The Boy Who Didn’t Know His Age…

I’m getting old!  Well, at-least it seems that way.  I’ll be turning 35 tomorrow.  Most people know when their birthday is, especially children.  My 4 year old is already anticipating her birthday coming in March.  She has things planned out and talks about it frequently.  It’s not very often that you come across a child that doesn’t know their birthday or how old they are, especially if they are 11.  However, I talked with one the other night at our fall festival.  It was actually one of our children, Juan.

Our children were very exciting about going to the fall festival at the church and of course, getting a ton of candy.  The church was packed and everyone was having a great time.  Towards the end of the night, it came time for musical chairs.  They broke it up by age group.  I was in charge of starting and stopping the music and Juan was right by my side helping me.  At one point he turned to me and asked how many years he was.  I didn’t understand what he was wanting, to which he asked again…how old am I?  He had been patiently waiting his turn for musical chairs, but didn’t know when to go because he didn’t know how old he was.  When I told this young man that he was 11 and it was his turn to play, it was as if I told him he won a million pesos.  Smiles and joy filled his face as he ran to the chairs.

I am so thankful for and treasure those little moments, like that night with Juan.  It reminds me of the importance of what we are doing and gives me  the desire to want to love on and minister to these children all the more.

Life continues down here at a rapid pace.  The past 3 weeks consisted of a very successful missions team, another trip to Corareyvo and my trip to Florida.

Many of you were praying for our team of 10 from South Hill Calvary and Calvary North Thurston, in Washington.  The goal was to install a heating system in the orphanage.  Incredibly that was accomplished in 3 days.  It was amazing to see this dedicated team work long hours, in tight, hot crawl spaces, to complete the task.  What a blessing it will be to have heat for the upcoming winter!

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I took back the missions team back up to El Paso and then hoped on a plane to Florida to preach and give an update on the orphanage.  That same weekend, Pastor Luis, Nieves and a team went up to preach and minister to the people in Corareyvo.  Both trips were a huge success and richly blessed by the Lord.

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It was a blessing seeing Erasmo, Maria Ana and Judith excited about going back to visit their family.  Leading up to their departure, there was growing concern that Judith was going to choose to stay.    Since she is 15 years old and chose to come and stay with us back in August, we couldn’t tell her she can’t go.  We encouraged her that this is the best place for her to be and we hope she chooses to stay with us and continue growing and learning.  Unfortunately, she no longer wanted that and remained in Corareyvo.  Please join us as we pray for her, her safety and more importantly, a continual heart transformation so she might have a desire to come back to us!

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We have a busy rest of the week leading up to our trip back home to Washington on Saturday.  This time, the whole family gets to join me for our furlough.  It will be a much needed time of relaxing, visiting with family and friends as well as teaching and sharing at churches about the orphanage.  Your prayers for our trip would be greatly appreciated as well…and we hope to see you if your in the neighborhood.

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;  the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).