja and so much dancing! Some of the boys at the home thought it would be funny to start a cake fight, and by the end of the night, every single one of us were covered in frosting.

CAKE FIGHT!

Today was a really special day for us -- we took Jesus to the streets and spent time with kids there. The bus dropped us off at the sewer/canal where one group of kids that Operation Restoration has been working with live. Without hesitation, we all climbed down and into the tunnel. Most of the kids were sleeping at first, but woke up soon after we got there.

A few of us spent time talking and praying with a sweet girl who just came to the streets a year ago. Another group started a soccer match with some of the boys. And another group ministered to a precious girl who had four kids and was five months pregnant. She shared that her other children were in different homes, and that she wanted to put up this baby for adoption, but felt like she was a bad mother for doing so. One of our teammates instantly jumped in and shared their testimony, and the girl just cried and cried. It was a wonderful time of ministry that encouraged her greatly, and through a simple willingness to share, the light of Jesus was revealed to that girl.

Greg and Larry ran to get breakfast for the kids, and as they ate David shared his testimony. It was amazing to see them gather around him and just be fixated on what he had to say. They all were sitting on the ground...some on cardboard, some just on the concrete...but in the middle of sharing, one of them pulled up a bucket for David to sit on so he didn't have to sit on the dirty ground. They asked him some really amazing questions, and he was so courageous to be honest and open. The Lord was with David, and His glory shown in that dark and dank tunnel.

After that canals, we went to another group of kids in a different section of town. This was a new place we had not visited last year. Most of them were sniffing glue, very high on drugs, and a few of them were physically pretty beat up. There was a group of girls who were all pregnant, the youngest of them was just 15 years old. As if seeing "beds" in the sewers wasn't already, this was a very sobering realization of what life is like for these precious children of God. It's rough, and it's hard. They are dirty, drugged and despondent...yet God loves them the same as He loves us in Highlands and Cashiers. He looks at the inside, not the outside.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at El Camino, the boy's home. After witnessing all we did on the streets this morning, it was so difficult to imagine their bright, shining faces living like the ones we saw earlier. The distant eyes and distorted walks of the kids on the streets, compared to the bright, shining and joyful boys who've made the choice to leave that life couldn't be more polar opposite. It's simply miraculous what God can do with one person who chooses to walk in the light and turn from the darkness.

More playing hard -- soccer, basketball and then (sniff, sniff) saying goodbye. It was a heartfelt and emotional time leaving. Many of them and many of us got up to say a few words about how much our time has meant to each other.

ALLEJANDRO & ARTURO DOING "UNO MAS" JUMPING SILHOUETTE PHOTO

FINAL GOODBYES AT EL CAMINO

So many of the boys gave some of our team members small gifts to remember them by -- pictures they drew, photos of themselves, friendship bracelets. One boy even gave Greg his soccer uniform. It was absolutely priceless to see them giving away what little they had out of such a joyful heart, purely to be a blessing.

Tomorrow (well, today now!) we'll spend the morning finishing our work at the girl's home, and then the rest of the day and night we'll hang out with the girls -- taking them out to dinner and some other activitity. This is going to be the hardest, I think, for all of us. We've spent so much time connecting to the girls, that leaving will be heartbreaking.

Pray for us that we'll accomplish all the work we set our hands to, and that our time with the girls is full of joy, laughter and muchas, muchas amor.