Making Friends

Terri and I are both blessed with some amazing friends. We are constantly amazed at how people are placed in our lives in ways that could only be directed by our amazing God. I could not even begin to make a list of the people that were put into place in our lives for specific purpose. There is no way that I intend this to mean that we are any different that anybody else - I an sure that believers have a father looking after their needs and many of those needs are met by the people that he places in their lives.
Then, there are the random friends that come into our lives that - well, likely are not random but sure seem that way. About 2 and a half years ago when we started working weekly in the dump, I never thought about making friends at the dump. At the time my Spanish was pretty poor so communication was a bit difficult and I just wanted to go and serve. As time has passed, my ability to communicate has improved, enough others go with us to serve that I actually have time to get to know many of the people that we go to serve.
Today, I returned to feed for the first time in several weeks. When we are in the states, we have great friends here that make sure that our Wednesday service continues - but, I haven't been since the first of August. The time of feeding was calm and lots of people said that they missed me and greeted me with hugs, hand shakes (or knuckle hits), smiles, etc. There wasn't a lot of time to have much conversation because there were only 4 of us and we all had jobs to do to get the food to the people. My really good friends waited until the last person was served and then they just climbed into the back of the truck to tell me welcome home. Luz, Fany, JoHana, and Paula were so kind. We had about 50 servings of food left and I told them that we were going to go to Buen Samaratano - a neighborhood near the dump to serve the people there. I was surprised when 3 of the girls wanted to go with us to serve the rest of the food and was impressed that they wanted to carry some of the bowls door to door.
When we finished serving and were getting ready to leave, a lady walked up and told me that my friend Francisco wanted to see me. Francisco is a man that I met in June - the first time in the neighborhood. He owns a small tienda and he shared water and Jesus with us and has been consistent with that every time that I have seen him. His wife found out that I was in the neighborhood and came to tell me that he is gravely ill. She wanted me to come to their house and pray with him. I was honered to to that and sure enough, when I was telling Francisco good-bye, he started telling me once again how great Jesus is. Francisco is another that I would have never picked out as someone that would be my good friend - but he is.
I am truly blessed with some amazing friends and I am not ashamed to tell them -
I love you!
Marc