The Two Houses

The week has been pretty amazing thus far. To end the week, we started the day with a devotion after breakfast led by Tom, the director of Portantorchas. The passage we covered was Matthew 7:24-29 regarding Jesus' parable about the two houses, one built on the rock and the other built on sand.

We've probably all have heard the story before, but not sure if this angle has been taken yet. Who ever thinks that they're building their house on the sand? We like to always think we're the ones building on the rock. Can we really build on the rock? This was one of the points that stood out. Without Jesus in our lives we cannot. Therefore, we can look at the passage as that we are the house, but Jesus is the builder if we let Him. Another take home message that stood out to me was that we don't actually know what our house is built on until the rain comes aka trials in our lives. The passage talks about the rain coming (and it will eventually!) and washing one away. We'll be able to tell how we're built through our seasons of rain.

So ongoing with this view for the day, we proceeded back to Excelencia Familiar, the children's home. Being the third day there, and learning different things each day, I feel we're being able to start to build some sort of relationship with the tias (aunts) and the children. The tias are really the servants here not us. I feel that we're lucky to be given the opportunity to serve the otherwise "invisible" heroes here. The tias take care of about 10 children each ranging from the ages of 1-14 years old. I've heard that 1 child is a full time job already.

We continue to beautify the home by painting literally from the floor to the roof and everything between. I had the duties of the ceiling (by default due to my height) and today was the roof. Carlos (one of the students who came back to Portantorchas) and I paired up to take on the big task. Over here, there are probably less policy and procedures in terms of safety and neither is the Newsong treX team have any professional painting experience :). On the roof, I was able to observe Carlos, whom is a very hard worker, but also patient with us, and a teacher as well. His English is broken, probably less so than my Spanish, but we're able to communicate and share together. In doing so, it's almost like the iron sharpening iron parable in two different languages yet achieving the same positive result.

Throughout the past few days, a few thoughts come to mind. I've met people from around the world here. At Portantorchas, students from all over the world come here for a semester or multiple semesters to study the bible to further the kingdom through ministry or missions later on. There's people here from Germany, various parts of the US, Peru, etc. Eventually, God's word is taken to whichever corner of the planet they came from. Even the story of how Portantorchas came to be is pretty amazing (which would be a whole post in itself). As for the orphanage, Excelencia Familiar, what goes on there is pretty essential for the kids. The children are basically saved from otherwise poor situations in which they would not have a fighting chance to thrive. They are abandoned, abused, neglected and are relocated by the US equivalent of the Department of Child Services to homes such as this. What makes this place special are the people. From the director, Nathan, who has moved from Houston, Texas to basically dedicated his life for the past few years to help run the child shelter, but the tias who actually do the caring and genuinely love the children. What makes this place different than other places are that these tias who care for the children have God's love in their lives and are able to let it flow outward to the children. In addition, there have been previous mission trips that have helped developed and improve the houses and land where the children live, learn, and grow. Therefore, building a house on rock.

We eventually wrapped up our Friday singing and dancing with kids with one of the songs we learned and practiced the hand and body motions. The kids joined in with us jumping, singing, and dancing in freedom. Even the tias got into it. It was videotaped so everyone will probably be able to see this sometime in the future and see our "dancing" skills.

Time is flying by here and hope to update more as we go.