Grace Baptist Church

The first day was incredible with the niños. When I first found out which girl I was teamed up with I was extremely excited!! She was so energetic and sweet. Before we started out I was kind of scared of how our relationship toward each other would be, but the first couple of hours she admired someone's love so much that she couldn't stop putting her arms up to me to hold her. It's going to be so hard to let all these kids go when it's tim for our team to leave. One has to remember that our work for Christ isn't done yet! Somewhere at the end of the book of Matthew it talks about us being disciples for Him. Not only through missions but through our daily social lives.

Today was the second day with my two niños and it amazes me how close we've become in just 48 hours. My younger one, Yesenia, always wants to be held and loved and my older one, Kathy is a little drama queen but I love her to death. It amazes me how these chilren ca have such good attitudes even though they're in an orphanage. It humbles me and makes me envy their happiness. They've taught me not to be happy because of possessions but because of friends and family and they don't even know that they are teaching me. In a way I look up to them. I can't wait for the next day to spend with them!

I really can't describe my feelings of how I felt before the children arrived.  I mostly wanted to show as much love as I possibly could to my two little buddies. Their names are Alan and Marcos, both of the little fellows have so much energy and so do I, so that wasn't really a problem! The main problem is the language barrier, but there became such a great bond because of that...I've learned so much in these past two days with them. I have these boys and I thank God for blessing me to be here...

Today was truly a blessing for me . I was having a hard time bonding with my niña. Selfishly I was disappointed with the whole trip. Then I got sick. When I arrived back at camp a few of the other amigos told me that my niña was concerned for me and was upset that I was ill. After dinner she crawled into my lap and kissed me on the check. She showed me more compassion in 3 minutes then I showed her in 3 days. She has taught me to have more joy in my life- Jesus Others then Yourself.

Explaining the experience of Genesis is unexplainable. The love and support of the staff team immensely encourages anyone, For awhile, it felt like not much bonding happened between me and my niño. The way the last 2 days went changed, My niño likes me and it feels so refreshing. I woke up to little David chanting 'amigo'.  It was a great feeling that and seeing him not want to depart from me. I would love to return and make a second mission trip with Genesis!

This week was amazing. I bonded so well with the niñas. I learned so much from my two girls. I honestly believe  that I made an impact in Wendy and Karen's lives. If our youth group has another chance to come to Genesis I will most definately come!

I had so much fun this week. I want to thank the Genesis staff for letting me come to this beautiful camp, and put Jesus and Carlitos in my life! They were so much fun! I really was blessed to be a blessing to Jesus and Carlitos. They were the best.