I find it difficult to choose which stories to tell and which stories to exclude. I also find it difficult to keep the stories short enough to keep people’s attention!
I think today I want to take the time to tell you about just a few of the children who have captured my heart.
However, first I want to tell you about a vision my amazing teammate, Meg, had regarding me.
During a super feedback session with our squad leaders, Meg said that she saw me with three children of different ethnicities on my lap. The number of children started growing exponentially until it went back to just three. The cycle would repeat over and over again. She said that she’s seen me impacting children in different countries and loving them in a way that allows them to be healed from their past and move on.
Last night, God showed me that after that happens, I am also allowed to do the same thing. I can move on to finding more children in need of the love and wisdom that He has overflowed me with. Although, I might miss the children I so deeply attach to, I know that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to and that I am changing lives in the name of Jesus Christ. I am setting children free through God’s love and joy.
Melany:
This gorgeous seven-year-old ran up to me the very first day that we went to the school down the street to pass out flyers for the after school program. She hugged me, looked up at me and smiled. That was the moment I fell hard for her.
Every day since then, I have been blessed to see her at her school when we go and teach. I have even had the opportunity to teach her class some basic Spanish to English words.
(Yes, thank God my four-years-worth of Spanish classes are slowly coming back to me! I can understand most of what people say now, but haven’t ventured out to speak much unless it’s been to the children I try to talk to. It’s probably because I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of the adults by butchering my conjugated verbs!)
She also comes to the after school program at Mano y Mano, El Gran Show, and when she walks in the large metal gate and sees me, she comes flying at me at a hundred miles an hour and leaps into my arms giggling and wrapping her arms around me.
She loves to sit with me and write in my journal. Wednesday, while at her school, she saw my journal in my purse and asked: “Puedo escribir?” Of course, I can’t say no to that face! She has wrote a few sentences, but mainly writes “Cassie + Melany” inside a heart and then looks up at me for my approval.
Every time she does something, no matter how simple, I feel like I just live to give her positive feedback. (World Racer problems! Bahaha)
She runs the relay with a beanbag on her head: positive feedback.
She draws the same dog over and over on two pages of my journal: positive feedback.
She decorates her crown and writes the memory verse in English and Spanish: positive feedback.
I feel like there is nothing that Melany can do to receive anything but love and acceptance from me because that’s the same way God looks at her.
Melissa:
If you’ve seen my pictures on Facebook, I touched on Melissa’s story. We met Melissa while we were canvassing the neighborhood Monday with flyers about El Gran Show. Our contact, Anna, told us that she is one of those “trouble children”.
She rebels against her mother to the extreme.
She has moved out of her mother’s home and is currently living with a much older man.
She disappears for days on end and no one knows where she is.
Around Christmas time, she disappeared for 10 days and most people feared that she was dead, maybe even killed by the man she lives with.
She is emotionally distant and doesn’t respond to adult figures like Anna much, unless it’s by laughing it off as if they are a joke.
She has a major attitude and you can tell by her body language and those around her that she is the “bad girl”.
The choices she had made in her life make her appear as if she is 25 years old.
She’s only 14 years old.
Anna says Melissa’s mom begs her to go to the Mano y Mano program but she refuses to come. I asked Anna if she would come the following day after we told Melissa about the program. She simply said, with a sad look on her face, “No.”
Tuesday I saw Melissa at her school when we went to teach. She smiled. It was an authentic smile. She was happy to see us. She skipped down the hill to me and hugged me tight.
My heart rejoiced! I was making a connection with an “unconnectable.”
For a few minutes we just sat in silence. She was unable to ask what she wanted to in English and I was unable to ask what I wanted to in Spanish. But, it wasn’t an awkward silence. She would look at me and smile. It was as if she was happy that I was there.
There was joy behind her eyes! There was hope deep within! I am determined to bring it forward!
Tuesday afternoon, I looked up from playing with the kids and saw Melissa walking towards us. She came to the program! She was smiling but also had her head down and looked slightly shy or embarrassed to be there. The whole program she laughed and interacted; she seemed to be having fun! She was being the child that her physical age reflected.
Every day since, whenever I see her at school or the program (or both!) I get a huge smile and a hug. She still likes to sit next to me and ask me questions in Spanish that she knows I will understand and is always smiling. She asks me to take her picture and giggles when I tell her she’s beautiful.
Melissa has been laid strongly on my heart. I only pray that God will allow me to plant some kind of seed in her life to bring her back to the fun, loving child that she is and that she stops trying to grow up so fast. I pray that she may see God’s love and that she will be changed forever by it.
Juan Carlos and Joel:
I met these twin boys at the program we had for the youth on Saturday night.
(For those of you who know me well: that’s right! I have made a connection with three teenagers! That is SO not the age group that I usually connect with!)
They strutted in with their “I’m a teenager and I know it” swag just a few minutes before the program begun.
They walked in with four other teenage boys all dressed in sagging designer jeans and t-shirts. They definitely thought that they were the coolest kids on the block.
Anna said two of the boys whom they came with were some of the first ones in the program over six years ago and she hadn’t seen them in almost four years. Two more prodigal children returning while we were there!
But there was something different about Juan Carlos and Joel. When the other boys weren’t looking, the twins were different people. You could tell that they were behaving like that just because their friends behaved that way and they felt like they had to as well in order to fit in with them.
All the older boys played an intense game of futbol and I’m honestly surprised that there were no broken limbs! Juan Carlos was the goal keeper for one team and he was cracking me up! He is a total showboat! Every time he did something impressive or good, he’d turn around and make sure we saw so I could be impressed.
He was a typical 18-year-old.
Eventually, we gathered all the youth inside for a few of our testimonies. While the other four boys laughed and joked most of the time, the twins—although mostly Juan Carlos—were intrigued by something. Something the girls said caught their attention. Since I was standing up front I was able to read all kinds of expression and something about Juan Carlos said he wanted to know more.
After hotdogs and pop, it was time to clean up and send them home. While the other boys were messing around with the pool table and carrying on loudly, Juan Carlos came and helped me clean up. He helped me stack chairs, fold tables, and throw trash away. He smiled, twisted his face, like he was racking his brain to come up with his best English sentence, and said “Um,.. I be here next….. week.”
As he left, he was one of the only older boys there who respectfully said goodbye to all of us and Anna as per Ecuador’s custom- with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Maybe he wasn’t a typical 18-year-old.
Although he wanted his friends to think he was just like them, there is something different about Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos wants to know more. Juan Carlos wants what we have.
Sunday, as we were walking to the mountain (which was a failure for me, but that’s a different story for another time!), I heard a familiar voice mumble my name. I turned around and Juan Carlos was walking with an older man. He greeted me and then the rest of the group before continuing to walk tall down the street with the other man.
He was a different person. He wasn’t that immature kid I saw when he was with his friends; he was mature and seemed much older. It proved to me that there is something deep inside Juan Carlos that wants out. He desires to be himself in a sea full of similarity amongst his peers.
I couldn’t help but wonder: “Is this what I looked like in college?”
I wanted so badly to fit in that I compromised myself and who I really wanted to be to look just like everyone else, even though I hated it. Maybe, just maybe, God will use my story to help Juan Carlos realize that there is more to life than fitting in with people who are nothing like you desire to be.
These are just three of the many kids whose stories I hear and see daily; just a few of the lives who lay heavy on my heart every day.
Please pray for Melany, Melissa, and the twins, specifically Juan Carlos. I know I’m only here for three short
weeks, but it’s my prayer that I can impact their lives in very different ways that are necessary for their specific situations.
