 |
| Luis and Hilda can feed themselves now. |
 |
| All the chicks but one can feed themselves now. |
 |
| The cross that overlooks Antigua |
 |
| This is only one size of diapers donated. We had piles and piles! |
 |
| Three churches represented on our team, 1st Palmetto, 1st Arcadia and Braden River. |
Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Romans 12:9-13 (The Message)
I went back to the Malnutrition Center today, and it felt like home. There have been some changes. With the new dorms complete, we now can make our own lunches in the dining room. I like that better than the sack lunches we used to pick up in Antigua. The center looks cleaner and things are more organized than when I first started coming eighteen months ago. Each day’s activities are well planned and schedules are set making it easier to know what to do to help. But the best thing is the changes in the children. Oh, how they have grown in just four months! Billy, who never spoke, could not walk and was almost lifeless in January 2011, is a thriving active boy. So active that the team in charge of his group was warned that he is now an escape artist and will wander off all over the center. He is talking and singing. He is happy and alert. He is thriving. So is Maria Ascension who is so tall now. She still cannot walk unaided, but will walk pushing a chair around. She is also happy and giggling and obviously a princess. Some of the babies from eighteen months ago are now in the big kid’s room. My assignment this week is not with the Chicks with whom I have worked the three other times, but as a floater helping and encouraging all the groups and assisting Cynthia, the wife of the head of Orphans’ Heart. While I organized the unpacking of all the supplies, the sorting and inventorying of it all and the storing of it, I managed to squeeze in some time with my little Pollos. First thing this morning, I walked into their bathroom, and Nanny Christy recognized me and said my name. I was so surprised and humbled. She has so much to do and so many people who come through the center and yet, she remembered me! Before we came, we got a list of all the workers at the center and their personal information so that we could buy each one a pair of shoes. From that list, I discovered that Nanny Christy and I are only nine months apart in age! She has worked at the center for thirty years and is a widow with three children. I cannot help but think that could be me. If I had been born in Guatemala instead of America, it could be my face that was worn and my hands that were rough. My hair could be gray, and my feet a size four instead of an eight if I had not had enough food to eat as a child. The fact that we are so close and yet so far apart, made me want to work even harder to help Nanny Christy. I looked for ways that I could make her day easier, even scrubbing the pots that the Chicks use for the bathroom. (All the time praying, please God don’t let me get sick again!) For me, that is what the time at the center is all about, building relationships. With Billy and Maria and Nanny Christy and the others. I can’t wait for tomorrow to get here!
Cathy,
This is good work you are doing.
You are making such a difference in those kids lives.
I'm so glad Billy is doing so well! You and your group have obviously made a huge difference in his life and the lives of all those kids!
People like Nanny Christy serve as a reminder to all of us – we could have worn her shoes but for an accident of birthplace. And because we are so blessed, we need to do what we can to help those who are not as materially blessed as we are.