Here is my “story” for the past two days.
Yesterday we visited a men’s rehab and it was great to see how the broken people have been restored by God’s love. Some were killers, some were robbers, some were drug addicts, and some were all three. What was great to see was when we sang our song, they sang right along with us and even sang more when Mike (one of our leaders) came up by himself to sing. Then we shared some great testimonies by Austin and one of the adults at the rehab, Christian. They ended up having very similar testimonies and connected to each other after our little service. After we played soccer and they were really good… I personally knew how to stand them up and not let them past me but you can ask Lebron James about how much success can come from a one man team. In other words, I was the only one to score on a Mexican.
The next day we went to paint at an orphanage. We played with them most of the day while painting an entire building where the younger kids stay. It was a great experience to see the joy the kids have here and how God is already at work. A few moments I remember are when Haley was simply just holding a 5-year-old kid named Alberto. There was nothing to it, she we just holding him while sitting on a bench but you could tell on his face that he was just peacefully resting in her arms like a child would in his own mother’s arms. Another sense of joy I experienced was playing tag with a little girl. For about 20 mins we played and she only wanted to play with me! The group was trying to sing so I brought her over but she kept dragging me away from everyone so we could play. It was a great connection we made that was similar to one 2 siblings could have. We are all excited to go to another orphanage tomorrow to feed them lunch then a woman’s rehab center to sing, share testimonies, and paint some nails. Who knows, maybe Corey, Jordan, and I will get our nails done too.
Tomás Carradero, freshman from San Jose, CA 😉