los uniformes

'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Matthew 25:35-36, 40

This week was the beginning of classes for the villages. We passed out uniforms in Chichigua for each child, which included a shirt and khaki pants, in addition to a pair of underwear and a toothbush with toothpaste. I found great satisfaction in giving these clothes to the children and was reminded of the verses listed above, and was really able to see the joy that it brings in doing 'for the least of these.'

With the 'job' aspect of what I do here (seeing as it is my job and everything..), I have found that it will be easy for me to get caught up in the lesson planning and the tasks of caring after a baby at the house, and so forth. Though I do have a great deal of responsibilty here, I don't want my obligations to consume my thoughts. The first week of classes was a little crazy, as I knew it would be. My thoughts continue to be focused on the need here. If only there were more teachers... If only we could work with the same kids a little every day... If only we had workbooks to give to each child... or simply a curriculm or a teacher's Spanish guidebook to use... and so forth.

I know how great all of those things would be, and how much more could be done here, but then at the same time I am reminded that I have been placed here, that I have been given the opportunity to study and learn and therefore to teach and impact, and that (more importantly) I have the strength of the Lord and therefore, the ability to do anything.

The simplicity of putting clothes on a bare-backed child was so beautiful and so rewarding. I'm relearning the simple truths from the passage above and hope that my thoughts would be geared towards not the negatives but the positives, like continuing to pour out love onto these children.