My Week

Sometimes you just have a good day and want to share it with the world. The past week, I had a bunch of those days and I want to share it with all my supporters and people who love the kids I work with here, even from afar.

Last week, I spent a lot of time with Asmin and Anderson, working along side the pastor of their school to work through some things Anderson is going through. I truly feel there is nothing more rewarding than spending quality time with kids – watching them grow and learn and being a part of that. We’ve started a nightly kids devotion before bed, Asmin is regularly drinking PediaSure (a special milk to help growth and development in underweight kids), and lots of time together including everything from countless games of “follow the leader”, a dinner out to Johnny Rockets, movie nights, making paper snowflakes, or cooking together. We are also reading daily to help them move ahead in school, and they are learning SO quickly. - Asmin reads every night in bed just for fun. Anderson decided to show off even more the other night and pray COMPLETELY IN ENGLISH. Grammatically correct sentences, perfect pronunciation, everything.  It makes my heart so happy to see them happy, healthy, and growing.

Alex is also making great strides and his behavior continues to improve. He is practicing more self control, less violence, is adapting well to a much more difficult Bilingual school, and is also showcasing his quickly growing English vocabulary whenever possible.

Luis is bouncing back from a major “down” and we’re praying that God truly gets a hold of him this time. Recently at church while hearing the testimony of a former gang member, he decided to rededicate his life to Christ and abandon the “old self” to be renewed by Christ! Wow! He’s doing his best to finish this school year and continue to be drug free.

We also got to celebrate with Nohemi as she found a second job to supplement the little bit she earns with her morning job. She has been praying for this door to open for months now, and I loved being able to celebrate with her God’s faithfulness!

Lastly, I had a “God moment” with little Fernando this week. He generally visits us on the weekends, but he is yet to break free from drug addictions and the street life and attitudes. On a cold rainy day, I really had no interest in leaving the house. However, Nidia came and invited me to an event she was hosting, so I agreed to go and check it out. Christopher, Asmin and Anderson came with me, and for what I thought was bad luck, right as we arrived it started pouring rain, so we waited outside under a covered area. We waited and we waited and we we’re about to go back home when Fernando and his notorious pot smoking friend came over. Discreetly, one after the other, they disappeared around the back of the building, so Christopher went to check on them. No yelling, no accusations, just letting Fernando know that he has accountability and we are aware of the choice he has in front of him. He immediately came back around the front with Cristopher and sat at the opposite side from us, apparently he wasn’t super happy with us. No more than five minutes later he comes over, sits with us, gives Cristopher a huge hug, and whispers something to him  - all I could here is that is started with “gracias” (thank you). Soon after, to avoid the continued temptation (his friend literally circling the building trying to get Fernando to go back, like no one else noticed his head popping around the corner every couple minutes), we went back to the house, made some hot chocolate and enjoyed a movie together, like kids should. He made a great choice, understood he made a great choice, and took one step forward on the long road of difficult choices to kick a drug habit. I believe that is something to be celebrated!

In summary, I had a blessed week. Big things and small things, all blessings straight from God.