Day 3 Monday April 11^th, 2016

Another beautiful day in Parramos, Guatemala.  We have had lots of adventures today to tell you about.  Even though the villages are not expecting rain for another two months we heard thunder in the distance.  After inquiring we realized the live volcano 45km away, is letting off impressive plumes of gases. It has just become active over the past month.  It is a spectacular sight!

After our team breakfast we loaded the van and travelled to Corrales School for a morning of fun with 110 students and 3 teachers. School begins at 8:00 and finished at noon with a warm protein snack served at 10:00 am consisting of a warm liquid porridge drink and a hard-boiled egg.  For some children this food was the only meal of the day. Some the children worked in the field before school and will return to the field after school to help their parents with the crops.  It was a pleasure to see our build a home mom from 3 years ago is now cooking at the school.  Doug also got to spend some time with Alba, his adopted child – this was so rewarding.

We divided our team into four centres and rotated the students through each experience.

Station 1 Science Lessons on Dinosaurs (Cathy, Juli, Diane & Lauren)

Station 2 Recycled necklace craft (Suzanne & Dianne)

Station 3 Parachute games (Doug & Brian)

Station 4 Soccer game (Tim & Kelly)

Station 1: The science lessons were novel because science is not part of this school’s curriculum.  We talked in detail about different types of dinosaurs (with a translator). We showed them pictures of dinosaurs and 3D examples of the creatures. From there the students moved to the dinosaur rub Centre where they placed a blank piece of paper and rubbed a crayon over a dinosaur skeleton to create a skeleton print. The students moved onto the dinosaur fossil station where they used plasticine, a dinosaur skeleton head and plaster of paris to create an imprint of the skeleton head.  This became their keepsake.  After completing their imprint the students rotated to the dinosaur match and fossil centre.  Here they matched a full dinosaur figure with its skeleton. The students also learned about fossils, how they were created, what they looked like and how to use a magnifying glass. The students’ favorite fossil was coprolites (fossilized dinosaur poop).

Station 2: At the recycled necklace craft the students gathered in groups of 10 at a time. They were told with the interpreters help that the beads were created by “First Port Perry’s Boy Scouts” with recycled plastic and wallpaper. The beads were strung by each student and were worn when completed.  It was stressed that they were made by Canadian children and given with love.

Station 3: The students were excited when we pulled the parachute out because they remembered the activity from 2013. During the parachute educational games the students cooperated. They created poco waves and grande waves, used balls as popcorn to bounce ,which sometimes the balls were bounced over the school wall. Any runaway balls were quickly retrieved by a half a dozen students.  We also played colour recognition games in both English and Spanish.  Once the students had completed the parachute games the students used sidewalk chalk to draw their own creation.  We learned our lesson with the second group of students and demonstrated what the chalk was for prior to passing the pieces to students. Because some thought the chalk were stick candy and didn’t taste very good. 

Station 4: Soccer station. We set up two nets that we borrowed from “Centre of Hope” and we invited the first group out to play soccer.  The first group consisted of the older boys from the school and were about 16 in total. We equipped one half with blue jerseys and the other half with white jerseys. Each goalie had a separate colour (donated from the Woodbridge Soccer Club). We quickly same across a dilemma when the boys kicked the ball out of play which meant it landed in a neighboring  yard. The rule in this village is when anything lands in your yard, you become the owner of that item. This presented a problem, as we could not get our balls back.  To address this the kids ran home to get more balls. This allowed the game to continue.  In total we lost five balls, including the brand new one that GMT donated to the school. This game ended in a score of 2-0. Next the older girls played and their teams consisted of 6 girls per team. Here we lost another ball and the final score was 0-0. Next we had half of the younger portion of the school.  This was another 25 kids split in half. We lost two more balls in this game. Final score 2-0. The last game brought on another 35 kids which we divided in half, yet the blue team had far more skill than the white team. Therefore, Tim and two teachers joined the white team. We lost another ball, during this game. All of these games took place on the street which had a steeply graded slope.  In some cases the jerseys were way too big and came down to the kids ankles. We then tucked the shirts into their pants and in some cases you could only see the collar of the shirts.  The kids absolutely enjoyed soccer and some the girls even played barefoot to prevent damaging their shoes. In the closing ceremonies, we donated all jerseys to the school and unfortunately there was no ball to donate. The principal of the school was overwhelmed by our generous donations.

