a name is important isn't it?: Street Kids and Rain....

So yesterday we fed the street kids. and it was GREAT! the kids were so organized and we were able to give out 70 bags of food. meaning we fed 70 kids. And i had at least 10 or 20 of the kids come up to me afterwards and thank me for the food and asked for God to bless me. I think this was what hit me the most. Little children that live on the streets, with hardly enough food to stay alive. are asking God to bless me. They want Him to take care of me. Shouldn't i be asking God to bless them? Thats how great the people here are. Even the children have a faith in God under the worst of circumstances. I love it!

And also, As many of you know i sometimes get really wrapped up in helping people and i take on too much and am not able to fulfill on my own what is required of me. And always when i getting overwhelmed someone steps in to help and it works out even better if i had tried to do it myself.

Well, we have a guard named David who is one of the greatest people i know. I would trust him with my life (o wait i already do every night)

Anyways, He and our cook Sam have been helping me with feeding the street kids and i just took it for granted. until yesterday, i realized just how important their help is. Because feeding the kids is quite a lengthy process let me give you an insight. First we buy around 5 kilos of beans. and 9 kilos of rice. You then sort through the beans because when you buy them they often have rocks and sticks in them. which can take about 20 minutes to sort through. And then, since i tend to forget to buy the beans throughout the week i have to buy the dried beans and they take about 6 hours to cook. then you have to time it right to make the rice to be done when the beans are done. and there is also a onion, tomatoe, and greenpepper sauce that you make to put in the beans once they are finished.

David and Sam packing the bags with rice and beans

So if i want to be on top of things i try to get the beans soaking before i go to church. Now, this hardly actually happens and what ends up happening is that David has already planned, without telling me, to wake up and get the beans ready and on the stove and get the rice all prepared and buy the time i get home from church he is already chopping the vegetables to prepare for the sauce. And everything needs to be prepared in plenty of time to finish by 7 when we go and feed the kids.
So i end up wander into the kitchen a few times and say, David, is there anything that i need to do? and he laughs at me and says, nope, got it taken care of. And then around 3 our cook Sam shows up, and although it is not written anywhere in his job description he helps David to cook the beans and prepare the rice. Now, it wasn't until yesterday that it hit me why they were putting so much time and effort into helping me. i realized, it wasn't that they were actually Helping me... they were helping the street kids. They wanted them to have food that night just as much, or maybe even more, than i did. And they had the knowledge and skills to make sure it happened. I just provided the opportunity for them to do it.

I think my favorite thing is that i often hear David talking to Sam saying, "No Sam, we have to make the beans as if we were making it for ourselves. I want to eat what we are feeding the kids. They should get the best" Thats when i realized, I have the greatest people around me. People who share my same desires! And are just wanting to help people. They are the greatest!

oh... and we got stuck in a massive downpour of rain on the way home from FHE. That was pretty entertaining .. i think my skirt got about 2 inches added to it by the rain :)