We woke up early to join our main students’ moms and a few of our students preparing sandwiches, drinks, and snacks for about 200 people. We got everything packed up and piled into the back of pickup trucks. The mayor sent us trucks so that we could take the 100 food buckets up the mountain. The drive up the mountain to the little school in the town of Agua Xarcas took about an hour and a half. The 2 villages that live at the top of the mountain had to walk an hour down the mountain where we had trucks waiting for them. The mountain is very dangerous and felt almost vertical at times. Even the trucks had a hard time staying on the dirt road and couldn’t make it all the way to their villages so they met them halfway. From the meeting point they were driven another hour to meet us at the little school.
We all met at the school and got to play soccer, color pictures, eat lunch, and just hang out together. Jes got to share about Jesus with 3 different classrooms completely filled with children and their parents. Every single person raised their hands that they wanted Jesus in their hearts and all of them prayed. It was an amazing moment to see people with so much faith in God. It wasn’t even a hesitation for them.
After getting to be with them for hours, we handed out the T-shirts that our incredible friends made with us. Some of the left over shirts were too big for any of the children but their parents asked us if they could have the shirts to use as blankets since they get so cold at night up in the mountains. I mean…wow…that is the poverty that they endure. They were so grateful for a t-shirt to use as a blanket (We made a mental note to bring them blankets next time). When each family received their bucket of food they were in shock. One of the women told us that she would have walked twice as far down the mountain just for a pound of sugar. The people were so beautiful and thankful for everything. We were so grateful that they opened up their school, homes, and lives to us.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped with the T-shirts and donated for the food buckets. I wish that I could fully describe to you how much it all meant to them, but you’d have to see the looks on their faces to really know. Thank you so so so much.