Once all the stations were completed, the 110 students lined up to receive their own goodie bag.  They were delighted to receive their treats. After saying our goodbyes with hugs and waves we traveled back to the guest house for lunch and afternoon instructions.

We were divided into two group for the PM:

Sewing Tasks (Pillow shams): Diane, Lauren, Juli, Cathy, & Suzanne

Build a Home Wall Construction: Kelly, Brian, Dianne, Doug & Tim

At the “Centre of Hope” the Sewing Coop consisted of 8 women from the local village of Parramos. This will be a new COOP group that will create pillow shams. The material used for the shams are tradition woven fabrics that are brightly coloured with intricate patterns. Many of the patterns featured birds or flowers. The ladies were shown how to cut 6 inch squares of two coordinating fabrics to create the top of the shams. The ladies were shown how to use the sewing machines to piece the squares together. Each sham has 15 squares. The group learned quickly how important it was to be precise when cutting and sewing the pieces together. In two and a half hours more than half of the ladies had a completed sham. They were very grateful to learn this new craft.

Some of the “Build a Home” walls were built this afternoon. Two were walls and two were walls with a door and window. We didn’t realize that “medir dos veces y corte una vez” meant “measure twice and cut once”. Therefore, our first wall ended up 10 cm too short.  We proceeded to measure twice and cut once on the following walls.  We framed the walls and while nailing them all together we realized that the nails must have come from a “dollar store”.  We managed to ruin 50% of them because they would not go in straight. We then observed our local mason/carpenter named Angel and noticed that he licked every nail before pounding it into the wood. We noticed that this was the only thing he was doing different to what we were doing, so we started licking our nails. Dianne perfected the nailing process like a BOSS by going 12 consecutive nails. Tim was 4 consecutive nails, Brian was 6 consecutive nails, Doug was 2 consecutive nails and Kelly was 4 consecutive nails. We noticed Dianne’s cheating technique that she had a magical orange hammer, that the carpenter had loaned her. The walls were completed after three hours of frustration.

At 4:00 Brian and Tim ventured into Parramos with our driver/translator Mynor to run errands. The first stop was to enter the bank to exchange American funds for Q’s. This was a fun process as we had to proceed past two armed guards with shot guns. We went up to the teller and exchanged $450 USD for our team members, which gave us Q3,429. We bought a 400gram bag of salt for 15 cents and 30 eggs for $4. We quickly learned that limon is not lemon and is instead lime.  After searching several markets we could find no lemons and settled for limes. We also went to fill up our drink water jugs and to our surprise they were only filled up at the volunteer fire station.

We had a delicious dinner of chicken, local grown carrots and potatos – Carmen is an amazing local cook -  and prepped for tomorrow’s adventures.  Night.  Night.

Day 2 in Guatemala. 

We were divided again today into three separate groups. Build a Stove: Cathy Kelly and Tim Septic Trench Digging: Dianne and Brian Prep for Church Service and Food /Clothing/Shoe Distribution: Juli, Doug, Suzanne, Diane and Lauren

Clothes

The Build a Stove group travelled to the village of La Hermita to build a stove. We arrived into the community and parked the vehicle at the top of hill.  There was a cow blocking our way. Mynor, our driver tried to walk by the cow and got attacked like a bull!  We walked down the hill with the supplies - about 75 yards.  We entered the home and proceeded to the cooking porch. We removed a table and took a pick to the ground to loosen the soil for the stove.  First we sifted five bags of dirt/rocks  into 1 bag of fine soil. After discarding the rocks/stones, we added concrete mix and water to create cement. This was used to join the cinderblocks to create the frame of the stove. We took the water soaked fire bricks  and a machete to notch a 2in x 2in corner of four cinder blocks to be used later. As the concrete cured we created a game with 29 pogs to entertain the four children at the home.

