#35 my life

Two teams left this morning. A team from Northside Assembly in Crowley, La. arrived. This church was with us from the beginning in 1989 and this is the first time to visit and we are not there.

The Florida team went on a medical outreach. The Arkansas team went to Antigua. Alabama cleaned and served ice cream and popcorn to the dorms. Dottie & I visited Linda. We had dinner with their son, Matt.

When the judge told me that I would have to learn Spanish, buy land, build dormitories and get government approval I began to cry. Dottie and I were 45 years old and doing everything the judge wanted me today meant it could be years before we would receive children. I began to cry!

As I cried the demeanor of the judge changed. Instead of being sarcastic she said, “If you are willing to do these things I can give you the paper work on Monday.” It was the longest and saddest weekend of my life. But I knew in spite of the hurdles God had called us to Guatemala.

I returned to the judge the following Monday and she gave me 4 children. The oldest was Angelina who would graduate from college. Angelina would be the child to call me “Papi” which is daddy in Spanish.

A couple of years later I saw the judge in a super market and asked her why she gave me the children. Her answer was “When I saw you cry I knew that you would love them. Those were the words that God had spoken to me twice before.

The first was when I was asked to begin a church in Lake Charles and I told the men that I could not do so because I had never been to seminary. God told me that I did not need a seminary degree because all I had to do was love them.

And the second time was when I was giving God all the excuses about why I could not be a missionary in Guatemala. He said I did not need those things such as land, etc. All I needed to do would be to love the children.