Helloooooo.
On Wednesday mornings, we help a local church cook for a feeding program in the barrio. ´Barrio´means ´neighborhood´, and it´s basically a bunch of shacks built from plastic, scrap metal, whatever. The kids bathe in the cement sinks in the yard, and their clothes are always dirty. You don´t go there alone, or at night, unless you have a Nica with you. The church, Torre Fuerte, cooks a meal on Mondays and Wednesdays for the kids - it´s usually soup and veggies, and it´s most likely the best meal they get.
A couple weeks ago, we were hanging out with a bunch of kids in between cooking and serving the food - that usually involves getting sweet hairdos from the girls, holding babies, and trying to keep up with the boys. This day was a little different for me, though. There was this kid, Manuel, who I think is 8. He´s an intense little person. Usually Heather keeps him busy throwing lemons or feeding goats or something (entertainment Nica style), but that day he kind of latched on to me. Which involved alot of violence. He´d just come up and kick me, or throw rocks, or hit me. I tried being like ´No, Manuel,´but I mean, obviously he knows what he´s doing is wrong - that´s not the issue. ´Turn the other cheek´popped into my head, so I decided to just take it and see what happened. I was just sitting there, and he was standing behind me kicking me in the side (not super hard), and I got this mental picture of me and God. I am so small in comparison to him, and sometimes I fight so hard against him when all he wants is to pull me closer to him. He´s trying to love me, and I am so determined to do what I want that I don´t care that it hurts him.
You know how people say ´you may be the only Jesus that person ever sees´? I am officially determined to show Manuel what Jesus looks like. I´m not gonna lie, sometimes/most of the time he´s pretty hard to love, but so am I.
Anyway. Pray for us.
´This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seend God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.´- 1 John 10-12
paz y gozo.
-Ruth