Goddie Bags

After that game we created a musical entourage where we recognized the talent of the children with their God given instruments. Kid number one was responsible for clapping, Kid number two was responsible for finger flicking, kid number three was snapping their fingers and kid number four was responsible for saying “IEIEIE”. Lastly the stick banger was one of our own Cathy from Seagrave. Tim was the conductor and yelled a number and the corresponding child played their instrument.

Once this was completed we filled the stove with ash and ran out. Therefore, we walked back up the hill with the family to carry another 250 pounds of ash back to the home where we then realized we only needed a quarter of it. The ash is used to raise the internal base as filler and also prevent heat transfer to the cinderblock frame. Then inserted the firebricks and the metal plate stove top containing three holes. (one for the chimney pipe and two for cooking) We inserted a door allowing wood to be placed into the fire. We then finished with parging the exterior of the stove. The chimney will be inserted after four weeks of curing.  A dedication and blessing of the stove will take place in four weeks. Upon completion of the stove everyone received an RP Oil hat and a kit full of goodies for the family.

The Septic Trench Partners completed the final 75 ft of trench for the Septic re-route. Little did we know that the final grade needed to be a foot deeper to allow gravity flow.  The original goal was to the existing driveway as we understood to allow traffic passage, but our foreman Mynor fired up vehicles moving them to the road side to allow us to trench the final 20 ft 4.5 feet deep to finish the task. Of course the tools of the day again were shovels and picks. (Advil PM required tonight). Luckily we had time to shower for the second half of the day.

The Prep group started off preparing for the food distribution that included creating the 186 food hampers that contained: rice, sugar, cooking oil, 2 soup mixes, two types of pasta, cup of soup, oatmeal and a gravy mix. (Sponsored families receive this food hamper once a month).  We sorted 300 pairs of shoes into sizes for boys and girls. We sorted the donated clothes into babies, boys and girls.

We were ready for lunch and regroup for our instructions for the afternoon. The “Build a Stove” group had a successful morning, but with their timeline had to have a late lunch, quick refresh and be at the “Centre of Hope” for their assigned details.

Church

During the afternoon the entire team were on hand to greet about 300 Guatemalans to “Centre of Hope” for both the Church Service and Sunday School.  The adults went upstairs for their 90 minute service, where at the end, we were able to do a hand made craft with the adults sharing a message of love and hope from Canada.  The team entertained 135 children for Sunday School. 

God's Eye

Activities included a God’s Eye Craft and story, Parachute games, Ball toss, and goodie bags distribution.  When the service completed the sponsored families registered for their food hamper which our team distributed, the families were then able to select one pair of shoes for a family member, one pair socks, two pieces of children’s clothing, one belt and one adult piece of clothing.  Any family with a baby also received a knitted hat. 

Juanito

Today was also a wonderful emotional day for our team members to see their adopted families that were in attendance.Tim and Juli got to see Luis, Santos, Miriam, and Maria and Mom Maria Sepherina. Brian, Diane and Lauren visited with Juanito and his Grandmother Suzanne and Dianne met up with Angela’s sponsored boy (2010 & 2013 team member) Julio. Each sponsored family member received a personal bag.  We were extremely pleased to see the progress each sponsor family members have made since 2013. With such a successful day, there was still clean up ahead. (100 chairs stacked down stairs on the porch, sweep all floors and mop, and supplies put away and ready for school tomorrow morning).

Boy, were we ready for dinner! Following dinner we got our instructions for Day 3 and the preparation began.

We were so ready for bed!

