Reality.

For the past three years I have had the privilege of leading a discipleship group for three, beautiful, now sophomore girls. Our group started out as just two (yes, there really were only two girls in the class!), grew to four and then this year shrunk back down to three. We've grown together in our journey to know Christ better and learn more about who God is, and have had a lot of great times together. Today was one of those days.

This year our vision with our groups has changed a little bit. We want to grow closer to the Lord together, but we also want to impact our community by showing them the love of Christ. Each group has chosen a 'project' or part of the community to partner with and it is our goal to build lasting relationships with them. My group (since there are only three girls plus me) teamed up with the sophomore boys and headed to Zone 7. We were going to an AMG project, Verbena, and also the headquarters for AMG Guatemala.

At 8:15 we piled 19 people into a 15 passenger van and started our commute from the school to the project. Kids on the floor in the trunk, lots of people in rows meant for only 3; but the kids were excited and that just didn't matter to them. Half an hour later we pulled through the gates and opened the doors to a whole new world for these kids (and us too).

We walked in and asked how we could serve them, and we were fully expecting to be asked to do manual labor. We were. They asked us to paint some walls and to move some lumber around, but about halfway through cleaning the walls so that we could begin the painting we were told that the kids were on break. Not only that the kids were on break, but that we could go play futbol and love on them while they finished their recess time. So we went, and we loved on those kids and played with them for the short time that they had left. It was so awesome! The kids were so excited to have us there, and we were even more excited to be able to share that time with them!

reality

Recess ended and the kids returned to their classes. We were waiting for the smaller groups of children to come out for us to play with. During this time of waiting patiently :) We took the kids to the wall that separates the project from the reality of many of these children. If you walked to the wall and looked to the right, you saw one big cement 'building'. At first glance many of the teens thought this was an apartment building. It isn't though-it is actually part of the cemetery. If you look straight ahead, you see shacks upon shacks and buildings that are falling apart. This is where most of these kids live; in this world that we only imagine to be in movies and books.

our team :)

hugs

These kids though, they are offered hope when they walk through the school gate every morning. They are shown love through the people who come to work every day to teach them about Jesus. They are given a chance to have a future. They are fed and nurtured physically and spiritually. Words can't describe how awesome this is.

Long story short, the teens left and were impacted. We left and were changed by the reality that surrounds us daily here, but left knowing that our God is a god of great things and has each one of these little children in His care.