On being homesick for an unseen home
I wasn’t going to post today, but the blog habit dies hard. As you may recall, Karen and I coach a World Race team.
I ran across this post from Sara Ellis and these pics and some stories from Natalie Montgomery (two members of the squad we coach), and I had to share them.
As we stepped into the lives and homes of the children here, many of us were overcome with a homesickness we could not explain. At first we attributed it to the downtime, the transition, the endless days of rice and beans, but none of that could explain away the longings of our true hearts.
After several days of this dark cloud, something became clear to me: these children are homesick too. Homesick for a place they don´t remember, a place that never existed, but a place that is very real in every child´s soul.By making me homesick, God could show me something about these children that they could never express to me through their youth and the language barrier, but it is something very real and heart breaking.
Each of the kids at CICRIN longs to be loved without limit, to be lavished upon with praise, and until coming to live here, this was something they never experienced.
Each of them wants so badly to have a home that is permanent and steady, but they started their young lives in places that where more broken and painful than any child should ever experience.
So that is what we are called to this month; to love well. Sometimes that looks like doing laundry or dishes. Sometimes it ischanging little clothes and tucking kids in at night. Mostly it has looked like hugs and smiles and spinning little girls around so they know that they are beautiful.It has looked like sitting in a hammock, having a broken English/Spanish conversation just to make sure this or that child knows they matter and that we care. God loves really well, and if we can rub even a little of that off onto these beautiful
children, then it will be a month well done. Loving well starts from being well loved.
Ellsa (20) was raised by her mother and abusive father. Her father hit her mother. She showed me a scar on her arm where he nicked her with his machete. Ellsa and her sister Maria Loiussa (16) came to Cicrin when their mother could no longer take them to work. Ellsa was ten.
This might explain why she puts everything in her mouth and eats each meal as if it were her last.
It is truly a gift to be here.
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I’ve been following these guys a bit… great team. Praying for them, and for you and Karen as you coach them.
“…these children are homesick too. Homesick for a place they don´t remember, a place that never existed, but a place that is very real in every child´s soul. ”
Wow! I work with women coming out of prison and/or rehab. This is the most achingly precise expression of thier life experience. Now that I think more, it probably describes the burden of many of us with ‘unfinished’ childhood business. It’s an awesome insight. Thanks for sharing this.
Pat