It all started when… 

The girl behind the fence

In February of 2014, I found myself in Guatemala traveling up a very steep cobble-stoned walkway and turning onto a dirt path. As I turned, I saw a little girl sitting behind a barbed-wire fence on my right looking at me.  She was a beautiful little girl, with lovely hair wrapped in colored pig tails that surrounded an angelic little face.  She had big brown eyes that told a story.  Of what, I didn’t know.  But there was definitely a story in her short life and not one of ‘sugar, spice, and everything nice.’  I smiled at her, gestured a little wave, and said, “Hola.”  She didn’t smile, wave, or even acknowledge that she saw me, much less say anything back to me. 

I couldn’t help but be drawn to the little girl sitting behind the fence. Fearful that I would scare her, I moved toward the fence slowly.  I repeated “Hola” and “Buenos Días” to her, but she said nothing.  In fact, she didn’t move.  Not one muscle.  Not one blink.  I took my phone out and said, “Foto.”  Nothing.  So I took a picture and turned the camera around to her so she could see it.  Nothing.  Not a smile.  Not a grin.  I decided to take a chance and sat down on the dusty, dirty ground next to the fence and took another photograph and made it bigger on the screen.  I moved the phone to her through the fence.  She looked at me.  She looked at the photo of herself.  She looked back at me.  I pointed to the photo and then pointed at her and said, “Foto.”  We did the dance of me pointing to the photo and then at her many times.  Suddenly, her little finger moved ever so slowly as she looked at me and touched her finger to the picture of herself.  Finally she spoke!  “Sí?”  She asked so quietly I hardly heard her little voice ask the question.  I said, “Sí.”  No smile.  No grin.  Just a look in her beautiful eyes that said everything, yet nothing.  I took another photo and showed her. Unexpectedly she said, “Mama” and pointed towards a dwelling.  I smiled and said, “Sí, Mama” as I pointed in the direction she had just pointed.  As the group of people came to find me, her eyes shifted to the many people looking at her.  The voice was gone.  I stood up, smiled, waved, and said “Adiós.”  She just sat there looking at me.  No smile.  No wave.  As I walked away, she stood up and just kept staring with those beautiful eyes through the barbed-wired fence as I walked away.  Good-bye little girl from behind the fence.

Days later, it seemed strange to board an airplane and leave a country that now had a piece of my heart. It never occurred to me that God had a specific plan for me in Guatemala, but He did…