With the two-hour time change we were up early in our guesthouse with a delicious breakfast prepared by Carmen. Our team divided into three separate groups this morning:
Build a home cement foundation: Tim, Lauren, Cathy, Suzanne and Brian Septic Line Trench digging: Doug, Dianne and Kelly Women Coop Teamwork Training Session: Juli and Diane

The Build a Home group travelled in the back of truck to our “Adopt a family” site.  We were met with opened arms. Mom Claudia eyes filled up when she saw us arrive.  Their current cozy two-room corn stalk ho
use sleeps Grandma, Mom Claudia, Dad Freddie and son William. Our supplies had arrived the previous day. Thank you to our sponsors back home because without them we would have no supplies. If anyone is interested in recreating a cement house foundation that is 16ft by 12ft and 3 inches deep, here is the combination of supplies:
*16 wheelbarrows of sand
*12 wheel barrows of collected small rocks
*8 bags of dry cement mix
*30 buckets of water.
*Mix until you have created a soupy mix of cement.
Our foundation was poured in three hours with a lot of love and effort.  The Adopt a Family were so excited to see the beginnings of the creation of their new house. The sweat and sore muscles were worth it when we saw the smiles from our new Guatemalan adopted family.

The Septic Line trench digging also was a hot job in 30 degrees sunshine.  The Loving Arms’ Centre of Hope is building a new septic system and needed a 200 foot long trench that was 3-4 feet deep.  All you need are two shovels, two picks and a lot of muscle power.   The group had the help of Mynor (the site security guard). The team had help from dozens of geckos.

The Womens Coop Teamwork workshop brought together five Coop groups representing (Sewing, knitting, crocheting, jewelry and soup/shampoo making).  Women in the local villages are divided into COOPs to learn/refine new skills and sell their wares at the market.  The training in this workshop focused on building teamwork skills in their coop.  It was amazing to see how the coops that were initiated 6 years ago have progressed and their stories were an inspiration the other women who are just starting out in the coops that will be initiated this week.

We regrouped at lunchtime for another meal created with Carmen and a little siesta before heading to our afternoon work tasks:

Septic Trench Digging: Tim, Doug and Brian
Wall building for Adopt A Family house: Kelly and Dianne
Teenage Girl Empowerment Workshop: Lauren, Cathy, Suzanne, Diane and Juli

The septic trench digging continued with picks and shovels.  The gravity feed trench will connect the school to the septic tank.  The soil we were digging was well-eroded metamorphic rock.

The wall building crew built four wall panels.  Through perseverance four wall panels were created. With very knotty sappy wood non-tempered nails bent and twisted. Rough milled 2 by 4s were used to create the stud walls for the shell of the house, outlined with exterior wall covers

The Teenage Girl Empowerment Workshop led by Lauren rotated the participants through four leadership stations.  The teenagers experienced leadership lessons through hygiene kits, creating friendship bracelets, learning origami and journal writing. It was exciting to hear dreams and hopes of these young girls.  They were really gracious and full of gratitude for all of the hygiene items and goodies we were able to give them from donors back home.

By 4:30 we were exhausted and ready for another dinner created by Carmen.  Diane presented a homemade apron to Carmen. The evening was spent reflecting on today’s accomplishments and preparations for another busy day tomorrow.

We are hoping tonight there won’t be as many mice, geckos and spiders in our guest house.

We were greeted at the airport by Alicia and the Loving Arms Team this afternoon and through crazy traffic we finally arrived in Parramos at the guest house we will call home for the next 10 days.  

Exhausted from moving thirty 50lbs bags all day long, we found the energy to re-sort the bags and get ourselves organized for tomorrows line up.  The School of Hope has had great changes and initiatives since we were here last, so we are excited to see and participate in the teachings and projects in the week ahead!  

After starting our day at 1am, we are all calling it an early night so that we are prepared to work tomorrow!  Stay tuned….

Preparing our Hearts and Hands for Mission

The Greenbank Mission Team is about to embark on a 10 day short term mission to remote Guatemala.  Leaving April 8, 2016 we are busy packing, sorting and finishing off some of the preparations for the workshops, teachings, and events we will be hosting while there.

We are so fortunate to have had so many donations come in from the community, our friends and family.  After about 8 weeks of sorting and assembling and finally packing, we are closing the gap on the chores to complete before departure.


