So much to say yet I’m still at a loss for words from our Indy Metro Church trip to Guatemala. The overall team was amazing, the art school partnership is taking off, and the work we did on the ground was fruitful. However, it’s primarily the people we met and spent time with who have left me in awe. Specifically, the kids of the art school who make it hard to recover from.

All of us have seen pictures of poor urban or 3rd world nation kids on late night TV? Or maybe you’ve been to a concert and there was the sponsor a child booth there? While you can be good for a tear or two and even perhaps make the leap to supporting them, I can say without any doubt it’s another world to have held them, heard the dreams, and watched them wept. It’s more difficult to forget their stories, their names, and their presence once you’ve spent time holding and loving them.

While we we’re in Guatemala we talked with every child in the art school and tried to listen for their heartbeat! Their fears, their hopes, and their dreams. Although we really wanted to ask, it was often straining to even hear their responses. Learning to know one child’s story about their parents who keep the money they bring home and don’t share the food. Leaving the kids to not eat for days and days at a time. Or knowing one young ladies dream of learning how to bake so she can have a future and help provide for her parents and siblings. And of course the classic stand by response from many of the young boys in wanting to be a professional soccer player!

I left with mixed emotions, both saddened and excited.  Saddened by the stories that I hear yet excited that Indy Metro is making a difference. The love we are showing is a verb. And I can’t help but think of the star fish story. As old as it is, the classic example of the boy throwing the starfish back in the ocean one at a time comes to mind. While there are thousands of children in Magdalena, Guatemala in great need, I am grateful we are making a huge impact in the lives of these kids in the art school.

An amazing show is taking shape for First Friday, October 1st in The ArtSpace of downtown Indianapolis. You ccould be a huge support to these beautiful kids and their families through the arts!

Pictures of the Lopez School of Art at Jena Lynn Osbon.