Villa Porvenir (The Up and Coming Village)

On June 12 I got up out of bed and went to the bathroom of my hotel and turned on the hot water and stepped into the hot shower. Because I had made this trip to the House of Hope before, I realized this would be my last hot shower for 23 days. Since then, I turn on the water of my shower and make some odd noises as I splash the freezing water onto myself and try to get every nook and cranny.
It is interesting the things that so many of us take for granted; hot water, turning on the sink and getting a glass of water, flipping a switch and having light and many other conveniences that we have grown accustomed to. We joined together with the group from South Parkersburg, West Virginia and journeyed a few miles into the lower mountains of Cochabamba to a little village called Villa Porvenir; the up and coming village. This is a place absent from many of the conveniences that I have become so reliant upon, but is a village which does not lack in joy or the spirit of Christ. There is a Pastor there who proclaims the word to his church of 100 to 150 every week. What is unique about his congregation is that its made up of primarily children; hence the name. In the 9th chapter of Matthew Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." An eye opening statistic that I obtained from www.bolhope.org web page is, Bolivia's poorest communities have an overwhelming 65% of children suffer anemia and are seriously below normal height for one's age. Part of ministry to this community included bathing almost 200 children whom ranged from one-year-old to early teens. We fed them warm soy milk, gave them a toothbrush, piece of gum, a card and a Zany band. The best part of this ministry was the interaction with the kids of the community. We tossed a ball around with them, wrestled them and loved on them every chance we got. The hardest part was that we ran out of water and had to turn away about 2o children.
I am very proud of Boyd and Bail because they showed such compassion to the children of the village. Baillie helped wash the babes while Boyden, Lizbeth (a friend we have made in Bolivia) and myself handed out the packages. I observed such a joy in the children of Villa Porvenir as they interacted with SPC and our family. Evangelist, David Ring, put it this way, "Contentment is not getting want you want, but wanting what you've got." So there is the question that I ask myself now, do I want what I've got and is it enough. Time here is making realize how important the blessing are that I have and if Christ would never do another thing for me, He has already done enough.