Christmas Outreach

It just so happens that in my order of posts, this is coming up on Christmas Day! Merry Christmas to you!!!

This is my Middle School Bible class. I assigned a project to them to earn cash (any way they wanted) and purchase something for some needy families living in the village behind our school. We then took an afternoon off of school to deliver them. 

This sweet lady just kept telling the kids how cute they were, how sweet. Her daughter was home from school, sick. We found that the homes were about 3 rooms, with only one room heated. They kept that room blazing hot with the wood burning stove to try to heat the rest of the home. 

This home touched me the most. This dear lady was so welcoming. Her little girl has Downs Syndrome, which is a very shameful thing here, with the assumption that somehow Allah is judging her. We were given permission to pray for her and several of us did. The mother cried all during the prayer. One of my students prayed for her in Turkish, which touched me deeply. She said her little girl had never talked, so we asked specifically for that. 

Some of the homes had towels and rugs thrown over bare dirt floors. They had pillows stuffed in holes in the exterior walls. One boy saw us and immediately put his little hand over his eye and held it. Later I saw him without and realized he had some sort of sickness in his eye he didn't want us to see. So many needs. We can't meet them all, but we can meet some. Merry Christmas! The blessing this day was all mine.