Amazing God Moment...

I had the best God moment yesterday. It actually began on Monday night. I go to the Salvation Army homeless shelter on Monday nights to play dominoes and hang out with the guys. About 20 or so old men sleep there at night, but there's normally only about 8 guys around when I'm there. They're phenomenal. I love them. Now that I've been going for a few months, I chat and banter with them instead of just breaking out the dominoes. They're super funny. They all came out to watch us finish La Ruta Maya, but due to the false start and the delay on the 4th day, they gave up and left before they saw us come in. Well, the delay was the main reason, but Emilio didn’t help things---he started this rumor that a helicopter came to pick me up from the river and took me to the hospital. (It was quite an involved rumor—he had worked out all my aches and pains and everything.) Because they never saw me come in, some of the guys (and the woman that works nights at the shelter) actually believed Emilio! They asked me all about my pain and they said they were so worried. Poor Vernon kept saying 'i almost went to the hospital to visit you; i was so worried about you i almost dropped.' Emilio thought he was mighty funny by starting this rumor and laughed and laughed and laughed!

Emilio is a trip. He lost a leg three years ago in a car accident. When he told me about it he said, ‘lucky I’m alive. Lucky I still have one leg.’ He has one leg, a great big belly, lots of problems with diabetes and high blood pressure, and is nearly blind. He also has a great laugh and LOVES to be mischievous, as you can tell by the helicopter rumor. He doesn’t go out much because, as he says, he can’t keep up with everyone and he says most people are up to no good! He does go to the Mercy Kitchen when the Mercy Kitchen bus comes round to pick him up. The Mercy Kitchen is a center that offers services for the elderly of Belize City. It has a medical clinic, chapel, soup kitchen, and a large room with a television for folks to hang out. I think it’s one of the neatest services in Belize.

All right—so back to Monday night. Two of my roommates, Chris and Adam, are in a play with the Belize Theater Company that performs this weekend. They have been dedicating 4 nights a week plus Saturdays to rehearsals for this play and have worked so very hard. I am so excited to see them on Friday night! When I went to the shelter on Monday, I brought paper, markers, stickers, and scissors and had the guys make Chris and Adam cards. At first, the guys were NOT into it—at all. In fact, they were pretty resistant. I started out by placing the stickers on the paper and having the guys press down to make them stick. I then had them all sign their names on the card—unfortunately, lots of the guys don’t know how to write and so I ended up writing most of their names! Finally, Puerto gave in and took a marker and started scribbling on the paper. I’m not kidding. Literally scribbling. Then Emilio, Vernon, Norman, and even Ray showed some interest. Soon Puerto was practicing on a scrap piece before he made his creation on the actual card. The card ended up being the cutest thing I’ve ever seen with stickers ALL over, scribbles, and notes from Vernon (he wanted me to write things: I like circus. You want to go to circus? I go to circus in Belize City). So CUTE!!

I knew I was going to the Mercy Kitchen the next day so I told Emilio I would see him there. He said he only goes when the bus picks him up and he didn’t know if the bus was coming for him tomorrow. I said, fine then, see if I see you at the Mercy Kitchen!

Tuesday morning I had almost reached when I looked over to the side of the road and there I see Emilio, wheeling himself and his big belly down the road. I went over to him and he said that the bus broke down but he wanted to come to the Kitchen so he pushed himself all the way there. He said, “Maria, I nearly turn around at the bridge. I punish, Maria, I punish. It so hot!” I could NOT believe that Emilio had pushed himself ALL the way from the shelter. He never goes anywhere; he’s not used to pushing himself places. I’m positive the only reason he came was that I told him to! He was almost to the Kitchen, but I told him that if he could push my bike, I could push him. So there we were, on the side of the road, Emilio and I. He was leaning out of his wheelchair to get a grasp on the bike and I was behind him in his wheelchair pushing him down the road. What a sight. Cars were looking at us—bikers were looking at us. I thought---this is IT. Thanks God. This is it….Emilio and I, trucking down the road…me pushing Emilio, Emilio pushing my bike, and God behind it all….