tuesday

Today was a long day and we covered a lot of miles. We are wrung out and filled up all at the same time. It’s hard to find words to describe today, but some of the words said tonight were:

Desperate, Joy, Hard, Love, Trust, Broken, Dignity, Alone, Community

There are a lot of contradictions in that list, and contradictions are what are swirling in our heads. We have shed more tears than you can imagine—in happiness and in despair. We have been cracked wide open and it’s hard to put ourselves back together. The way these widows live is unbelievably sad, but the joy and redemption and beauty that God can bring in the midst of this is absolutely incredible.

I honestly don’t have anything left to give today—we left it all out there, but here are the facts of what we did.

Emily started our day with an amazing testimony and devotion and urged us to keep trusting God. Jeremiah 29:11

We built a bathroom for Maria Luisa and her 3 small children

We built a stove for Maria and her 2 little boys.

We came back to the ministry and gave away 50 pairs of Manos-made school shoes. Then we gave them toys and played HARD with those beautiful kids.

We went to a feeding program run by Manos. They have been conducting a women’s bible study of sorts with the mothers. Usually, Manos teams attend the feeding programs to help with the children, but we went to see the mamas. (Just another way that the GuateMamas are trailblazers!) We had about 20 women, so we heard a bible story and then we showed Jesus’ love by washing all of their feet. (We didn’t have a translator, but language barriers are no match for this—a mama is a mama in any language.) We truly had an absolute blast sharing our love of Jesus and pampering them.

It’s not possible to sum up our feelings and experiences today, but we have been changed. Ask us about it when we get back—we’ll tell you.

Blessings,

The GuateMamas

Philippians 2:4-11