Posted by Tracy
Tracy Baird
Jun 24
On Monday morning right before we left for Cerro de Oro, I had a special privilege. Several years ago our family decided to sponsor a child to match the ages of each of our three children. We sponsor Dorcas and Denis in Karanse, Tanzania, Africa, and Luis in Guatemala. Luis turns 10 on September 6th so he is close in age to my son Jack. D'Ann Renner runs the Guatamala child sponsorship program through Perimeter and is one of my supporters for this trip, so she was aware I was going to Guatemala. She mentioned that there was the possiblity of meeting Luis while I was here. I said that I would like to be able to meet him but wasn't confident that it would work out. His school is about 90 minutes away from where I am staying in Mixco, and I didn't want to inconvenience him. I was surpised as we finished morning devotions on Monday that someone called my name and said that Luis was here to see me.
Luis was much smaller than I expected, way smaller than Jack and even smaller than Garrett, my seven year old. He had a lovely smile and gave me a warm hug and a photo of himself. In the photo he is holding a sign expressing thanks. It was so much fun to learn more about his likes and dislikes. He likes "futball", aka soccer. I found out he and his three siblings live with their mom but not their dad. The most interesting thing I learned was that Luis had earned a gymnastics scholarship to train for the Guatamalan Olympic gymnastics team. He attends a special school for gymnasts during the week and his mom picks him up by bus on Fridays and returns him on each Sunday. He will continue training for the Olympics until he either achieves that goal or no longer qualifies. We ended our time together by praying for one another. It was a very sweet time of prayer. We had a translator since I don't speak Spanish and he does not speak English, but we know that God understands both languages! Meeting Luis was a special treat for me.
Tracy
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