And this is the convention center, where they have conventions...

Kids are crazy.
One of the girls walked up to me today and said, "Miss! Miss! I remember the story from martes! It was about Abraham Lincoln!"
Uh, close. Muy cerca, querida...
I have to say, I love mornings. We have two sisters that come help out and bring their 5 year old sons with them, and they are just about the cutest things in the entire world. I ended up playing limbo with a tie with them in the clothing closet for a good twenty minutes this morning. Made my day. So, so cute. That, and I love, love, love Cristian and his family. He is just my new best buddy. Sweetest little nine year old ever. I really hope and pray him and his family wake up to a need for Christ. They seem to know most things, but I don't think the knowledge has reached the heart yet.
Anyway, I can't say that I feel like getting a teaching degree by any means, but I do feel like I'm inching towards being more comfortable with this.
I had about 12 boys and 4 girls today. I guess my only issue is that José, who constantly acts up, tends to bring a few of my other sweet, sweet niños with him.
I know something has to be wrong in his family situation. There's really no other way of explaining it. He doesn't react to discipline. I've gotten on to him all week for talking during the lesson, moving around, making jokes during the prayer... and taking his snack away twice hasn't worked. Ugh. I really don't want to have to get our director to talk to his parents. He needs this. I know he's desperate for attention..
So, be praying for him and that I can meet his needs and love him with God's love.
Aside from that, life at Joy has been pretty full of gozo :) We served the elderly this morning- painted nails, had a service for them, packed up bags of food for them, let them go through the clothing closet- and they are all just so cute haha. Gotta love them.
Tomorrow we start our preteen ministry and take group pics, so not too much there. Our other centers are having their block parties, but ours isn't until Saturday, so my group gets a bit of a breather. In a way. :) I'm coming to terms with a constant lack of breathing.
And to close out for this random little post, I just finished up Romans, and this passage stuck out to me a lot:

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peacefully with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by good, but overcome evil with good."-Romans 13:9-21

This passage was just so convicting to me where I'm at. The love these people need, from our niños to our preteens and teens right up onto our elderly, they all need genuine love. Most are in situations so terrible you can't even imagine, and some have surely never known the love of God. The notes for the first verse in my Bible say that "love cannot be reduced to sentimentalism." Just as it says in 1 John 3:18, we can't just love in word. We can't choose who and when to love. We need to love through deed, through a full understanding of the person, their hopes, their struggles, their vices, their needs-which is why I love this ministry so much. These people are so intentional, and they truly get to know community. They stay here, they get to know the people, and they love them with everything they have.
There is just so much in this passage.. it's so applicable to my life right now. Well, I'm sure it always will be, but it just hit me way hard today :)
This is why I'm here, if anyone's curious.
This is our calling.
Also, to the church we saw today with the cross tall enough that they use it as a monument to guide planes, I don't understand the parallel between this passage, the desperate people who flood our centers, and the obviously tens of thousands of dollars white pristine cross with a baptismal pool complete with fountains, floodlights, and twenty four hour guards watching it. My Jesus' cross was not white stone. It was rugged, filled with splinters, covered in his blood. It wasn't glimmering in spotlights, but instead, beaten down with the heat of the sun. It just breaks my heart. My kids shouldn't be suffering while this cross can be paid for. It makes no sense.
PS: I can't go without posting the entire passing on loving one another from 1 John 3. It just rocks my socks off:

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.-1 John 3:11-24

I don't know how anyone could read this and not be convicted. Just saying. Pretty big calling there.
So, that's basically what's on my mind right now.
And this:
"The disposition... to leave the dearest objects of our hearts in the sublime keeping of the general and unspecific belief that God is now answering our prayers in His own time and way, and in the best manner, involves a present process of inward crucifixion which is obviously unfavorable to the growth and even the existence of the life of self"- TC Upham
Definitely, definitely on my heart right now. I'm definitely being taught how to rely fully on God. Not a shadow of a doubt. But God's got a plan, and it's so much better than mine. If He was faithful to Abraham, to Joseph, to Deborah in their obedience, I'll trust Him and obey (can you tell which lessons we've been teaching? :)
Right o.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope"-Romans 15: 13
That's my prayer for you.