in their words

Today's blog is not in our words, but in the words of the people we were with today:

At devotions this morning, Ashley Ancona read from Exodus 3:9-12, where Moses asked God, "Who Am I?" Ashley encouraged us: "Each of you chose to go on this trip. Maybe you're asking God, 'Who am I, that You would use me?' But if you hadn't chosen to go on this trip, there would be one less block laid, a child who wasn't played with, a leper who may not be touched." Ashley also read Mark 1:40-42, "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the leper..." "Today," Ashley said, "we will be able to walk like Jesus walked and be with the people He was with. If you weren't on this trip, someone would not experience your touch."

At the leper hospital, the doctor who has ministered to the patients there for 32 years talked with us before we saw the patients. "Your visit is very important to these patients. When you leave, they continue to think about the Americans. Your visit makes them feel like human beings. Not many people visit them because of the stigma of the disease. They rejoice when you come....This day, January 3, 2013, is registered in heaven as the day you visited Christ Himself."

After we moved furniture into the home we completed this week and dedicated the home for Anna (a single mom) and her children, Anna said, "I will use this house to bless others and bring glory to God."

As we prepared to leave Cielo for the last time this week, there were not many words...just tears and hugs and long good-byes.