God's Work in my Heart

In Guarari, our second destination, we visited La Cuenca. La Cuenca literally means depression or hole in the ground. It was a camp for Nicaraguan refugees during the war, but now is home to their decendants. It is extremely poor. Houses are made out of sheet metal with dirt floors. The houses are the size of a bedroom and some mothers have 5 kids with no husband.  Some of the fathers that are around beat their wives or kids.

I've been asking God to soften my heart, to use me to a spread his love, and in La Cuenca God broke my heart.

We split up into groups, and each group had a large bag of food, water and toiletries. Each group gave the large bag to a family. My group visited Julie and her 5 kids. Carlos played the guitar, Joseph played the flute, and we sang Psalm 23 to them in Spanish.  We gave them the bag of food. The mother was so grateful and the kids were so happy. I gave all the kids long hugs. I was so amazed that a bag of food, water, and toiletries could cause such joy. I almost cried.

There was another family we gave food to and the mother was so overwhelmed with joy, she was crying. When I saw her, I began to cry too and gave her a huge hug. When it was time to go, I kissed her on the hand and said goodbye.  As we were walking back, I could barely walk.

God opened my eyes to the poverty of La Cuenca and I realized that almost no one from the outside world comes to visit them or acknowledges their existence.  They impacted my life as much as I impacted theirs. God taught me to be more grateful for all the blessings He has given me and to be more generous and giving.

Luke Horne