Laughter is a medicine for the soul...

Today, our last day in Costa Rica was spent at place called Roblealto, which means high rock. Their goal is to help families at risk and in shambles due to poverty, abuse, or other factors. They have many aspect of their ministry but today we worked with their daycare. The kids ranged from 2 years old to 12. Upon arriving there we learned that another small group was there to put on a carnival for the kids today. Now this carnival was by our standards very lame, but these kids just loved it! The team had prayed that morning that God would send them three people to help with the day, and alas, when they walked through the door, there stood Pete, David and I, who the women (the whole other group was women) referred to ask God`s answer to their prayers.
However, the children were the answer to my prayers. I really just was asking and hoping to be boosted and lifted up as I left this country to face all that I left behind. Today as I played with the students, I experienced such great joy that I cannot describe it. As I pushed these cute little girls on the swing and watched them laugh with pure bliss, nothing else in the world existed outside the walls of that courtyard, and the cares of this world could not touch me. As I played frisbee with the boys and girls, there was no place I would rather have been than there! It was so obvious that these children did not typically receive this much attention on a regular basis and it was heartbreaking. However, it left me thanking God that Roblealto exists and gives these kids a chance to be loved, cared for, and taught that the origin of this love is God. As we walked from class to class, the older kids would sing us songs about the peace of God and how it helped them to overcome hardships in their life and another class was learning about that story of Moses and the Exodus, and they seemed to be loving it! I walked away from there today knowing that it was a building that was being used to spread the love of God to the hurting and helpless, as I was one of those to whom that love had been spread.