Day 8 and Beyond

We had a truly blessed week in Colima, and I'm filled with gratitude for our jam-packed and all-too-short time at Hogar de Amor.

I am grateful for the time we got to spend with the kids playing games and doing crafts and eating so much great food. I am grateful for the time we got to spend with the caregivers sharing stories and hugs and laughing together and, yes, also eating (we do a lot of eating). I am grateful for the tasks we were able to complete to make the houses more comfortable and more beautiful. I am grateful for our time as a team, caring for each other, getting to know each other, and serving each other.

Every time we come, God does something different in each of us. This trip, as we were hiking down the canyon river on Thursday enjoying time in the jungle and in God's beauty and with people we love, I was struck with a beautiful lesson. 

I was thinking about the word "to wait" in Spanish, esperar. I was thinking about how this trip was categorized by waiting. The team waited 18 months to be able to take this trip. The caregivers waited and waited for the pandemic restrictions to lift - for the kids to be able to be back in school, for the homes to be out of lockdown, for other volunteers to be able to come and relieve these caregivers who work so hard. The kids have waited for their families to get healthy, waited for the next chapter in their stories. The staff has waited on donations to come, hoping that they would be able to pay the bills as the pandemic affected every aspect of their community. 

So much waiting. 

And yet there's something very cool about the word esperar. Not only does it mean "to wait," but it also means "to hope." The same word that you'd use to say "wait over here" you'd also use to say, "I hope we have a white Christmas." Waiting and hoping. Waiting in hope. How cool is it that the words are one and the same in Spanish?

It made me think of one of my favorite verses:

We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.

Psalm 33:20-21

God does beautiful things in us through our active, hopeful waiting. I think part of the reason that this trip was so special was that we waited so long for this reunion with our Hogar de Amor family.

And now the cycle of hopeful waiting begins anew as we plan and anticipate our spring trip. Waiting, hoping, esperando.