Hey friends and family,
We made it to Buena Vista yesterday afternoon and are settled in. We pretty much hit the ground running (ok, minus the slow walk up the very steep hill). We got to meet the Rhinos…we introduced ourselves in Spanish (which I think the boys found pretty entertaining), and then we got to interview a smaller group of boys about the things they like to do and introduce them to the rest of the SCC team. Definitely a test of my Spanish skills!
We also got to go and meet the families of a couple of the boys yesterday. Maria, mom of 2 of the boys…and 11 children total, has really bad arthritis. She said she’s been dealing with the pain from that for something like 18 years. Her husband works a lot of pay for her treatment. This is a situation that really points out how different things are here versus the US: Maria was talking about the medicine and injections that were prescribed to her….she hasn’t seen a doctor in 7 years, but is still refilling off of that same prescription. No follow up appointments or evaluation.
We also had our hearts broken a little bit. One of the boys was sent as a small child to go live with his grandmother because his mom remarried and the new husband didn’t accept the kids. Mom still lives in the community….we met mom yesterday after hearing this story. Honestly, it was really hard to not feel angry at her, and was a big prayer point for a lot of us yesterday.
Today we’re hanging out with the boys and will be out in the community again. During our quiet time this morning, I was reading about Elijah and how he stood out on the mountainside waiting for God to come by. There was an earthquake, there was a fire, and there was strong wind, but it was in that gentle whisper that he came by. Pray that our team would be sensitive to hearing that whisper and responding to it as we serve in the Buena Vista community.
Love y’all!
Lauren
PS: someone please tell Nick Schultz that we need baby wraps in the latechurch nursery. I saw a fussy baby get wrapped up, and he was asleep in literally 30 seconds. A.maz.ing.
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