Homeschooling on a Mission: Feeding the children

I was speaking to a friend of mine today, trying to explain why we were still here in Nicaragua. I couldn’t explain it exactly or give him the plan we had going forward. All I know is that Tony and I are both very excited about the work being done here with the children.

Yesterday we attended church at the chapel here at the orphanage. It was not really planned; it just happened that there were too many of us this week to fit into the vehicles. The children and young ladies looked so beautiful in their dresses. Two of them sported the braids that I put in for them.

Tony and our new friend Rebecca played the keyboard and led worship….well you could imagine how awkward it must have been for them as they had about 5 minutes of practice. As soon as church was over Tony looked over at me and asked if I was going to make fun of him, to which I said “of course”

After service we prepared to go to a feeding center that New Hope provides food to.

It was an awesome experience. When we arrived, there were women in the cooking area preparing food. They had Rice, fried soy patties, pita like bread and a salad. The children lined up with their bowls or plates that they brought with them and a cup for drink. We were to be the servers so we got our spoons and prepared for the line of children.

I was told that this was the only meal that some of these children received all day, so I wanted to fill their little bowls to the rim. This would have been a disaster as there were many children and only a specific amount could be allotted to each one.

When each had received their meal, we scraped the bottom of the rice pot and gave out the crunchy rice on the bottom. They enjoyed this and I thought of my Haitian mom who would always offer the bottom of the pot to me as a kid. I would never eat it and she would say how much of a treat it was for her when she was little.

We talked with the kids a bit and they played for a while after eating. Some took their food and walked home.

After much talking with the children, parents and pastors of the church/feeding center we got back in the van and headed back to New Hope. My heart was full, seeing the kids so happy and appreciative made my day.