Wednesday with Kids

We got to visit some kids this morning!!! I can’t put into words how much I loved it. I took a few pictures on my big camera but if anything I wish I’d taken more.

As we pulled up in the van, the children gathered around as close as possible.

The children posing for a thank you photo after getting their Operation Christmas Child gifts.

We made bracelets and I decided to make one for myself as a reminder of the incredible children who live there.

These are the girls that were in my group for when we made bracelets. Aren't they beautiful?

They were silly, too.

I connected with one little girl in particular. She was beautiful with her short curly dark hair that didn’t even reach her shoulders. She made eye contact with me a few times and then when the group formed a circle with the girls her and a friend came up and took hold of my hands. We danced in the huge circle for a few minutes and then we sat down to listen to Nathan present the gospel to them. This same little girl kept holding my hand and sat right next to me the whole time. It was chilly so at one point I just wrapped my arm around her to try to keep her warm. She asked me what my name was and I told her the name that I’d been given on my trip to Mexico – Kelly. It’s easier for them to pronounce than Kaylen. I asked her what her name was and she said that her name was Kelly, too. Lol. I’m not sure if I believe her, but that’s what I’ll call her when I pray for her.

Kelly and I.

After Nathan finished speaking, we had the kids gather in groups by their age group. We then distributed Operation Christmas Child gifts to all the children. We expected about 200 children but ended up having some left over. I wish I could’ve given Kelly her gift but I’m just glad that she got one and had a good day.

I ended up getting Terri to take some photos of us together and you could tell it really made her day. I wish I would have given her a hug goodbye but she was excited to get home and show her family what she got at school. I think one of the little boys who was sort of hanging around her was her younger brother. I took a photo of him as well as we were walking back to our van.

Kelly's brother. They have the same eyes.

We then headed over to the work site to eat lunch and then do a half day of work. Don Chepe, our site manager, had us work on the public road that runs through the site. It’s a dirt road that, on some parts, is quite steep and the dirt is so dry that people walking on it kicks up a lot of dust. So we raked the road to try to get it as even as possible, poured a good amount of water on it and then we thumped it with what was very scientifically called a Wacker-Packer. It took two people to move it around but three people to truly manage the beast of the thing. And the whole process of raking, watering, and thumping was repeated many a time for each section we worked on. Even though we only had a half day of work, we got dirtier and sweated more that day than any other day. The great thing about it was that we could see the fruits of our labor at the end of the day. The road looked so much better when we left.

Overall, it was another great day in Guatemala when I got to experience the joy of interacting with kids and the joy of doing some truly hard work for Engadi Ministries and through that, hard work for the Lord.