29 enero - Day 2

Today was all about visiting our families. We left the Pastoral House by 8:15 so that we could get started by 9:00 a.m. Check out the photo of all the gift baskets loaded in the truck! As we visit each family, we have a short amount of time to chat, check in on how they are doing, get any updates (ages, school grades for the children, health, work, and so on). It also gives us the chance to see what they might need or how we can pray for them - we seemed to hear a lot of requests for prayers for health this trip. Then each family receives the gift baskets from us, along with tylenol, and photos if we visited them on the previous trip. 

Many who hear about our trip are often curious what is in the gift baskets. We have a photo that will give you some idea but the standard items included are: toilet paper, cookies/sweets, coffee, oil, rice, soap, and as you can see a whole host of other items. Each gift basket is $50 of items. And as we learned again today, they love to show their gratitude. We were given pineapple, papaya, melons, and chickens to bring back to the Pastoral House. These are then used to supplement our meals and for the party in the community tomorrow. We also received snacks at many of the homes, drinks, and even ice cream from one family. There is not a shortage to the food they offer to us and they take good care of us.

For this introvert, it's a lot but totally worth it. One of the things I believe is important in relationships is the willingness to show up, to put in the time and energy it takes to be present. And that is what we are doing with these trips and visits. We are showing up and being present. And that effort is acknowledged and appreciated.

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