" I want to live here for always"--- Chandy

It is a rare occasion when we have enough volunteers that I can spend the whole day in the office doing "work" kinda stuff. Most days are filled with so much organized chaos that none of the staff has a chance to do that. Today I got to spend the whole morning at Rock Island doing some things on my "to do" list. It was nice.

Now let me just tell you something. I hate Mondays. I know that most people say that.. but I really do. It's always super hard to wake up on those mornings and then when I finally get to work I can never find a parking spot because there are so many people (which isn't a bad thing). I am always exhausted on Mondays. Today was especially bad because I have the start of a cold so I woke up this morning and took some pretty heavy duty cold medicine. All day I felt like I was floating and moving in slow motion. Haha.. I know you all know what I'm talking about. So I say all this to say.. I wasn't the most positive person today unfortunately.

Back to my story... I was in Rock Island doing some work on the computer when there comes a knock at the door. I open it to see a 4 year old little girl standing all by herself with a big grin. Her name is Emily. She is a little girl from the neighborhood that I think I have a very special bond with. As soon as I open the door she walks right in and plops down on the couch. Her english is very bad so I was shocked to hear the next words out of her mouth..... "I want to live here for always". I thought she meant America but as I began to talk a little bit with her I realized she was talking about Rock Island. I asked her why she wanted to live in Rock Island and she said two things: "because you are nice" and "you have food". I felt this strong urge to pray for her at that minute and she held my hand while I prayed the Lord's protection over her sweet little life. It was a precious moment. As soon as I said amen she hopped right off the couch and bolted out the door. That little girl made my day with her sweet words. The Lord knew I needed the encouragement. I love when He sets up little appointments like that.

The sad thing is that even at the young age of 4, Emily already realizes that things are not right where she lives. She already has a desire to live in a place where the people are nice and she has access to food. Think of a 4 year old you know. Do you think the thought of wanting to live somewhere else or the desire for food even crosses their mind? I would think they would be thinking about how big they should build their lego tower or whether or not they might get to stay up past 8:00 on the weekends. Maybe that's just me.





One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these." After laying hands on them, he left. - Matthew 19:13-15 The Message