Día del Niño (isn't every day?)

Today's the Day of the Kid, and it's kind of a big deal. This is clearly my first of such holidays where I'm in charge of spoiling one of these aforementioned kids, but from what I can tell it's on a scale with Christmas and birthdays. We could maybe say it's a joint birthday party for every kid in Bolivia, replete with soda, cake, piñata, and sugar coma.

Sunday, to kick off the country wide celebration of youth, we joined a little rural church plant for a neighborhood party.

The meeting place was under a big tree, the stage - a flatbed truck, the publicity - speakers from said flatbed truck.

A hilarious clown attracted the children from the neighborhood. Then there were songs, a story about Zacchaeus, with an adorable craft, face painting, empanadas, and to top it all off of course, balloon animals!

To spare the children and faint of heart, I won't post a picture of the clown face I was decorated with, let's just say it was described as "intense". But it wasn't enough to scare away these kiddos, in some semblance of a line, eager for their balloons!

At the end of a great afternoon, I think this little 4-family church that meets in a house was quite happy with their party, and I know the kids were ecstatic.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." -Mark 10:14-16

I love how this verse in Spanish says Jesus hugged the kiddos.

Now, I'm leaving my Angel for the first night ever for a little work trip, better go get my hugs before the sugar coma sets in.