How He Loves

“He is jealous for me/ Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree/ Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy/ When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory/ And I realize just how beautiful You are An how great Your affections are for me.”

                                                                -Jesus Culture “How He Loves”

           

The day before we left for our first visit to Limon, a school located in the ghetto of Guatemala (known as La Limonada), I woke up early to do a devotional. In the devotional I found Jesus telling those gathered around Him that anyone who does work in His Father’s name would be in His family. It hit me that the people I was on this mission trip with would become part of my family from here on out; but what really struck me that morning were the lyrics from Jesus Culture’s version of “How He Loves.” That morning I felt the impact of the love that our God gives us even when we don’t feel like we deserve it. All I had heard prior to the trip were the horror stories of the children who lived in the ghetto that lived unimaginable live to us here in America. So I prayed that morning that God would allow us 12 gringos to go into this school and just show the kids the love that He gives us, since they don’t always get to experience that love.

La Limonada aka the ghetto

            Arriving at Limon was a culture shock. You drive down a hill into the ghetto, where houses are built so close together that they typically share two of their walls with neighbors and where the roofs are, in some cases, sheets of tin that look like they were just thrown on top of the concrete structures. Inside the school everything was hard, the only carpets were in the 3-5 year old classroom and Sofi, the psychologists, room upstairs; the children shared tables whereas here in America, we usually have desk all to ourselves.

     But the kids know no difference; they like what they have at the school and were enthusiastic to share their tables with the 12 of us. They were eager for us to share their space and wanted us to see everything they were doing. After hearing stories of fathers abandoning the family, mothers being gone at work all day, and brothers & sisters who are abusive to their younger siblings, I thought that the children wouldn’t want strangers to be getting so close to them due to the fact that they'd be unsure of how we’d treat them. I couldn’t have been more wrong, these children were starving for the attention that they received from us. They hugged us, clung to us, and even arm wrestled with us because they yearned for the personal touch that wasn’t harmful. The kids of Limon had a hunger to experience the love that God shows us.

My question is how could we deny them the love that the Father shows us daily? Often times it doesn’t take much to make someone’s day. It could be a smile, a nice comment, or even just a hello. For these kids down in La Limonada, they just wanted us to show them attention that they don’t receive at home usually.

Jacquelin with Travis

“There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning/ An when the oceans rage, I don’t have to be afraid, because I know that You love me/ Your love never fails.”                                        -Jesus Culture 

“Your Love Never Fails”

I heard the story of one of the kids at Limon recently and it completely broke my heart. Her name is Jacquelin she recently turned 10 years old on June 28^th.  Jacquelin hangs around Limon a lot because she doesn’t want to go home. Her mother is gone for 12 hours a day and if she is at home, her brothers and sisters abuse her. They hit her simply for the sport of it. She has nowhere else to go, except one of the few safe places that she knows: school.

While I was in Guatemala I remember seeing her each day we were there. She was hanging on a different person every day and looking for affection from anyone in our group. I recall selfishly thinking that it was annoying the way she clung to me and how she wanted more attention then the little kids. There is nothing I regret more right now than that train of thought! I told God that I wanted to show these kids love and the one that was seeking it the most received little from me. When we went to el campo, a gray rocky playground, I spun a lot of the kids around and they had the time of their lives. I remember Jacquelin being to big for me to spin her around by her arms, like the younger children, so she hopped onto my hip and I spun her for a minute or so. Dizzy is an understatement for what my head felt like, but each kid loved it.

How often do we neglect to show the love of God to those around us? I know that one thing I learned down in Guatemala is that I need to be friendlier with those in my life. I need to show His love through my actions and my words. There are people around us that need to receive the compassion that God shows us, and some of those people have no idea who God even is. But it is our job to show the world the love that our Lord shows us.

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