We are really excited to be offering a knitting workshop to a group of local women who have formed a co-op initiative to work together to sell their handmade items at the markets.  This self sustaining initiative is what we strive to encourage.  It empowers women to learn and practice new skills and it builds a sense of importance and self-worth in the communities.  As they are able to sell their goods at the market, it allows them to reinvest in their cooperative with new supplies and tools and leaves each with a little extra for food and necessities for their families.  We have had much support from the community helping us to prepare the squares for the workshop.  We are excited to watch this co-op grow!

Thank you in advance for your prayers of support as we venture to do God's Good Work.  Stay tuned to the blog as we keep you connected to the grass-roots work we are doing.

Thank you for your continued support!

Juli Conard-Myers

The Teachings of Rosa

The crafts we prepared to do were intended for the school children, so it came as a surprise that the women (Grandmas and Mothers) wanted to make friendship bracelets too.

We were visiting a small village, new to missionary work.  Being that they haven’t had aid before, our role was to build relationships and to break the ice for future teams and aid workers.  

The Alpha y Omega Church (also used as a community center) was made of concrete blocks, a tin roof and a dirt floor.  It was a good-sized building with the only furniture being one small wood table, a few cinderblock pews and several mismatched plastic chairs.

We divided the eager participants into two groups.  One group would do games with the parachute (they had never seen one before) and the other group would learn to make friendship bracelets.  There were about 40 women and children in each group.  

Although a large building, there wasn’t enough space for both groups, so the craft group vacated to the outside Guatemalan sun in front of the church.  We carried with us a few chairs to get started.  The church was built on the side of a mountain, with a spectacular view of a volcano in the distance and all of the cornstalk and tin homes that lined the mountain below.  This meant that our crafting space was anything but flat.  A steep slope meant difficulty levelling the chairs, so many found rocks to patches of grass to sit upon.  This community like many others, had a large population of stray and neglected dogs.  Starved not only for food but affection, I felt the matted fur rubbing my leg time to time as they came to check out the commotion.  As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to pat the dogs.  I could barely stomach the smell, let alone the desperate look of them.  A smell that followed me all day as only moments after arriving at the church I stepped in a sloppy pile of excrement.  No one seemed to mind the smell but me.  Likely a regular occurrence and no big deal.

As we taught the children to weave their friendship bracelets, the moms and grandmothers began to help along with the team.  Language was a huge barrier for me, so teaching was much like watching what I do.  With so many children to reach and help the local women began to teach each other – it was like a domino effect.  Moms helping children, Moms helping Moms.  Kids helping kids.  Kids helping Grandmothers.  Grandmothers helping kids.  Moms helping Grandmothers.  Grandmothers helping Moms.  It was amazing!  And interestingly enough every bracelet was unique unto itself!

I was helping a little 5 year old girl tie off her bracelet when I felt her tap on my shoulder.  She was a mother, in traditional indigenous dress, who looked about my age and she was holding out a beautifully woven bracelet to me.  It wasn’t the weave that we were teaching, but a patterned weave local to that area.  I told her how beautiful it was and she beamed.  As she took my wrist I realized that she was making it for me and she was measuring to see how much more she needed to do.  She still needed to weave a bit more and I watched as she walked back over to her chair to finish the bracelet. 

She tied one end to a stray bar sticking out from the concrete wall to anchor and support as she stitched the bracelet.  She worked fast and graciously.  I ran to get the other team members to show them the beautiful stitchery.  I guess because we were fascinated and standing to watch, others came to watch too.  She had quite a crowd gathered as she finished and tied it on my wrist.  As she did so, I thanked her and hugged her and asked her name.  Rosa.  And I decided in that moment, to weave a bracelet for her in thanks for her friendship.

As I sat down to work, I noticed Rosa weaving away back at her chair and three other women now weaving along side her following her instructions.  A natural teacher.  

While I was weaving a very simple “Canadian” friendship bracelet for Rosa, I sat and chatted with a little boy of 9 or 10 who was meticulously weaving his own bracelet.  He was slow and methodical and each stitch was perfect.  It was a pleasure to watch him work as he took so much care and pride in each stitch.

