a chance encounter

A few months ago, I read the story of a woman who, by some stroke of luck (or perhaps even the hand of God) had held onto a photograph of herself in Disneyland as a child, which miraculously, in a stroller in the background, pictured her husband.  Two decades later when the couple married, the husband happened upon the photo, realizing, “Hey, that’s me!”

Since we’ve arrived in Guatemala, we’ve been counting down the days until we got to meet our sponsor child, Olga.  We’ve studied her sweet face.  We’ve memorized her birthday of May 20th.  We’ve laughed over her love of dolls and chore of washing dishes, similar to the tastes and distastes of our own sweet girls.  We’ve written her a letter saying hello, and telling her how excited we were to meet her.

We’ve prayed for her and loved her.

We knew we would meet Olga on Wednesday, when we will travel to her village and share some special time together.  What we didn’t know was that on Monday, we were already in her village.

After leaving the village, we learned that Olga lives in Seoguis.  We spent all day and night Monday in there.  In fact, we visited the grade school, where Chris and I wandered by chance into the first grade classroom.  A classroom where we later, desks cleared and sleeping bags laid down, spent the night.

When we visited the classroom Monday, we were treated to a performance by the adorable children.  Fortunately, it was captured on video.

And as it turns out, it was fortunate for us, and for Olga.

One of the many things we’ve learned from our time in Guatemala, is that the children love to be photographed and then to immediately see their photos.  They huddle around the tiny screens, clamoring to see a glimpse of their own face.

And so imagine our joy in discovering that not only had we been in the same school that Olga attends and slept with our heads on the floor of the very room in which she learns to read and write, but we had captured her on video without even knowing it.  And tomorrow, we’ll get to share it with her.  It may not compete with capturing your future spouse in a vacation photo, but we still consider this video and keepsake a treasure.

And it could be your treasure too.  Because many children in this classroom are eligible to be your sponsored child.

Watch the video.  Check your heart.  Pray for the children and if you can, sponsor a child.

You could further gift this community with life-saving, life-giving education and services, and you could make the sweetest little singing pen pal from Seoguis, Guatemala.

I can’t wait to meet ours tomorrow and to show her the video of the first time we met.

All photos taken by Jessica Taylor for FH.