After the breakfast program was over this morning Tony invited me to join him in visiting another family in Los Pinos. The funny thing is that we had originally planned to go out for lunch and meet with a friend of his, but we learned at the last minute that his friend was out of town.
At first I told Tony that I would stay behind at the church to work on my blog because the wireless internet I've been tapping into at home has not been available lately. But then I thought, "What the heck? I might as well go." As we left it started to rain, and then I saw that we were not driving, but walking straight up the hill behind the church. I thought "Oh yuck, what have I gotten myself into?" and the boys kept joking that the home we were visiting was far, far up the hill. When we got to the top of the road it started to downpour and we all ran, screaming into a little open ended cement garage sort of thing to take cover from the rain.
Finally the rain let up a little and we ran to a boy's house who lived nearby. His mother was happy to invite us in and show us her one room home with a refridgerator and tv! I think she said she had 5 kids in total living with her in one room with a single bed and a full sized bed. She asked us to sit down on the beds, which were perfectly made, I felt like I would dirty them from having run through the rain to get there. She was very happy to meet Tony, saying that she hears her son talk about "Tony, Tony" every day. Tony invited her to come and observe the breakfast program any time she wished. He asked if she has a church she belongs to. She said she does belong to a church, but it meets at night and she can't go alone at night because it is not safe, so at this time she doesn't go to church. She said that God is still an important part of her life every day, and she prays, but it is not safe to go to church alone. We talked for a few minutes more, and then we got ready to leave to visit another home.
As I stood to leave she took my arm and held me back while the others left. It's kind of a blur now, but she asked me if she could come to our church on Sundays. She said she would really like to come to our church. I was surprised because I hadn't said much during the visit. I told her of course, we would love for her to come to the church. She said she didn't want to go alone, so I told her I would be there at 9:00, looking for her and I hoped she would come.
Then I went down to where Tony was waiting and told him what happened. He asked if I wanted to go back and pray with her. I said yes, but I'm not good at praying in Spanish. He said the language is not important, just ask her if she wants you to pray. So they all waited outside (we had about 5 kids with us) and I went back and asked if I could pray with her. We held hands and prayed together. I prayed that she would come to church and gain a sense of community so she would not feel alone. After our prayer she said she is very excited to come to church on Sunday - so now one of my prayers is that if she comes I will recongnize her! So many faces are new to me here. She seemed genuinely moved and I really think she could be here on Sunday. If not, Tony and I have another plan...
Then we went to the next house. The mom in this house was very animated. She seemed like a strong willed woman. To make a long story short, the very same thing happened again. The lady asked me as everyone else was leaving if she could come to church. She said she will seem me there. We'll see what happens! I suggested to Tony that we visit a couple of homes every Friday. He liked the idea. At the very least we can meet the families of the kids.
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