Multi-tasking, as us women do, I tied off bracelet after bracelet as the children and women finished.  We only had 2 pairs of scissors amongst the crowd.  At one point as I walked by Rosa I saw she was on her third masterpiece.  As I was admiring her work, I was shocked when a little head popped up from under Rosa’s blouse. A little boy about 3 years old, hers no doubt, was having a drink of mom’s milk – and Rosa didn’t miss a stitch!  I smiled as he ducked back under her blouse and Rosa kept weaving.

That day Rosa made bracelets for the whole craft team.   She wove four bracelets while I made just one.  We were all so grateful for her generosity and talent.  As I tied my woven bracelet on her wrist, I asked Carlos, our translator to help me have a conversation with Rosa.  I began:  “Rosa, in Canada we call these friendship bracelets, because we weave them with love and give them to those we care for.  I’ve made one for you because you have touched me, so now we can be friends for life.”  Guatemalans by nature are very humble and grateful.  “Gracias, Mucho Gracias.”

I then discovered that Rosa weaves the bracelets and arranges to transport them about 3 hours away to a high tourism area to sell.  This is her income.  They sell for about 10Q or $1.25US dollars.

We decided to leave the remaining embroidery threads, scissors, pins and supplies with Rosa so she could continue her weaving and teaching with the other village women.  She eagerly agreed.  We could tell she felt purpose-filled.

You know what amazed me?  Most trades people in Guatemala don’t like to teach others what they do for fear of losing out on business.  Work and income is so hard to find that they tend to keep their talents to themselves.  Rosa wasn’t threatened.  Rosa willingly shared her talents and is likely still sharing her talents, no matter what the cost. 

Rosa is a remarkable woman and teacher of life.  This is what Rosa taught me.

PATIENCE.  She didn’t get upset when little guy needed milk.  She let him do his thing as she carried on.  She didn’t tell him to wait a minute or push him off.  She accommodated him and kept on her task.

FOCUS.  I could tell Rosa was on a mission that she had a goal. It wasn’t until she gave us all our bracelets that I realized that was what she was trying to accomplish.

WILLINGNESS.  To teach the other women in the community her trade and empower them with skill.  A truly selfless act in such a society.

But the gift that sticks with me most was Rosa’s gift of GRATITUDE.  She set out that morning to make us all bracelets for coming to her community to help enrich their lives.  She appreciated the games, the crafts, the school supplies, our presence, love, support and the elaborate goodie bags for each child.  She recognized our gifts and our work as important for her community and reciprocated with a token of friendship, love and gratitude.

Rosa and her community may live well below the poverty line, they may have a dirt floor church with cinderblock benches and stray dogs that poop on church floors, but one thing that this community is RICH in is gratitude. 

Thank you Rosa for teaching me a whole new level of gratitude, a gift I will carry with me all of my days.

Your friend for life,

Juli Conard

Spiritual Lessons Learned by a Missionary

Oddly enough, the first time I saw her I didn’t see her face.  All I could see were her feet.  They were dirty, no, filthy but tanned by the Guatemalan sun.  Her shoes were torn, weathered and tattered at the sole.  The big toe on her left foot touched the soil instead of the sole.  She was dressed in the traditional indigenous dress; a hand-woven skirt and a detailed blouse.  It too was weathered and likely worn by several women before her.  She had long brown hair, bright eyes and a crooked smile.  Through the Guatemalan grime of the remote village, she was a loveable and beautiful 9-year-old girl.  I could tell she was well liked as 3 other similarly dressed children huddled close to her as she sheltered them from the rain.

            We were on site to where we were building a home for a poverty stricken family.  Very poor indeed, and like others in the community very much in need.  Our task for the afternoon was to unload the pre-built walls and prepare to assemble them into a house.  The walls were about 4’x8’ and very heavy.  We had just unloaded the first of two loads of walls when I saw her.

            She was kind but resistant when I approached her.  No English, and me ‘poquito’ Spanish.  I pointed to her feet and kneeled in front of her to look closer.  She wasn’t embarrassed but curious, as were the other children who had begun to gather to take a look.  I used my hands and finger stretch to estimate a shoe size – from tip of thumb to tip of pinky.

