We got up early again. As in, super early. As in, 4am.
Today was like, the day of the fumes.
And cockroaches. I saw four.
We painted. And painted. And painted.
Our project for the entire week was 8 classrooms. I'm pretty sure we painted 18.
God = cool.
Day 4 was the day I went to the shut ins. Shut ins are basically people who are too old or sick to leave their homes. We go to their houses and pray for them and give them beans and rice.
I'll tell you a little about each house we visited.
Get out the tissues.
First we visited Maria.
She was super old and little and cute.
She had arthritis in her hands so bad her fingers were completely bent out of shape in crazy ways.
Ways fingers should never be bent.
She cant pick anything up or do anything and she is almost always in pain.
She sits on a bed by herself in a little room all day long.
The room has no air conditioning.
There is a fan, but the fan blows hot air on her.
All day long.
I had the honor of praying for her. She was so happy and so grateful for the prayer, beans, and rice.
I was amazed.
She lives constantly, day by day, hot and alone and in pain.
But she was telling our group that she would be praying for US.
Us!?
She kept thanking us for coming.
And she'll be praying for us.
The next person we visited was Luis.
Luis lost both his legs to diabetes. He can't walk, he can't work.
His wife has a little store outside their house. She barely makes enough to keep them alive, but she was, again, so happy.
You can so plainly see how much she loves Luis.
She carries him from his wheelchair to the armchair, because she doesn't want him to get too hot.
She smiles at him.
She talks to him.
She feeds him.
She keeps him alive.
And you know what? He loves her too, so much.
But he can't tell her.
See, in addition to losing both his legs, Luis also had a stroke.
He can't move.
He can't talk.
He cried so hard the entire time we were there.
Bawled.
I can't even imagine.
He knows what he wants to say, but he can't say it.
He wants to take care of his wife, but it's the other way around.
He wants to feed himself.
He wants to feed his wife.
He wants, so badly, to tell her how much he loves her.
But he can't.
He's had to lay down all his pride.
It's so hard to see a grown man cry.
The next time you're talking to someone.
Remember how lucky you are to be able to speak.
Remember how precious every word is that we are able to say.
Remember that telling someone you love them, is a gift.
Not everyone can.
Something so simple.
His wife was telling us how she recently sold 3 pairs of shoes, and made $6.00.
She was SO excited.
When was the last time you were excited about six dollars?
Next we visited Consuela.
She's a widow.
Her husband was killed in a car accident, and it was too much for her to handle.
She ended up having open heart surgery.
She can't do much at all now.
She can't lift heavy things, she can't work, she can't even walk for long periods of time.
But despite this,
she greeted us smiling, begging us to get out of the sun, and sit down.
She was SO happy and SO nice.
It was incredible.
The last house we went to had a man and a woman.
The man was in his 80s and the woman was in her 50s.
The man could barely walk.
He had no shirt on, but one around his neck.
His pants were too small and he had two different shoes on.
He looked like he needed someone to take care of him.
But the girl was mentally retarted.
She would just repeat the same word over and over.
There was no way she could take care of herself, either.
She was his daughter.
He has taken care of her for her whole life.
50+ years.
Fifty. Years.
He loves her so much.
This man can barely take care of himself.
He barely has any food.
He can hardly walk.
But that's his baby.
That is the best example of true love and dedication I've ever heard of.
And to see how he still smiles at her,
he still loves her,
he still never gave up after all these years.
Wow.
The shut ins were COMPLETELY amazing.
Later we did village ministry again.
It was a place we went to in 2010 and 2009 too.
We did our dance and the program just like last time.
I saw the same shy lady from the night before.
She remembered me and ran to say hi.
I got to give her my spanish Bible.
She was so grateful and it meant so much to me to be able to give it to my friend.
We played with the kids again like the night before, once again, the parents loved it :)
Keep reading!
Dios te bendiga :)
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