In addition to imagining a bus ride over the Andes with chickens on my lap, I imagined myself being Bob the Builder in a female version, while leading this Short Term Missions Trip for Compassion International. The problem with this fantasy is that I have zero skills using a hammer and honestly, I don’t think Bob and I have any resemblance to each other.   Needless to say I haven’t used a hammer this week at all; in fact my job has been to keep things moving along and to help clean the benches at the church.  It’s a simple project for the hammer challenged person. I must admit that when the Compassion kids arrive at the church for lunch everyday, those benches aren’t so interesting and something else gets my attention.  Want to guess what?

Usually when I have traveled with Compassion, we visit different church projects everyday.  This trip is a bit different in that I am with two church groups from the US  to work at one Compassion church project for the entire week.  It’s a part of the Church to Church program that Compassion has recently implemented.  The cool part about this trip is we get to stay in one place and make friends. It’s a neat feeling to drive away from the project knowing that tomorrow you get to come back to these sweet faces.

Today, I gave away the shoes that my daughter Isabel collected from her ministry called, “Shoes for Kids”.  First I gave a pair to this sweet baby.  I found out that there is a great need for shoes for the little ones, so Isabel and I will need to get busy and get some shoes for little feet.

Then I gave some shoes to the children in this family.   This little girl is sponsored by one of our team members. Allan Spiers took these photos for me because I could not be at the home visit (he happens to be an excellent photographer and videographer from Colorado Springs).

I gave the majority of the shoes to the project director to give to kids who needed them the most.  She was so grateful.  I told her about my daughter, Isabel, and she told me she would have the church pray for Isabel Rose.  She wrote her name down so she would remember her name….and of course that made me cry.  Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a sap, but for some reason the idea of this Peruvian church praying for my child  felt overwhelming, humbling and wonderful.  Now they want Isabel to come visit.

As always, there is such a wonderful feeling about hanging out with these precious kids.  Their affection, their hugs, their precious eyes, their giggles, when they play with my hair, when they touch my skin, when they kiss my cheek, I feel like it comes straight from Heaven. It makes me feel like there is a big God who weaves this world all together…. and sometimes we get to see a perfect picture of  ………

HIS LOVE.