I sat with four young girls today and explained away the gifts their sponsored child sent them through me. I arrived home just yesterday ~ literally 24 hours ago at this writing. With delays in Lima and further delays in Miami, the coming home was challenge, yet full of time that I seem to lack here in the every day.
"It's like The Little Drummer Boy," I explained as we gazed at a styrofoam plate shaped and colored to look like a swan, at crepe paper twisted and sculpted into heart shapes, and at foam shapes pasted meticulously into fish and hippo faces. The little girl who lives on the other side of the world from my daughter and her friends sent what she had to give ~ no gift fit for a king or for what I may have deemed right for these American princesses, yet she gave her best for them, and they ogled and giggled and loved every item, passing each piece around and deliberately choosing which one to keep. They still get it better than I do.
I am reminded time and again that God smiles at me when I simply do my best for Him. Sometimes that's writing about my messes. Sometimes that's writing about the babies He gave me. And sometimes, it's writing about Peru and life and change.
For Keila in Peru and four young girls here at home, it simply meant a backpack of school supplies and a styrofoam plate. Isn't that beautiful?
I took 2,500 photos last week. I promise I won't share them all. But my goal before my trip to Peru was to write and photograph all that I saw and did while there. To care for people and to make a connection. I wanted to learn what Compassion is doing in Peru.
My voice has been quiet on this blog. As time sped away and I spent summer moments with my children, my words were absent. This week, my prayer is that I can suggest to you through my words the powerful impact that is occuring in Peru through the Christ-centered Compassion organization. I pray to get my voice back to write ~ with time and with inspiration. I pray that you will be inspired to seek God's will in your life. Maybe sometimes it is true to "Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be." ~Robert Brault~
Or better: Ask who He wants you to be. And be ready to listen!
