That was Yesterday

I´m drawing a blank on who sang that song ages ago... The majority of you will know it, though :)

I´d like to share with you what happened yesterday, in such a way that you would understand that 6 years of "detailing" interactions, confidence, trust, and relationship with street kids; 6 years of constancy and perseverance glued together by God´s faithfulness made yesterday possible. You remember Jefferson, Daisy, and Jessica...

Daisy took a little sandwich bag that had a piece of carrot-cake I had made down the sidewalk to the little girl who had followed us up, asking for hand-outs, which I told her I couldn´t give her. And Daisy wished her God´s blessing. When I had asked her to do me that favor, Daisy didn´t flinch or hesitate an instant. The rest of us waited on the corner.

Jessica stopped on the sidewalk to wait to greet a very special friend of hers,,, a full-grown man who is exactly as tall as she is (she´s about 7 years old, and little).

Jeff took the $20 I gave him, using just $8 (of the $10 I allowed him) to buy lunch for the 3 of them. He prayed (some encouragement needed) for the meal, and instructed us all in "stopping" and "going" with all the traffic on our way to the park. (With a little guidance), he also used $1 to buy a bag of candy from our new friend, Ximena, and then went to share his purchase with the "tougher" group of Iñaquito kids we had just passed and greeted. (They actually accepted his offer!). The three of us went down to the park to play puzzle games, and later Guillermo (from the Iñaquito group) and Ximena (from the candy lady) had joined us. 3 different families represented there, but all sharing the games, laughing to find out they could do them, and really just having a great time... not even noticing they were from 3 different worlds.

When I mentioned to Jeff, Daisy, and Jess on the way back that I had to stop for groceries, they offered to help me shop. So we shopped, treasure-hunt style :) They looked for milk boxes that said "Nutra-leche", eggs that were medium-sized and cost less than $2, wheat bread that actually had dietary fiber (can you believe I gave them that one? heehee), and the 5 of the reddest apples they could find, etc. etc. For a few basic items, I asked them to put a portion aside for their own family,,, and each time I did, Jessica said "thank you, Michelle". Somehow she also noticed when I put my loaf of bread back so they could keep theirs when we were checking out... Jeff made sure the girls helped out carrying bags, but everyone was already tired by the time we got up to the street with the heavy milk and vegetables,,, so when I asked him if he thought we should walk all the way back or use that last $1 (of the $10 I had given him earlier) to grab a cab (and the girls unanimously said "yeeeessss" to hear "cab"), he decided that would probably be a good idea. He instructed me to sit in front with the driver, and the 2 girls to get in back with him. And he handed that last dollar to the cab-driver when we got to where we needed to go.

Wish you could have seen them skipping/running down the sidewalk back to their parents when we got to Villalengua and Veracruz.

I´m thankful for yesterday :)
M