            While I was kneeling, I noticed the state of the other children’s feet.  Warts.  Corns.  Curling toenails.  Filth.  Shoes disintegrating and literally rotting off of their feet.  Shoes 3 sizes too small.  Toes hanging over the edge of sandals.  Entire soles missing.  Holes in rubber boots.

            The children showed me their feet and I took estimated measurements, certain we had children’s shoes back at the teams home base.

            Fortunately, we had a pair of girls shoes that were ‘tip of thumb to tip of pinky’ in size as well as other children’s shoes.  I loaded a duffle bag and took it with us as we made our way back to the site with the second load of walls for the build a home project.

            The children greeted us and by the time we had returned, word had spread and more children arrived to show us their feet.  I found my brown haired and brown-eyed girl.  She was speaking in Spanish, shaking her head and waving her finger “NO!” to me.  I was shocked.  I sat back on my heels and looked at her dumbfounded.  Then I understood.  She pointed to her friend’s feet and then pointed to the shoes as if to say “No, give those shoes to my friend.  She needs them more.”  Upon inspection, indeed her friend needed shoes but what was I to do?  I found myself judging whose shoes were worse.  I had only one pair of shoes, and two needy girls.  Both girls were wearing equally atrocious shoes.  I looked up at my friend and shook my head “NO.”  I held my hand to my heart as I said in plain English, “God wants good blessings in your life.  These shoes are for you.  You are deserving of these shoes and they are a token of God’s love for you.  You are worthy.  I’m giving these shoes to you.” 

            It amazes me when God speaks through the heart, language doesn’t exist.  I knew she understood as the tears rolled down her dirty cheeks.  She allowed me to slip off her old shoes and fit her with the new.  I tied the laces slowly so she could see how it was done.  I suspected that she had never worn tie-ups before.  Before she walked away with her friend she hugged me and said, “Gracias.”  I never asked her name.

            Bombarded by other children and more needs, we tended to as many as we could until we ran out of shoes.  It is difficult, heartbreaking and unbearably painful with guilt to drive away without serving them all.

            It was 3 days later when I returned to the same remote village.  I was busy with the team finishing the details on the build a home project when I felt her touch my arm and then take my hand.   I let her lead me just a few steps away from the worksite and she began to tie a hand-woven friendship bracelet on my wrist.  It was likely made from left over threads from a project that her mother was weaving, but it was beautiful.  She told me in Spanish “I made this for you.  God Bless You.”  When the heart speaks.

“Comma se yama?”

“Soulme”

“Gracias.”

We hugged.  Not like a stranger hug, but a hug that was deep, like holding on to a lifeline.  It was sincere, desperate and full of love.  I’ve never been hugged like that in all my life.

            I discovered through a translator that Soulme was one of 4 children.  The middle two children go to school and Soulme stays home with the youngest as mom and dad work the fields.  She cares for the children; always putting others needs ahead of her own.  Soulme has never had anything new or anything just for her.  She is reliable, trustworthy and responsible often helping other children in the community that are left home alone to fend for themselves when mom and dad go off to work.

            Soulme taught me many things that day.  She showed me how to be in the present moment to look around and assess others needs.  She showed me sacrifice, being willing to give at the expense of herself.  She showed me surrender by accepting God’s gift of shoes.  She showed me compassion and love for others completely and selflessly.

            The greatest gift that Soulme gave me wasn’t the bracelet believe it or not.  It wasn’t even in the act of giving the bracelet, or the deepest hug.  Her gift was in the making of the bracelet.  Her intention of showing God’s love for me.  She used what little she had and wove each stitch with her smile, compassion, her faith and God’s love.

            I’m sure that Soulme’s life has shifted, not only because she can step in comfort, but also because she knows that she steps with God and is deserving of His love.  Through Soulme, what I know to be true is this:  God loves me.  

Thank you Soulme for sharing the greatest gift of all.

Blessings, 

Juli Conard