The little things...

I always come on trips like this wanting to serve and love the people I am surrounded by. I always ended up receiving more from those people then I feel I have given. We have only been at the Orphanage for 5 days and I already feel as though I have been given so much and have learned so much about what it looks like to serve and love well.

I am amazed each day at how content these children are, they have so little and yet have so much love and joy. They will take you by the hand and walk with you, sit with you and just be. They find great joy in playing hand games, hopscotch (Which it turns out I am NOT good at), coloring or playing simple games. They do not watch Tv or have the little things we take for granted and yet they are so content. Yesterday we took some of them swimming and they just LOVED it. Just the simple thing! It has made me think so much about my lifestyle back home. Why don't I spend more time just being with people I love? Two of my dear friends live .6 miles away and I see them maybe 2 times a week. We feel as though we have to have something to do. I pray that I would simplify my life when I get back to Fort Worth, spending more time with people and just being. I can not speak to these children so the only way I can love them is to be with them, and that means so much to them. I pray I would seek opportunities to go and spend time with those unloved ones in Fort Worth.

It has been fun to see how these 70 children really are a family. The older kids help to care for the younger ones and they all look out for each other. They older ones will help iron clothes for the younger ones. There is one girl Pim, whom we have all fallen in love with, she can not hear very well and therefore cannot hear the dinner bell. Someone will always find her and tell her to line up (if they don't line up in time they miss the meal). They just all help each other out. It is amazing to see the unity of all of them!

I am falling more and more in love with these people. I am learning more about them each day. I leave in just under 3 weeks and I already know it will be so HARD to say good-bye. It will be another lesson I will have to learn. How to continue to love these sweet people while I am in Fort Worth, Texas!