Yesterday was hard. Really hard.
We started our day with the usual construction and filled the last hole with concrete. One of the VBS kids, Joel, showed up to help us. This child is amazing. He picks up on English very quickly and steps in to help in any way he can. Here is a photo of our new friend:
The VBS crew went to serve children in a different location, but when they came back, we ate a wonderful lunch consisting of pork, plantains (we have them just about every meal) our favorite salsa aji, corn on the cob, and ice cream. Little Joel was sitting alone eating his lunch and we asked him to join us. I think it made his day, especially since it was his birthday.
After lunch, we took a bus ride about 20 mins away to Joel's house. None of us were prepared for what was to come. As we stepped off of the bus, it was hard for many of us to hold our tears back. Living in the U.S., we see poor people living in what we call the slums. Homeless people are there, but our police and other law enforcement try to keep them off of the streets. They always have a place to find a hot meal due to our resources like the Salvation Army. Here, extreme poverty is a more fitting term and nothing in our country even remotely resembles this.
Joel comes from a family of 5 other siblings and a mom and a dad. The dad works as a night watchman for a factory, but is only paid very little and there are times that he isn't needed. All of their money goes to paying rent and whatever bills they might have. Their "living room" is the size of a 5x5 square with walls that were put together with what appeared to be the sides of old boxes. The entire dwelling is put together this way and if it rains, they will get wet. There are no windows and no true doors. I know that my description is not the best, but maybe these photos will help:
We visited with the family and prayed with them. It was one of those experiences that you can never erase from your memory. We wanted to take those precious children and give them good homes and food, but we know we cannot do that. Instead, today we are going to buy groceries and clothes for them and take them to the family before we head back to the city. There is so much more information we learned, but it would take hours to really describe it.
We left with heavy hearts, to say the least.
Last night was our night out on the town, and the SIFAT Ecuador group took us to a nice dinner overlooking the city and then, the party bus. Tourism at it's finest. It was so hard to go and do these things knowing that Joel and his family might not have even had dinner last night. Here are a few photos from the night:
Please pray for this precious family that God will provide for them. Today is our last day of work. Please pray that we accomplish all we set out to do. Until tonight...
