Fourth Trip April, 2010 Conclusion

Our last day here was filled with several blessings. First, to the explain the blessing at lunch on this day I need to rewind back to my second trip in September 2009 for a second. It was on this trip that I met and developed a relationship with Antonio, Sandra’s husband. He and I became close partly because of our love for the orphans and mostly because we are the two men who Heidy looks up to as Dad. She owns a big piece of Antonio’s heart as well as mine. God has used this little girl and her sweet spirit and her innocent, tender love to draw both of us into this ministry. Also, after the September trip Antonio was so moved by his time with us and the girls that he became Godfather to a precious girl named Lorena. He also fell in love with my other Goddaughter Ginary and stood with her in my place at her baptism in the fall of 2009. So God was tying more and more heart strings between he and I. As we were standing in the airport to go back to Houston from the September ’09 Padrino trip, Antonio mentioned to me that Sandra and he were thinking about starting a foundation to build a safe house and help the girls who were aging out of the orphanage. I told him that we would support and back anything they wanted to do. Sandra says that the decision to go ahead with Fundacion Tayakai was made in that conversation. Ok, fast forward to April 2010 Padrino trip again. We are all sitting at lunch talking about the newly formed Fundacion Tayakai and how we could help. Significantly, most of the current members of the board of directors and the advisory council for what is now Orphan Hope International were sitting at this lunch. As we talked a plan formed to develop a U.S. ministry to support Fundacion Tayakai (Tayakai is a native Colombian word meaning “me”) and so was born what is now Orphan Hope International. We all had witnessed the hand of God mighty upon each of us in drawing us together on that day, at that table, for those sweet children. It was a truly momentous lunch for all of us. Second, that night we all gathered in one cabin and had our closing devotion for the trip. I shared what I had been studying from the life of Jesus about how He loved and cared for the needy. We were all moved by His example. After my devotion we were each given the opportunity to share a testimony of what God was doing in our hearts on this trip. Each Padrino (Godparent) and each Ahijada (Goddaughter) shared and there was not a dry eye in the place. One of the testimonies that touched me the most was from Lida, David’s Goddaughter. She told us that she had been watching us and learning from us on the last four mission and Padrino trips that she had been on. She had seen us be the hands and feet of Jesus and she had decided that when she was grown that she wanted to give her life to orphan ministry too. Words can’t describe how smitten each of us were with her words. It was beautiful and we determined to press on. We thought that was enough supernatural working of the Holy Spirit for one day but He was not done yet. We were all getting ready to bed down when Alexandra came to the door and said that Heidy and Ginary needed their “parents.” We went to investigate and discovered that they were in a sisterly squabble and needed some parental guidance 🙂 Over the next two hours with Alex’s help we had the most precious, honest, meaningful conversation, first with Ginary alone and then with Heidy and Ginary together. It was Mom and Dad pouring their hearts out to their two daughters and their two daughters pouring their hearts out to them and to each other. It was absolutely precious and God tightened the cords of our hearts even more that night for these girls and all of the children of Colombia.