La Sagrada Familia Orphanage

The first thing that struck me when we were on our way to the orphanage, is how the country of Peru is literally filled with thousands of people who live in extreme poverty. When I say extreme, I am not exaggerating one bit! The "houses," more like shacks, that these people live in are maybe 20-25 feet by 20-25 feet. Most of those shacks are shared by two families, and when I say family, I don´t just mean mom, dad, and children, often times extended family live in there as well. To make matters worse, these shacks are often shared by 2 different families. There is usually only one bed per family... can you imagine sharing a bed with 4-8 people every night? The honest truth, is no we can´t, because most Americans have not experienced or seen EXtreme poverty. When I look out the window of our van each morning, I see an ocean of these shacks, and that just breaks my heart. Anyone who sees this vision can not help but try to blame God, by saying, "God why and how do you let Your people live in these horrible conditions?" However, we have to remember that He never intended for His children to live in these situations, but because we live in a fallen world, there is poverty and hunger. It is our duty as followers of Christ to humble ourselves, and go out and serve His people in any way we possibly can.

We are now on Day 3 with the children at La Sagrada Familia. In the morning, we spend time with children ages 1-3... after lunch we hang out with children ages 4-6. We sing songs, make crafts, play games, but we quickly found out that those children do not want to be put into some "planned out" schedule... they simply just desire to be held and loved on. Something that I found really intriguing is to figure out each of their personalities. I am constantly reminded of just how vast and incredible our God is, because He knew each of these little ones by name before they were even conceived. I have quickly realized that I could not have chosen a better way to spend part of my summer, because I believe that through serving God´s children, I am serving Him. God has truly blessed me with the opportunity to return to Peru. I already know that it is going to be extremely hard to leave these precious children at the end of the week, but I find comfort in believing that I have impacted each child´s life in some way, because I know that each of them will have a special place in my heart for the rest of time.