We Heard God's Voice!

I remember it as if it was yesterday....I was sitting in the living room of a good friend/Bible study leader conversating about life when I suddenly told her, "we (our couples' class) should do a missions trip. She loved the idea right away and started to wonder what it'd be like. The following sunday happened to be "Missions Week" at our church. As My husband and I made our way around the tent full of amazing displays of missions/missionary we sunddenly stumbled upon Joe and Rosie Nix who greeted us with a warm smile and a firm hand shake. They opened their hearts and shared with us what it's like to be in their shoes as the directors of a Mexican Orphanage called Ninos de Bajas in El Porvenir, Mexico. I was thrilled to see how much God had used them to bless so many children. I suddenly felt a tug in my heart and became extremely excited with the thought of going! I couldn't believe that just a week before we had been saying, "we should" and thinking "where to" and now God had answered both questions! Amazing! We knew we had alot of work ahead of us to raise the funds to go so I immediately took action. We had 3 very successful yardsales, sold candy bars, coffee and cinammon rolls, recycled cans, and kept an eye out for donated items that we could take down. Now while God was providing, satan was also at work. He was not happy at all with this trip. People were fearful, concerned, doubtful due to all the violence/crime that was going on accross the border. We kept having people insist that we watch the news, endless phone calls that we should cancel, a myriad of comments that we should postpone BUT the more we heard the more excited we became and the more we knew we had to go. There was so much peace in our hearts. We immediately thought of Paul in the Bible. How many times did God kept him save in adversity? He had joy in trials and that's the attitude, the spirit we wanted and felt that we needed to have before the LORD! We knew that this was our calling and that we would be protected. My husband told me a week before we left on our trip, "If God isn't moving, why should we?" WOW, my heart rejoiced to see how God was shaping/molding/strengthening my husband to be a man of God he was intended to be. This has been by far the biggest step of faith, other than our salvation, in our spiritual walk! On April 3, we packed the truck and off we went. On our way down we noticed the sky,God was lighting the way! (You can see the picture up top) He was going before us removing every form of evil. We smiled from ear to ear as we knew we were being led:D

Our time at the orphage was humbling, amazing, a true blessing! We thought we were going to love on the kids...were we in for a surprise...they hugged us, kissed us, fought for our lap, sang songs to us, did tricks for us and even gave us colored pages, a bracelet things that had alot of meaning to them! They told us they wanted to come home with us. It was so touching! We were able to hear some of their stories and til this day I still can't believe what these kids have had to endure in sucha short life: neglect, drugs, verbal, sexual, physical abuse, abandonement. And these kids had some of the most beautiful and biggest smiles ever...so much joy! It really makes you think twice before you have the nerve to complain. One little girl had a third degree burn on her little leg from her dad constantly burining her with a candle yet ironically every time I took a picture of her she would sing, "Hi, hi how are you, I am good, I am GOOD" Another little girl told me she loved mevery much because I looked like her mom. I later came to find that she hadn't seen her mom in years. Another lil girl told me she wanted to be my daughter...talking about wanting to cry. It's just amazing how God used us to love on these kids and show them that there is hope. We were quiet honored and so humbled. If you ever have the chance to go to an orphanage go..you won't regret it. The children are healed through every hug, every kind word, every smile. I did Easter themed crafts with the children and my husband fixed things around the orphanage such as hooking up a dryer. But I have to tell you the time that we spent loving on these kids was the best! We even went to church with them! Three of them had given their lives to Christ the week before and we had the privaledge of seeing them worship our Lord and Savior with so much joy! Ninos de Baja will always have a special place in our hearts..we will never be the same again! It was hard too hard to break their lil hearts and say goodbye so the night before I simply hugged and kissed all 14 children. It was so hard to hold back the tears and now we pray for the beautiful children we met! God protected us like HE promised and blessed us beyond measure! Below are all the pics we took. Enjoy!