Time...

I like that we sit down for an hour to eat lunch. I like that we all gather around four or five for coffee and pan dulce (sweet bread). I like that there is time to know people. I like that an entire family and friends can go out for desert, and if someone can`t pay, then they are still invited and someone else covers it. Family is very important here, and it´s beautiful.
But...
This is part of what makes abandonment even more pronounced. If someone is sick or hurting, it is the families job to step in. If the family doesn´t for whatever reason, then that someone is truly abandoned with very few resources to offer care.
I have spent this past week visiting the few places here that try to cover that separation. There are so many. Women who wait in prison for a sentence for years because the justice system is so slow. The house of immigrants where children, yes children ages 5 to 18 wait for their family to come get them. This house is for children who were caught in the States, or in Mexico trying to get there. Some children are sent, by their parents, to Mexico to sell Chicle because they are so poor. This morning we visited a home for twenty orphans. Four just got there this week. They are there because they were in another home for children where they were abused. Last night we played soccer with some of the shoeshine boys, some looked as young as ten.
Are you overwhelmed yet? I am too. There are so many people here desperate for love. Desperate to know they are not alone. As a team we are having to pick and choose where we will focus, and it´s difficult. I know I need to trust God that he will carry what I cannot.
Please pray for us in the coming weeks that our presence here really would make a difference, and that God´s love would shine through us.