Love in Action

So this week we did outreach in the town of San Pedro. We spent the majority of our time in a place called San Mateo, which is one of the poorest areas in Central America. The people of San Mateo live in squalor. The houses are built on stilts above the swamps because the families have no other place to go. Just this year two children died from minor cuts which had been infected from bacteria in the water...my heart felt for them.

Each day our team went to the Holy Cross Anglican School, where we got to teach in the classrooms. I worked with 8 and 9 years olds, teaching language arts and creative writing. Needless to say, I fell in love with the kids. Yesterday we did community service in the park. As I painted benches on the ocean front, listening to my iPod, there was a moment when everything felt so surreal...and I had this realization that life is so much more than what I know it as.

In the evening we went on a prayer walk and something REALLY cool happened. I was with two girls, Racheal and Katie, and we walked to the end of a street which lead us to a resort on the beachside. I was captivated by an illuminated tree- it just looked so cool and I really wanted a picture of it...so we walk over to it and I am snapping some photos when a woman walks up telling us how the resot is going to decorate the place with these awesome looking trees. Her name was Stacey and she was the manager there. We left that place and were saying a prayer for Stacey when I felt God laying things on my heart for her...Racheal felt like we were supposed to go back...so we turned around and went to hunt Stacey down in the lobby's office. She was a little surprised to see us again and I began to share with her how God feels about her and loves her, at this point I am tearing up and she is tearing up and it was just a beautiful moment of God pursuing this woman. And what is even MORE awesome is that Stacey told us right before we had met she was working in her office when all the sudden she felt like going outside to look at the tree at the exact moment that we stood there taking pictures of it. This, my friends, is what it's all about... God totally set it up.

So if it couldn't get any better, we closed the night with a celebration in the park for the kids, with face painting, water balloons, soccer, and balloon animals. It was a blast and I am super excited for outreach in the Philippines!!

Much love.