Friday, April 30, 2010

HoneyWords for some sweet kids at El Ayudante

The HoneyWord Bible is now in the El Ayudante Child Protection Center Library in Nicaragua. The director there, Bill Cox, who is a native Tennessee man, was thrilled to learn about it and is excited for the 30 children who live there to be able to use it as they are learning the english language everyday. I hope to go back in the near future with a spanish translated version for them too.
I would have to say one of my favorite highlights of the mission trip was being a part of the El Ayudante children's "picking out the clothes" we brought them.
Meet my little friend, Winkler, here. He chose the random ANT shirt and was so cute discovering that it made me so happy to see him choose it!
The week before we left on the trip our team leader received an email from Bill asking if we could bring clothes for the kids, ages and sizes 5-17! It just so happened that Kids Clothes Connection in Auburn had just finished their semi annual sale and had lots of leftovers that they wanted to donate to a "special" organization. The owners go to our church and after I made a quick call to them upon receiving the email, they told me they had been hoping to be able to give to some new charity this year besides the regulars that they give to. They had no idea we were needing them for the mission trip so the timing was very perfectly God's timing!
Someone living here in Auburn put that shirt in the Kids Clothes Connection sale and it did not sale here but in Nicaragua it sold for big smiles and 1 happy sugar ant and 1 happy fire ant who found it in the warehouse the week before we left.
Here's a new happy Auburn fan that lives in Nicaragua!
We laid out all the clothes in stacks of little girls, big girls, little boys and then big boys in a spare bunk room before they let all the kids come over in small groups to pick out their choices. To them is was like an afternoon shopping spree without needing money. To us it was like Christmas morning watching them delight over new things.
This precious little girl squealed with delight over her new dress. (I added the ribbon to it just before we packed all these clothes so it stood out to me when I saw her pick that dress)
This is little Jessica. She stole my heart for sure. Her mother died unexpectantly several years ago and there is a couple in Atlanta trying to adopt her and an older sister right now. Please pray that the adoption process will go smoothly for little Jessica and her older sister.
This scene will be etched in my mind for a long time. I have never seen such precious little girls be so excited over used clothing. They were chattering up a storm as they walked back to their living quarters with a new red bag filled with several new outfits, a new purse, some play fingernail polish, sunglasses, and a new bandana. Oh - one more thing, please notice the ribbons in each one's hair -those were some of my Jessica's leftover ribbons from her childhood :)
I have a lump in my throat just writing this post.

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2 comments:

Burton said...

Precious children and precious memories!

Unknown said...

How precious to see those little girls so excited. To see how God is meeting their needs through you and the team from Auburn...God is so good! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!