MAGAZINE.pdf Summer 2014 | Page 11

SOL ANGEL AGE 6 By Stephanie Ellis, Old Path’s Chapel IGNITE Class 5 - TEAM Costa Rica S ol Angel is 6 years old, and in 1st grade. She is a part of Potter’s Field Kids (PFK) Club de Biblia program and started coming just a couple of weeks after we began serving in Costa Rica. She also attends the PFK Las Manos del Alfarero program as of this past February. She is a student at the local School of Villarreal, and she became my little sidekick during my field time in Costa Rica. Sol is very loving; there was never a time when she failed to give me a kiss on the cheek to say hello or good-bye. She also has such a strong constitution. She was an example to me of that verse that tells us we are to endure hardship like good soldiers (2 Timothy 2:3). Whenever I started feeling sorry for myself about anything, I would picture her little face and be reminded of how she lost her mom when she was only 4 to cancer, yet was still living life to the fullest. One time, I was sitting on a bench in the church, around Christmas. I was having one of those self-indulgent pity parties because I wasn’t home for the holidays. I was asking God what His plan was in all of this when I turned around to see precious little Sol holding a drawing and a flower that she brought for me. God spoke to me that day through her, showing me that there was a reason that I was there, and that it was more important for His Kingdom that I was there, at that moment in time, for Sol than it was for me to be at home for myself. I remember the first day I met Sol. She walked in and I was immediately drawn to her. This little girl who LOVES to play, asked me to play Frisbee with her and after a few moments I realized that she had a huge learning curve on the game as I had to keep guarding my face from the Frisbee. For a while she didn’t come to Kids Club on a regular basis, but did attend church on Sundays. We would play “escondidas,” which is hide-and-seek Costa Rican style. Then in December, she started coming to the Kids Club on a more regular basis and we became inseparable. God blessed me so much through this spunky, playful, sweetheart. Before I left Costa Rica, I made bracelets for us as a reminder to keep one another in prayer and so we would think back on all of the WONDERFUL experiences that we shared every time we looked at the bracelet. Sol has been used by God to shape and mold my heart and to change my life forever. She was and is my little reminder to “Press On.” She helped me through every day by reminding me of my purpose there and that my life was not my own. 10