Proverbs 19:17 (New Living Translation)

 ¹⁷ If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord—
      and he will repay you!

I just returned from a short trip to Nicaragua this past weekend; I have been in Costa Rica for almost three months so had to leave the country in order to renew my visa and be able to stay here another three months! My school organized a trip so that was a huge blessing and made it easy for all of us to take care of our obligations.

Although the main purpose of the trip was to be outside of Costa Rica for 72 hours, as their law declares I believe the Lord had some important little ones on His agenda as well! :)

Thank you Lord for opportunities to share your love with people, especially little ones....they are so precious! It would break your heart to see the little ones begging and selling items in the streets...if they could walk they are old enough to be working.

On Saturday at lunch there was a 13 year old boy named Manuel and his little 8 year old brother named Marco who approached me to buy some sunglasses, a bracelet or some little trinket. They were just so precious (they were about the 5th or more set of people to approach me within a half hour.) Anyways, I pulled little Marco's sunglasses off and began to converse with the two boys. I asked Manuel if he knows God and he answered "yes."
 He looked at my white skin with such awe and told me that he liked my white skin as he compared his brown skin. I told him that it doesn’t matter our skin but that we are all God's children. AND then the little cutie answered "yes I know," as he began to sing "red and yellow black and white they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." song! And then started with another...We ended up going for a walk and spent time playing and talking and ended up meeting up with some of their other siblings (Gabriela who is probably 2.5 or 3yrs) and then  another sister who is 12 (but don’t remember her name) They live with their mom in the capital of Nicaragua, Managua. It was such a blessing to spend my afternoon with these ones, please pray for them by name. You can pray that they would be protected and provided for but most of all that they would truly know the love of Christ. Pray for their mom that she would have wisdom and strength to raise her 6 (in total I think) children and also that she would be encouraged and have the ability to provide for her children in physical needs but most importantly  lead them spiritually in the right path!

On Sunday morning before I left I walked up the same street where I met the kids to see if  I could find them again...I was only able to find Marco and Gabriela the two youngest ones (they were out begging) I got a picture with them. Here they are:

So, in honour of these little ones...Would you consider sponsoring a child in Nicaragua through Compassion International? There is no time commitment ... and I can assure you that it is well worth the investment. Here is the link: http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/waystosponsor/ChildBio.htm?Child=NI1750408

**Remember that in Nicaragua they speak Spanish so that means that I was talking in Spanish to these little ones! Praise God, I'm learning! woo hoo. Thank you for your help!!

Peace!

Melissa W