Day 6: Feeding Center

On Thursday we also went to La Pinada to work in the feeding center. It was amazing. There were so many children there to get a meal. The little feeding center was packed out! They each got a meal of some sort of rice/black bean mixture and all got one vitamin. Several of the children remembered us being there on Sunday for church.

We passed out little goodies to most of the children and they loved it! After we finished feeding all the children we told them the Bible story of David and Goliath and they loved it too! They thought the acting was hilarious.

After the story we walked through this little mountain village. What I saw was heartbreaking. The first little house we stopped at is right next to the church/feeding center. The woman has a newborn and it is so cute. The lady's husband is very, very abusive to her. Just that morning, he was seen kicking and yelling at her. We stopped to pray over her and her children and she just wept.

The next house we stopped at was a mother and 8 children. Here in this village they are only allowed to run water for an hour, and only every 2 days. They keep their water in huge barrels. There were flies swarming all around the water and this is what they drink, wash, and cook with everyday. The week before we came, a team from Knoxville came and started building them a new house. It will be all concrete and will have 3 rooms. How awesome!

The next house was a man and his 4 children. We never knew where his wife was or if she was alive. He was so proud of his home and showed us in and was just very happy. We prayed over him and his family and you could tell he was so proud to be able to show off his blessings. Even though his home was made of cardboard and tin, you never would have known it by his words.

The last house we stopped at was probably the one that broke me the most. It was a woman and her 4 children that lived there. The woman wasn't at home, she was out working to provide for her babies. They had no electricity and only one room, one matress. The kitchen area was outside of the room and was swarming with flies. The woman goes out during the day to work and leaves her children there to wait for her to return. Her youngest was probably 4. Most of the children in the village stay at the feeding center during the day.

Pastor Scott and I got off by oursleves again and started talking about grace and how awesome God's grace is. He hit the nail on the head when he said that it was only by God's grace that I was born in Tennessee and not on a mountain in Guatemala. It really got me to thinking a lot of "why's". Why do I have the things I have? Why do I have a nice home, a nice car, a nice closet filled with clothes? Because of God's grace. But it doesn't mean that the people I grew to love and care about didn't have anything. Because they had love, hope, happiness, and God's grace as well. They were protected and loved and held in their Maker's hand...and they knew that.