This Christmas...

Christmas Eve, all of the student missionaries had the privilege of taking bags of clothes to poor families just a few minutes down the road from the Hogar de Ninos. That was a very rewarding part of my day, because those kids really needed clothes… they got what they needed. Not what they wanted. They didn’t have piles of toys underneath a Christmas tree, they didn’t have boxes and boxes wrapped waiting for them to rip open… they just got the necessities. That in itself, had an effect on me for the rest of the day.

When we got back to the Hogar we started getting ready for devotional, however right before devotional started, the power went off. You might think that would be a bad thing, but it was so beautiful. We had the devotional with candles all around the room, and then we had a special dinner with candles on each table. It was so nice, and simple. The power came on half way through our meal, but everyone wanted to keep the lights off because it was so beautiful with all of the candles. After the meal, we went to the new park in Santa Barbara where we spent about an hour or so walking around, enjoying the Christmas lights, and goofing around with the kids.

When we got back, Marie Josie & Txus (the sisters who run the orphanage) had all of the kids waiting in the cafeteria for all of us to bring the Christmas presents in… Hannah’s church sponsored new outfits for all of the children here, but the kids didn’t know anything about it. Last Christmas, they didn’t get presents at all… so when we got back from the park, all of us Student Missionarys went to gather all of the presents to bring in with a bang. We all made paper antlers and wore them while bringing all of the presents loaded in a wheel-barrel! As soon as the kids saw the presents they leaped for joy, and screamed so loud! It was so awesome to see them so excited. My heart was filled with so much happiness for the kids… I love them all so much, and I’m getting really attached to life here, and being around my Honduran family everyday.

Christmas Day, was really different than Christmas Eve. I woke up to Elias, the youngest boy here, knocking on my door at 7:30 a.m. asking where Hannah was… and then I went back to sleep for another hour or so because I had stayed up until 3 a.m. the night before. Not a good idea. Ha. This morning we had devotional, breakfast, and then about an hour for chores. After that I decided to go and hang out with the kids… I ended up kicking a soccer ball around with one of the girls for about 2 hours, and it was so much fun. Didn’t feel like Christmas at all, but it was so simple, and fun. I was doing really well with not being homesick until I talked to my mom on the phone, and she started crying and told me how much she missed me. Tonight was really hard because things started to settle down around here… the hype and the noise came to a calm, and I decided to go out to the front porch for some alone/quiet time with God. I sat down, looked out past the soccer field, and saw one of the girls sitting out all by herself doing the exact thing that I was doing. I looked back at the sky and started talking to God about Christmas, how it feels different, and how I miss the familiar things… I hadn’t been sitting there very long before one of the older boys, Dario, came and sat down next to me. He’s one of the sweetest boys here. When he sat down, I asked him how he was doing… he answered by shrugging his shoulders. It was clear that he was sad, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t want to ask. We just sat there, saying nothing, both looking at the sky. I wondered if he was feeling the same sort of emotions I was about being away from family… A few minutes later, the devotional bell rang, and we went back to our own little worlds. Later, when it was time for dinner, I jumped in the back of the line, and Dario let me go ahead of him, and when I sat down to eat, I looked up, and saw that he was letting every single person in the cafeteria go before him. It warmed my heart to see that… and if that’s not enough, half way through my meal I had to excuse myself to cry some homesickness tears, and when I came back, all of the dessert was gone. We don’t normally get dessert here, so it’s quite a treat when we do. Dario was sitting across from me at the table and noticed I didn’t have dessert, and he gave me the rest of his dessert! These kids are filled with love, dying to give that love away… and my heart was touched so much tonight and it makes me want to cry because I found out that the reason Dario was so sad was because he tried to see his mom the past few days, and each time, she wasn’t home… These kids are hurting, and they were missing family just like I was. Even though we didn’t say much of anything to each other on the porch, I felt like so much bonding went on in that silence.

I cannot wait to get to heaven when all sadness will be gone from our hearts. We weren’t created to be away from people we love. It’s just not supposed to be that way, and I can’t wait to be able to live with these kids ALL the time, and still have my family and friends around me as well. Heaven is going to be so amazing…

I love you all, and I miss you all, but I know I’m where I’m supposed to be right now.

Much love,

-Me