October 10th - Maely's Life

As Maely has become more comfortable in our presence, and our Spanish comprehension skills have improved, we are gaining insight into what Maely’s life was like back in her small village.  Based upon her comments and the background information we have received from Miguel, its apparent that Maely’s deformity has made her an outcast within her family and within the village in which she was born and raised.  We have been told that Maely’s mother shunned her at birth because of her handicap.  As a result, Maely has been raised by her grandmother whom she lovingly refers to as her mommy. 

On her second day at our home in Washington, Maely was missing her grandmother so we pulled up the pictures that Pat had taken of her and her grandmother in Roatan the day she left.  Maely  got excited when she saw the pictures on the computer screen and was elated when we started printing them.  She quickly asked for something that she could keep the photos in and a large manila envelope quickly  became her photo album.  Over the next few days we printed lots more pictures and put them in her album.  When we would look over the pictures with her, we were heartbroken when she kept pointing to pictures of herself and say "Feo"  which is Spanish for ugly.  We began to tell her she was not ugly but we could tell 11 years of rejection, first by her mother and then by the rest of the people in the village, has left a terrible scar on this little girls self image.  We have told her that her new name is Maely Bonita Sarai Hernandez which means pretty.  We explained to her that she is a child of God and NONE of HIS children are ugly!

 Maely soon opened up about her village life and it became very clear that the children in her village often made fun of her deformed foot  and didn't want to play with her.  So think about this…here is a little girl, born into the poorest  family, of a very poor village isolated high in the  mountains  of one of the poorest countries in Central America.  Born with a deformity that caused her mother to abandon her at birth and shunned by everyone in the village, she has lived her entire life as a flawed and forgotten outcast in one of the most remote, corners of our world.  By the worlds standards, she is invisible, insignificant and unworthy of our attention.  Her story might cause the average person to pause briefly in the midst of their busy day and say “isn’t that a shame”,  and then quickly forget all about her as they become immersed once again in the important things in life, like business deadlines, dinner parties and vacation plans.

So who is this little girl named Maely?  Who cares that she is a lonely outcast, in a poor village in a remote corner of todays busy planet?  Based upon her story that is unfolding now, the answer to that question is none other than THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA,  THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS, THE CREATOR OF OUR UNIVERSE AND AUTHOR OF ALL LIFE THEREIN.  God almighty HIMSELF, has heard her lonely cries and seen her suffering and has reaching into her tiny little village to lift HIS child out of her despair.  If you look into the story of how The King’s Storehouse began, and how God has formed it and steered us to this tiny village that doesn’t even appear on a map, you can begin to see the effort that God has put to address the needs of HIS little girl.  You will see how HE has made it possible for Maely to get a birth certificate, a passport and a visa to come to the US for surgery.  You will see how HE provided an organization like Mending Kids International to coordinate her surgery, provide for her rehabilitation and provide a host family for her to stay with during her 3 month recuperation.  You will see how God is not only rescuing and healing HIS precious child, HE is using her story to inspire dozens of others to re-examine what is, and isn’t important in life.  Maely’s story is still being written as we speak but she has already changed some peoples lives forever.  Only an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and all loving God could accomplish all of these miracles through the life of this one little girl.  As you follow Maely’s story, you are seeing the fingerprint of God HIMSELF as he reveals HIS LOVE and POWER by overcoming every obstacles to rescue this precious child.   Think about it…God has taken the “least of these” by the worlds standards and has taken her out of her tiny village, flown  her  to some of the largest cities in the world, provided her with surgery that will undo the physical deformity of her birth, and blessed  her with more clothes, shoes and personal belongings than the richest person in her village.  She will return home, walking upright and tall, with knowledge and experiences that others in her village could only dream about.  Every time she walks through her village now, she will be a living testament to glory, power and goodness of our GOD.

Here is a video of the first time we met Maely Sarai Hernandez near her village in the highlands of Honduras a year and a half ago.
http://www.youtube.com/v/gysfmGpfgy0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam

Here is a video clip of Maely Bonita Sarai Hernandez a few days ago

As you can see God is already healing the scars of rejection but it will take a lot of love, over a long time to finish this step.  I can't wait to see the child that will emerge once her loving God has wiped away her every tear, healed her physical deformity and filled her heart with the joy and peace that comes from a personal relationship with our CREATOR!

Next....Maely arrives in Los Angeles and prepares for her surgery on the 19th.