Best Day Yet

Today was our most incredible day yet in Chile!  We got to go to Hogar, the government-run orphanage in La Pintana.  Thanks for your prayers!  For the first three weeks we've been here it was hard to get in - now, we're in!  We got to do kids' church there today, which was so cool.  Daniel and his wife Jessica got us in and translated English to Spanish for us.  Wow, do they ever know how to work with these girls!  The girls all know them and ran to give them hugs - and us too, since we've been there all week.

Only about 20 of the 74 girls are at Hogar right now.  The rest are with a family member or guardian for a two week winter break.  The girls still at Hogar have had so many bad things happen to them in their family and with guardians that visitation rights of the parents has been taken away.  These girls are so in need of love.

We sang "Hallelu" together in Spanish, with our iPod and mini-speaker (a small round, portable speaker about 2" in diameter and 2" high - but powerful).  The girls loved this!  We set up a competition where the kids would sing "Hallelu" and the parents would sing "Praise to the Lord" to see who was louder.  The girls were easily louder than the four of us adults.

Our family then did a skit.  Greg pretended to be God, and I was the narrator from the sidelines.  In the beginning God created the earth and everything in it - the land, the sea, the animals and everything in it.  Then He created us (Noah and Wil were "the people").  People got to live with God in His special place - life was perfect (Greg, Noah and Wil hugged each other and held hands).  But people started being mean to each other and doing bad things (Noah and Wil pretended to fight).  The girls thought this was really funny, and I had to step in after a few minutes of "pretend fighting" that started to go a little too far.  <Sigh>  It must be innate that boys like it when girls think they are funny.  Anyway, God could not be with the people when they did bad things (Greg stepped off to the side away from Noah and Wil).  The people missed God and asked Him what they could do to be in God's special place again.  God said, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do."

But God missed the people, so He thought of a plan.  He sent Jesus (played by Griff) to go and love the people and pay the price for all the bad things they had done - past, present and future.  The people loved Jesus (Griff, Noah and Wil hugged each other).  Jesus healed the sick and showed us what real love looks like.  But not everyone loved Jesus - and they killed Jesus by hanging Him on a cross.  That was God's plan - Jesus paid for all the bad things people had done while on the cross, and then rose from the dead three days later.  Because Jesus came, we can now be with God in His special place again - if we believe Jesus came to cover our sins.  Griff was a bridge between Greg and Noah and Wil to show what this looks like.  It's a choice - all we need to do is ask.  And God's special place is not just heaven after we die - it's here on earth too.  With God we are always a winner no matter what!  We're guaranteed victory.  Two girls today decided they wanted to have Jesus in their life, and that was super cool!!

After kids' church Daniel and Jessica asked if we wanted to go down the street to Casa Esperanza (where the older girls live) and make lunch together.  That was so much fun!  Greg and Daniel went to the store to get stuff to make pizza with, and when they came back we made pizzas together as families and with one of the girls still at Casa Esperanza (most of the girls at Casa are on winter break, but one incredible young woman does not have break and it was so fun to be with her today).  Daniel and Jessica are such a blessing to be around.  It was so fun to learn more about their life and all the amazing things God is doing through them.

It was raining last night and today, probably about 2-3" the weather forecasters thought.  So we wore our rain gear as we traveled to and from La Pintana.  It was just a little above 40 degrees today, and most of the buildings in the city do not have heat.  Our apartment does have heat, so when we got home we were glad to be warm and dry.

Sunday is a big day for us.  One of the churches in La Pintana asked us to come and pray for the sick in their congregation at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time.  We would cherish your prayers - that people would be healed and see God in a new way, as their incredible creator who loves them so very much.

Tenga buen fin de semana!  (Have a good weekend.)  Thanks for reading our blog!