We headed for our last day of VBS while a couple of guys from our team finished up the concrete house. This morning was one of my favorite mornings there. We brought nail polish with us for the intention of coloring the locks and keys to the community center there to help them figure out which key goes with which lock. Well, the nail polish ended up being a little gift from God. We started painting the girls' nails. Then a lady walked over and wanted her nails painted too. I looked down and noticed she had on open toed shoes but of course, her toenails were not painted. In fact, they were covered in dirt. I immediately started painted her toenails and she became giddy with excitement. I honestly don't think she even knew people painted their toenails. It brought me so much joy to see her so happy over something we take for granted!
Ava helped paint nails too.
And I found another baby.
We had more VBS and shared the story of Jesus.
Then it was time for the Tienda. I called it "Guatemala Black Friday".
At first, the moms got to come through the line to get bags we had made up with shoes, shirts, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss.
Then kids got to come through the line to get shoes, shorts, or soccer jerseys. Bartlett rec soccer donated tons of soccer items and it was greatly appreciated!
Then came that dreaded time of the week when we had to say good-bye to the people we had grown to love in just a few short days. Paulina was the hardest to say good-bye to. You can see my puffy eyes where I had sobbed as I hugged her neck and the neck of all the kids. I told her that my heart is in Guatemala and she told me that she was sending part of her heart back home with us.
Once we got back to the camp, some of the guys climbed the lava fields.
The rest of us went outside the gates to play with kids. I didn't have my camera with me because Kevin had taken it with him to the lava fields. However, the sight we saw outside the gates was more that I could stand. We saw a group of little girls about Elia and Ava's age. They were playing house. The sad thing is they had dug through our trash and were playing with the paper plates we had eaten on the night before. They were also playing with the empty milk carton we had thrown away as well as the empty ketchup bottle we had thrown away. You could still see the broccoli on the plates from our dinner. It truly broke my heart and is a sight I will never forget! We have so much to be thankful for but so do the people of Guatemala. They don't have all the materialistic things we have to get in the way of their happiness or their love for each other. We have a lot to learn from them!!
Friday
We had to wake up at 3am this day to head home. We nearly missed our flight from Guatemala to Atlanta. Then we had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta. It didn't take long for our kids to fall back into their American way of life.
I am so glad God keeps laying it on our hearts to make this trip year after year. It is truly a life changing experience!!!
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