This is my 3rd day of physical therapy & I know it must be working because it hurts so much. No pain, no gain!

Our older girls played a soccer game tonight against a team from San Bartolome’ & just played like soccer should be played. Teamwork!

Have you ever heard the saying,”Give until it hurts”? Well, I believe that we should hurt when we DO NOT give.

A number of years ago our children were attending classes in a nearby village, San Bartolome’, when they met a girl on crutches. Her name was Gaby and the teachers and others actually made fun of her calling her stupid, etc. One evening a group of my teens came to me & begged me to allow Gaby to attend our new school here at Casa. She only lived 2 blocks away.

I checked with the Department of Education and her parents & everyone agreed. As time passed it was obvious she was not stupid. She was handicapped & losing her sight. One morning as she walked out of her front door (dirt floor, absolutely poverty) she walked into her father’s body hanging from a tree. He had committed suicide. She sent someone to get Dottie and me.

Over the years she has truly become a daughter to us. She received Jesus, radiated from high school, won an academic scholarship to San Carlos University & comes to see Dottie & me many times during the week. She is always in our church services and eats with us throughout the week.

Last night I walked into my living room and she was sitting there. I asked if she was ok and she said, “I wanted to thank you for loving me. I want to thank you for the Americans who built my mother and me a house.”

I went to bed last night with the thought of those teenagers many years ago, most of them now adults and gone from Casa, who saw her need and loved her to the point they changed her natural life and her spiritual destination forever.

You may think that when you tithe or you give to a Christian cause that you are giving until it hurts. But how much more would have been the pain of my teenagers had they not given to the need of Gaby and her mother?