Hasta Luego, not Goodbye
Serving with SELAH this past winter has been an amazing experience that brought me closer to my friends, my community, and to God. Mount of Olives Children’s home in Mexico is truly a wonderful place, surrounded by beautiful mountains and stunning scenery, but the most impressive thing there is the people.
The people who run the mission bring an unbelievable energy and focus to an incredibly important mission and you can visibly see the impact they have on everyone around them, especially the kids. The kids themselves are just adorable, and so precious. They have such an innocent joy that’s contagious whenever you're around them.
I myself found it really hard to understand the joy that I had down there for the first few days. I wouldn’t say I’m a sad person by any means, but I was practically bubbly for what seemed like no reason. It took until about the fourth or fifth day for me to realize what it was. I woke up at 6 and went out into the courtyard and there was just this beautiful sunrise, while a fire was roaring in the fireplace. I had a warm coffee in my hands, I was surrounded by an amazing group of people, and it just hit me that I was so surrounded by the blessings of God.
In a place where not everyone has a guaranteed dinner, or a warm bed at night, not only did I have everything I could ask for, but I was participating as a blessing of God to these people who needed that orange, or the kid that needed the soccer ball. I really love to serve people and there is nowhere I feel I can do that better than Mount of Olives. It was truly an amazing experience and I hope I can go back year after year.
written by Sawyer Gruessing
