Corey and I experienced our first LACC Christmas party. We went to a school we hadn’t yet visited. We were so excited because my mom sponsors a little girl in this school. I was told it was a poor school on the south side of Bogota. What I didn’t realize is that it was so far south of Bogota it was actually a few blocks outside of the city, sickness up in the mountain. We took a road up through the mountain to a neighborhood of dirt roads. This neighborhood does not have running water. The school has four large water tanks that a truck comes to fill. There are about 220 kids in this school. There is a public school close by, remedy but it is over capacity, so these children without LACC would not be able to go to school. We went to each class and passed out gifts. Each child got a few small toys.
For many of these kids this is the only Christmas gift they will receive. It was an exciting moment to meet Cindy, my mom’s little girl. It was a moment where I could see the full circle of our ministry. She was a very sweet little lady!
We stayed through lunch time. Every day a foundation brings in lunches to the school. They bring in 500 lunches. Two hundred and fifty of those go to the students and staff in the school. The other 250 go to the kids who line up outside the school every day. The director told us that many days they run out of lunches to feed every child outside, but they give away everything they have. There is a little cafeteria in the school where the kids come in to eat.
This was a day I will never forget. These kids were so precious. They all have so little materially, but they are so sweet and loving.
~Tona