Jesus didn't travel with a suit case

I am sure you can all remember the anticipation you had as a child for gift "receiving" events like Christmas and birthdays. I am sure you also can remember the gifts you were excited to get and the ones you kinda worried about? For me, the ones I worried about were the gifts I got from my grandparents....You know the ones?....On Christmas morning knowing "man, this is going to be socks or underwear or something, but secretly hoping it would be something really cool!" Or the aunt who always got you something crazy......Like a Chia
Pet(remember those?!!!)





Yesterday the group that is here went to the Hospital Esquela. It is the public hospital of Tegucigalpa. It was a bit different than a normal visit in which we pack up our backpacks and spend the day visiting, praying, encouraging and passing out goodies to the kids.
Instead today Mark had the group pack the boxes of clothes that had come down on the container onto the bus to distribute to the children in the hospital. The families that are at this hospital are there because they have no money for medical care which translate, they have no money.
We set up a distribution center on the bus and sent groups of people into the hospital to gather information on the children in each bed. Ward by ward..Room by room the group would come and tell us.."I have a girl age 5, a boy age 15 etc... And we would pull clothes for them and it would get delivered to the children. We also passed out toys and candy etc...
I was one of the ones on the bus pulling clothes, which by the way was a ton of fun!!! I loved looking for cute outfits for all the kids!( but I am sill amazed at what people send....Who sends stained clothes to give away???) As the groups would come in and out they would share with us the amazing children they were meeting and their great needs. One of the stories I heard was of a little boy who when receiving some candy was very happy and thankful but when new clothes were brought to his bed he began to cry and held them as if they were worth a million dollar!!!
Life circumstanced can create different attitudes for receiving gifts.
For us, I would dare say, there is nothing that we "need" that we don't have or can not get for ourselves. But for the children here that is not the case. To have more than one shirt or pair of pants (why do we call pants a pair , anyway..Just a thought?) is a luxury. Shoes...Not a given!!
Have you ever stood in front of your closet with rows and shelves of clothing and shoes and said..yup you know..."I have nothing to wear" I have ...I hope I never say it again with out thinking of this little boy!!!
Jesus did not travel with a suit case and he told those he called "leave everything and follow me" HMMMMMMM