Mark with the family of his awesome Compassion child! Read below about their interactions together. What a gift!

Hello from Mineros!

Tuesday was filled with soccer and activities. We were very blessed to be able to use a soccer field directly across from the Compassion center. It has definitely been hot and humid but we are all doing well. The children are full of laughs and smiles and just want to be around us. Micah, Hannah, Jessie and Sophie have been great with all of the kids and it has been my pleasure to get to know them better.

After the soccer we were able to sing songs and do our skit for the kids. Greg definitely gets the Oscar for his role as the paralytic. Kerry is the master of gimp and the kids follow her around like the pied-piper! Levi has some skills on the soccer field and Kathy has been giving hugs to all the kids. Paige is a master with a frisbee and Mateo’s energy and passion for these children is infectious. Having James and Ivan San Martin with us has been a tremendous blessing. Both Ivan and James will help whenever asked and to watch them interact with our team and the children here is very special. You can see the love that Estaban and Evelyn have for the children and the church in everything they do. They are such gracious hosts and we are blessed to spend time with them.

I had the humble privilege of meeting my sponsor child today. His name is Linder and he is 7 years old.  I also met his father, grandmother, sister and younger brother. The smile on his face and the hugs that we exchanged are something I will never forgot. I feel so blessed to be able to sponsor Linder with my wife Joanne. I kept thinking of the scripture verse that says, “ to much that is given, much will be expected.”  We also met Kerry and Peggy’s sponsors today and the actually live right next to each other! Kerry had met her Compassion child a few years ago and when she saw her on Tuesday she ran out to give Kerry a hug. 

After an amazing dinner prepared by Elsa, we went up to the church service that started at 8pm! Linder and his family were there and so I decided to go sit with them. When I went over his face just lit up and even though my Spanish is poor we were able to just “be” together which was pretty cool. I shared about trusting God in all situations to the congregation and then Linder and I spent the rest of the service looking at each other’s Bibles. He was very curious about mine and so I used his family’s Bible to show him some of my favorite verses. He then underlined them, so I wrote out the reference in the front of the Bible. We basically spent the whole time looking at different verses and writing them in his Bible.  I shared Psalm 23 with him and wrote “marcos” next to it. He then took the pen and wrote, “linder” next to it!  Such a sweet child of God that I am blessed to be able to spend some time with. I am very excited to see him again on Wednesday for soccer!

Thank you to everyone for praying for all of us, it is definitely felt. Gracias a Dios por todos!

Dios Sabe, (God Knows)

Marcos