Update on the Little Girl With Green Eyes

 This is a follow up to a blog we did a few months ago. One day while heading back and forth to the property we saw a young girl on the pathway to the church. She was standing beside a pile of thin and short sticks while her brother cut them from fallen trees in the field. We stopped and talked to her and she told us her name, Elsie. Our heart was touched by Elsie and we left to buy her and her brother a bottle of water and a pack of cookies. They were working hard to help their family.....not in school...working...gathering the much needed wood that their mom would use to cook their meals. After that day we thought we would never see those two children again.

On Saturdays we have a church wide visitation day. We go in pairs and knock on doors to invite people to church and share the gospel. The short path that myself and a teen had only had a few homes so we went walking on other streets to find people at home. After walking and talking with people we covered a small and short 5 extra blocks of road and houses. The last little stretch of road that we got to contained a young girl gathering the chairs and putting them away in her families yard. This area was a tiny yard with a hammock between two trees, a wood fire burning close and a short fence made of different sizes of tree limbs with barb wire wrapped on them. When the little girl approached the fence my heart was filled with joy.....I knew those eyes....the most beautiful green eyes on a tan little face with a few light freckles across her nose. I called her by her name....and her smile covered her entire face....she then ran out of the fence and hugged me....announcing "you remembered me." The last time she saw us I was still pregnant with Micah. Her momma came out from the back of the house and Elsie began to tell her momma about us and how she had met Mark and I and how when we met I was pregnant. It was so sweet. I then mentioned her son Miguel. The momma had a smile just as big as Elsie...and proclaimed "you know my children?" I told her again how we had met and how sweet they were and she ran over to me and hugged me also and kissed me on the cheek. It was such a sweet moment. At this time Elsie and her momma were the only ones that were at home at this time. However, when I saw their home my heart broke for her and her family. Like many people here they do the best that they can to take care of their own. They did have a little plot of land....however I am not sure if they own it or not...I have posted a picture similar to the house that they live in...however this is much larger than their actual house.

If you divided this house into 3's they would have just 1 part of that for their whole family. No indoor plumbing and I do not remember seeing a power line. Please pray for this little girl and her family. Also, don't take for granted your nice warm bed, the times you gather around your kitchen table or even when you step into your warm shower or bath your children in a clean bath tub. I know that Elsie knows no other way of life than the one that she lives. When I think of her I think of the story of the rich man and Lazarus. If she puts her faith and trust in Jesus Christ she will one day be clothed in righteousness and have riches beyond measure.