The Kingdom of Heaven is Near

I must, simply must, share some of the sights of the Kingdom Kids project. I had never been able to be here at this time of the year,  though I had helped to raise money to support it in the US. What a privilege I have been given, not only to have a front-row seat but to be a part of this move of God!

The first step of the process is that pastors have to come to bring us a list of the children for whom they want backpacks. We set aside 3 days for them to come, we told them we would open the doors at 10. The first day we opened the doors and looked out and the line went on...
and on...
and on..
….and on.
They came in and we went over lists with them…
One by one,
by one
by one.
By 6 pm when we closed down, we had requests for over 38,000 backpacks. And we still had pastors knocking at the doors.

One man I met with, I will never forget. I asked him where he was from and he told me a village I had never heard of. I asked him how far it was and he told me he had to take the “Nissan” (the mountain villages’ form of public transportation) at 2 in the morning in order to be able to get to the next town, and then take a bus to the next town, to get a minivan to our town. He arrived by 7 am top our doors- he wanted to be in line because he was afraid we would run out of backpacks.

When I saw him it was 2:45 in the afternoon!

When I saw his list I was gulping back tears. He was asking for 24 backpacks. He was willing to travel over and wait in line for over 12 hours to get 24 backpacks for the children in his church! (Would I have done that? I wondered?)

He anxiously asked me if he had made it, if he was going to get them. When I said “Yes, ” he asked how much he had to pay. When I told him "Nothing, they are free for you." He began to weep and we cried together.

I knew as I sat there looking at his tiny handwritten little sheet, that the Kingdom of heaven was near. We do so little with so much…. Here, they do so much with so little.
To you all who prayed, or came to help, or gave- thank you!

I want you to see pictures of the days the pastors came back to pick up their filled backpacks- 18,000 of them. You have never seen such joy!

These backpacks open doors to places where there is utter darkness- where the light of Christ has not been seen. They open doors to villages where we had never been allowed before, and they make their way into homes where there is no hope- all the while proclaiming in bright yellow, red and blue: Cristo me Ama (Christ loves me).

They are loaded up with pens, pencils, notebooks, rulers, erasers, cookies, a doll, a truck- but they have something else as well: a message of hope. You see, when each backpack is handed out the children who receive it- and many times- their parents as well, get to hear that Jesus loves them, that He died on the cross for them- that they are special to the God of the universe and that He has the greatest gift of all for them: eternal life with Him.

You. You made this possible. We are so very grateful. So moved. So thankful to God for the vision and to you for making it happen.

Next, I want to tell you about the children…

I can’t wait to tell you about them!