Generous Hearts

Post by Katie

If there’s anything to expect, it’s the unexpected. A scheduled road block threatened our ministry today, so to get to Patzicía, we had a 5:00 am departure time. The best thing about that wake-up time is the sunrise over the volcanoes and mountains. We met some other families that we are doing ministry with at a restaurant and ate breakfast together as a party of 16.

What we have been doing for these families is building chicken coops and gardens to either eat the food or profit from selling it. Our first stop was to a family’s home that we didn’t quite finish yesterday. We had this home and their neighbor’s home on our agenda today. The kids run around everywhere between these two homes, and it’s an absolute blast! I got to work in one of the gardens. While I was planting celery and onions, the mother brought me a hat to keep the sun off of me. The act of giving me, a sun-stricken stranger, her hat shows how kind and generous her heart is.

The next family we went to is living in a small house with walls made of plastic and corn stalks. We built them a chicken coup and a garden as well. Since their yard was not very big, a lot of people could not fit back there. Some of the team and I visited another family while the other team members were at work building. The family we visited lives in a home Craig and his team built seven years ago. We brought them a water filter and shared the Gospel with this family. We asked if there was any way we could pray for them, and she asked us to pray for her family, so we did, and I will continue to pray for her family.

After visiting those homes, we ate lunch back at the school and then headed to a field to do Kid’s Club with the children of Patzicía. I have been trying to work on my Spanish, but today was obvious that it clearly is not enough. In Kid’s Club, the kids sing, hear a sermon and play games. I was tasked to help co-instruct a game with another person in our ministry who speaks about as much English as I do Spanish – which is very little and very broken. Our game was a twist on Rock-Paper-Scissors, or in Spanish, “Piedra-Papel-Tijeras.” They also say the whole game differently, which I was unaware of until I performed it completely wrong. They say “piedra papel y tijeras un dos tres ja” like SUPER fast. I learned quickly how to say it and butchered it probably super badly the entire time. At least the kids laughed! Both at me and with me because I definitely was laughing at myself.

Being here has been so incredibly humbling and so much fun. I have absolutely loved getting to know our team better, loving on these families, learning more Spanish, seeing how happy and thankful the people are, and, most of all, just seeing how present God is here. He has always been, and it is so evident through the hearts of the people.