The Guatemala City North Mission has five major service projects this month in connection with zone conferences. We will be attending three. We were not at the first one which was last Monday, and missionaries from Senahu and Polochic Zones gave school bags to 240 children at a school in Chulac. The first one we attended was the next day, Tuesday, and missionaries from the Coban and Verapaz Zones participated in bringing a little Christmas cheer to 90+ orphans at an orphanage in San Jeronimo, which is near Salama. The children range in age from 4 months to 17 years. They live in single-family style homes with a care-giver mother. "Families" have between 6 and 10 children. We witnessed some tender relationships between "siblings" and saw older "siblings" watching out for younger ones. After a few Christmas carols, the missionaries and children played games for more than an hour--games like Simon Says, Fruit Basket, and Red Light-Green Light. It was really fun to see them interact, the missionaries making it apparent that they are really just big kids. At the end of the activity the missionaries presented each child with a gift bag, filled with age-appropriate gifts. I was grateful to get a photo of the little boy who looked pensively at a picture of Jesus, whose birth and life we celebrate!
