I just got back from Guatemala with Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.  As usual for the teams, the Children’s program was one of the highlights.   They averaged over 200 kids a day in a very poor neighborhood.

Sometimes I wonder what long term results come out of these Children’s programs.  Each team puts on one of each project.  As I thought about it, two things come to my heart.  First, this helps the national church evangelize the neighborhood.  Doors that probably would not have been open to the local church are now open.  We may not see the results but I have been told over and over again that this is part of the impact.

Secondly, kids are able to be kids for a short time.  Poor kids do not get a lot of time to simply be kids.  Several years ago one of our staff asked a six year old girl, “What is your favorite food?”  She looked up at Mike and responded, “Do you mean to cook or to eat?”   How many of our kids would respond like that?  None.  The kids will be in their poverty when we leave.  Their families will continue to struggle.  But we gave these kids some time to be kids for a week.  I think that God is happy about that.

Blessings,

Steve Reed

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.