serving and giving back

Today, our church hosted a fiesta in an area of town that has many Guatemalan immigrants. It is an area of town that I don't get in to - not on my usual path, not a place I think to go. But as we drove through I realized how much I am missing by not going to this area more often.

We hosted a fiesta in a park- the church brought the games, food, music and groceries to give away.

bug and I were part of the team that played games with the kids or just played on the playground. Since we wore name tags to help identify the church members, I cannot show you many pictures of Bug. But here is our afternoon

he and another little man playing with the adults under the parachute. they were laughing and running back and forth- it was so fun to watch them.

Happy Little man- pointing out the hole in the middle of the parachute.

Playing some more

We ran the bean bag toss game - every one won just for playing. Bug was usually front and center pushing the bean bags into the hole- but he sat this one out (you can see his shoes in the corner) because he poured ice water into his shoe.

handing out a prize to 2 of the little girls. They were so cute- we saw them a few times during the day at various places in the park. I saw them at the end of the day and asked if they had a good time - I got the biggest smile from them and very enthusicastic "yeses" from them both.

Sings on the street corner

The fiesta

This guy made balloon animals all day long for the kids, on stilts. he was incredible.

Playing on the playground- we had a crowd here with us. The kids were just having a good time. One bad note- one little boy fell off one of the things and it looks like he broke his elbow. He was having such a great time playing, I felt so bad for him, that his day ended with a trip to the hospital. When he fell, I thought he hurt his tailbone, I did not even see his elbow hit the ground. Poor little guy.

Bug found the moto right away when we arrived. Yes, he was happy.

so that was out afternoon. Bug fell asleep in 10 minutes tonight. I asked him if he liked serving and he happily said YES!!! I had a good time serving too.

the day ended with our Church handing out grocery bags filled with items. There was a group of kids near me, the oldest asked me if kids could get the bag. I asked if his parents were at the park and he said no, but he had his 4 siblings with him. I went over and asked the guys in charge of handing out the bags, what we could do- they sent me back with 2 bags for the kids. Those kids were so grateful. I cannot tell you how humbling it was to know that 2 bags of groceries were more important to the kids- especially the 16 year old (the oldest).

it was great day- I had a great day serving. Today, I saw Jesus in so many faces and I got to be the hands and feet of Christ to some kids. It was awesome.

Love and hugs,

Deb