The trip God planned

Kevin and I both had the opportunity to spend Spring Break serving at an orphanage outside Lima, Peru. It was an incredible experience for both of us, and especially me because I've always wanted the opportunity to serve at an orphanage in some way. Shortly after returning home, God worked incredibly in our lives and allowed the opportunity for me to return to the orphanage in the summer. I won't go into details on the blog, but I will be happy to share my story with anyone who asks, because I believe it's something truly only God could have orchestrated. I just returned from my trip, and again it was such a blessing to spend a week with these precious children.

This blog is usually dedicated to Jake, but I'd like to take the opportunity to share some of my trip with you. If you take just one thing from these photos, please know we are ALL God's children. No matter what our situation or cirucumstance God loves us and desperately wants a relationship with us. During the week, each American was matched with a casa, a certain age of boys or girls. I was matched with 15-18 year old girls who lived in Maria Elena casa. Here's some pictures of the beautiful girls...

Within your casa group, each American was matched with a group of kids called our "buddy group." Each day we spent a special 30-45 minutes with just our buddy group. This time was designed to strengthen relationships with the kids and allow for a greater opportunity to make one-on-one connections. Here I am with my buddy group, which my kids named "Wolfman and the 7 Princesses."
Why is there a wolfman in the girls' casa? The little boy (8), Lenin, and girl, Karol (10), in the front are brother/sister. We were told they have only lived in La Comunidad for a couple months, and had a very difficult time adjusting to their new home. After lots of tears and a few attempts to runaway, they were both put with the older girls as a way to help their adjustment and to have more hands, eyes, and hearts looking after them. From what I could tell by the older girls' interactions with these two, as well as their behavior, the arrangement has made a tremendous impact on everyone. It was great to see the girls looking after these two and seeing them participate alongside each other all week. It was true representation of "family." Each day during buddy time, we had an activity to help us have fun and grow closer to one another. One day, we played a teamwork game using pvc pipe and a marble. Here's my group working on the activity...
Every morning started with singing and fellowship as a large group, then we split into casa groups for Bible stories and VBS time. Maria Elena casa learned about different women of the Bible. For each Bible story, we had a theme (Miriam-loyalty; Deborah-leadership; Rahab-courage; Ruth & Naomi-friendship; Dorcas-kindness), games, crafts and activities to reinforce the theme and story. Each child was also given their own journal with the themes and Bible verses for the week. Here is Lenin with his journal and his picture of Rahab's house with the red cord hanging from the window...
Here's a group showing off the friendship collage they made after learning about Ruth and Naomi...Each afternoon brought a different opportunity for more fun, games, and relationship building. One afternoon, we had various relay races for the kids. I helped run a balloon relay for the older kids. One thing I really cherished about my time there is depicted in the following photos. It was really a blessing to see the joy and laughter such simple games brought to these kids...

Even 16-18 year-old boys were running with arms wrapped around each other, laughing and smiling. It was a beautiful sight...

Another afternoon was spent having organized "free time" in the casas. One of my teammates, Elizabeth taught the girls the "Thriller" dance. They LOVE Michael Jackson, and they LOVED learning the dance...Another afternoon activity was a scavenger hunt where the kids were led by clues all over the orphanage to paricipate in lots of fun activities. After the scavenger hunt, each child was given one of these big "balloons." They were so much fun, and it was awesome to see the entire basketball court filled with these huge, colorful balloons. Here's some of our girls, spelling out "M. E." for Maria Elena...

Here's a big group shot of Maria Elena and all my teammates for the week...

Here I am with a couple of my teammates, Elizabeth and Dearing, as we were touring the casas on the first day. I had a great team of wonderful women who all worked really well together. Everyone put their whole hearts into the week, and I am thankful for the opportunity to have spent the week working closely with such amazing women. Thank you, Dearing, Elizabeth, Jacky, Jenny, Katina, and Sue for your energy and love...

The final afternoon was a talent show and party. The talents were super cute; especially the little ones. Since I spent most of my time with the older girls, I have very few pictures of the little kids, but trust me, they are precious. One of the little boy casas told the story of Noah, which they learned during the week. Look how cute they are...There's always some that just "get you." Something about them grab hold of your heart and just won't let go. For me, there's a few of those living in La Comunidad, and I will always hold them close to my heart. There are three girls in particular I met in March and was so happy to see again. One of them is Marleny, pictured below. Marleny is a special girl, and I was initially very sad to not be matched with her casa, but God knows better than me. He allowed me to stay connected with her, while also connecting me to many other sweet girls.

On the last day, Marleny came to me and told me she made something for me. She handed me the scarf you see in the next photo. Initially, I responded, "No, you should keep it, I know you worked hard on it and you should wear it." (She had made the scarf in a class offered the afternoon before). She told me to look, and when I did, I saw the scarf said my name, "Kellie" on one end, then the shape of a monkey on the other. She told me, "I made this for you with your name and your favorite animal." My tears came immediately. It was so beautiful and obviously made with love. Isn't it interesting that the things that usually mean most to us aren't things that come with high price tags? The best gifts we can give and receive really are those that can't be bought at all, but rather given through love: patience, understanding, acceptance, compassion, friendship, kindness. You can't find expensive things anywhere on the property of La Comunidad, but these other gifts are flowing abundantly, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to share in them.

No matter what, it's hard to leave. No matter what, it's hard to say good-bye to this place that now means so much to me. Fortunately, I can trust that God loves these kids and this place even more than me and He has a plan for them, no matter what!