Pastor Carlos reached over, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, “You couldn’t get the girl out of the village, but I could. Then I would put her in the orphanage you are going to start.”

I swallowed hard as my mind flashed to a time several months before this. How could I explain the pieces the Lord has shown me when they are not even clear to me? I thought back to the day I received an email from a missionary friend. Dannie said that if I could find some children on the streets, she would come down to Guatemala, and we could start an orphanage. She and her companion-in-ministry served in the medical field, and with my teaching experience, we could help needy and abandoned children. However, after the first wave of excitement passed over me, I pushed the whole idea to the back burner of my mind. Now it came rushing forward. How could this pastor even have an inkling that I had given this idea some thought?

Looking around the table, I saw that all eyes had turned to me. My throat felt like sandpaper as I slowly said, “Would you believe I have a name for an orphanage?” Their shocked expressions provoked me into explaining the email from my missionary friend months ago. I told them that I had felt a slight tremor of excitement while reading the email and thought, “That’s a nice Mother Teresa idea and something I would be interested in someday.” Then I told how these words popped into my mind: “shadow of his wings.”

After the initial excitement, the president and I decided to seek God’s plan with prayer and fasting for this monstrosity of an idea. The board assured us of their prayers, and we departed, while I tried to glimpse into the mysterious future.

I went home and pondered all that had happened. My thoughts focused on how this could be a good “someday” project. The impact of all of this scared the wits out of me. “Who am I to be involved in building an orphanage?” I cried out to the Lord. I laid before Him all the reasons why someone else would succeed with something like this. I didn’t even know Spanish, other than words like taco, burrito, or adios. Me? No way! Being a loving and patient God, He spoke to me and said that many of the things I had gone through in the past were preparation for this time. I needed to listen to Him, and He would guide me around the stumbling stones. He continued, “I am behind you, at your right side, at your left side, leading you, lifting you up, and you are under the shadow of my wings.” Did I hear correctly? Shocked, I heard the same name that came to my mind months before when I received Dannie’s email.

I looked up at the bulletin board that hung above my desk. I focused upon the photo of the children I had been involved with in ministry. The two elderly sisters stood behind the four girls, and the pain I felt for those little abandoned kids washed over me again. The impact of all this imbedded into the very core of my being, and I wept.