This is the second post in my most recent series Compassion Sundays. In this series I am posting interviews and stories from fellow bloggers who sponsor children through Compassion International whose mission is to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.
Today I get to share a beautiful story written by Kim about her experience meeting her sponsored child Luz Maria in Honduras.
Picking Staples, Scrubbing Mud
Underneath my fingernails is Smurf-blue mud.
It is our first day at Mount Zion Christian Church in Villa Verde, Honduras…a church with adobe walls, a tile roof, and a resident lawn-mowing calf in the church yard.
From the buildings on the upper level, you can see forever down over Gracias, Lempira–and forever stretching up to the top of Celaque, the highest mountain in Honduras, on whose incline the church sits.
It is like we have entered another world, teleported back 100 years through some portal on the dry-river bed road that winds up from the quiet town of Gracias.
In this world, the inhabitants stand about a foot shorter than your average American.
In this world, the only noises are the lowing of cattle, the slow squeaking of a rusty see-saw, and the off-key voice of a missionary singing “I’m only happy when it raaaiiiinnnsss….”
It is a world I have dreamed about–the world inhabited by my dear sponsored child, Luz Maria. As I stand on a chair in the adobe church, I try to imagine her growing up here, doing life here. It is our job to repair and repaint the mud walls of the church, inside and out. Our first goal is to prep the walls for painting…removing posters and tape and staples. My job was pulling staples…staples that had been painted over and encrusted into the mud walls…each staple evidence of a celebration in the life of God’s church in Villa Verde. Sometimes, I see graffiti that some bored-church going child has inscribed for posterity. I shiver.
Pulling staples is not a glamorous job. It is not a job that gets noticed or a job that deserves a “Way to go!” It is slow and tedious. Time after time, I climb up and down, stretch high and low. My eyes never quite adjust to the blue of the walls. I develop a system of launching the staples from the wall with a trowel.
I finish just in time to head outside into the Honduran mid-morning sun, rewarded with my first look at a few Honduran girls whose mothers had come to work at the Compassion Project. All the time, I wonder if she will be coming up the road…
Job two for the day is slightly less glamorous. I begin washing the mud splatters from the outside walls of the church. I must say, there is a shocking lack of water hoses and pressure washers. This job involves schlepping buckets of water up and down the stairs from the shower and using a wet dish rag and elbow grease to scrub the stubborn red splotches from the wall. It isn’t easy. Some of the splotches are high up on the wall. They come off more easily when a sopping rag is squeezed on top of them. I discover that when this is done, I can scrub the spot off and leave less dishrag on the wall. Unfortunately, when the rag is squeezed, a muddy waterfall runs down my arm all the way to the armpit.
Mid-squish…
And a slender form comes around the corner.
I do a double take, and before I can even think, a girl…MY girl, has launched herself into my arms, wet armpits, blue fingernails and all. And all the world is joy.
When we let go, it becomes Jonathan’s turn…Luz is dragged around the church and my husband practically jumps from the top of a 12-foot ladder and receives his very own launching hug.
By the way…I hate to tell you this, but you have never been hugged properly unless you have been hugged by Luz Maria.
For the rest of the afternoon, we scrub mud splotches together. We eat lunch and laugh. We take time for a few heart to hearts…and for a little while, I am a part of her world, part of her every day life. What a gift!
You know, sponsorship is kind of like pulling staples out of the wall or scrubbing mud splotches. In the grand scheme of things, our sponsoring Luz is like scrubbing one mud splotch of poverty and sadness off of the world’s wall. We pull out one staple while 1,000 more are being hammered in. It can seem insignificant. It can seem long and tedious…like you will never see results…
Until you are holding your little piece of the world in your arms. Until you are seeing that your “staple” is a life–so vital, so precious, so warm, and loving, and alive–a great resource in the hands of God Almighty.
– Kim Hall is a blogger over at Three Little Larks.
You can also read about Hannah and Mbula in Post 1 of this series Compassion Sundays.
This post is linked up over at… Smart Schoolhouse , Sincerely Paula , With A Blast ,Cornerstone Confessions , Social Media Saturdays , Laugh & Learn Link Up , Castleview Academy, Education Possible , All Things With Purpose , Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop, Bowl Full Of Lemons, Jennifer Dawn, Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth
Beautiful. Kim, I love your way with words. And it’s so true that that one child matters….and we can make a difference.
I’m always reminded of the call God gave Katie Davis of Kisses from Katie…to love one person at a time…certainly makes the world smaller to think of it that way.