The Role of a Father

 

My team and I are spending this month at Mi Casa International: a home for orphaned, abused, and abandoned children in El Salvador. When I signed up for the Race, I expected to love a lot of people this year… but I never knew I would be loving people I had just met as deeply as I’m loving these kids. They have stolen my heart. 

 

In the few hours we’re not at the home, we’re studying the book Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge (you should check it out; the men’s version is called Wild at Heart). One part explains the importance of a father in a girl’s life: “Little girls need the tender strength of their fathers. They need to know that their daddies are strong and will protect them; they need to know that their fathers are for them. Above all, a little girl learns the answer to [her questions, ‘Am I lovely? Am I captivating? Am I worth it?’] from her father.” Every girl–every woman–longs to be lovely, and whether or not they believe they are has a lot to do with the way their father treated them when they were young. 

 

My dad has always been and still is all of these things. His strength made me feel protected; his constant presence in my life growing up and they way he supports my dreams now let me know that he is for me; his sacrifices tell me I’m worth it; and he makes me feel lovely by making me feel loved… not just for beauty but for who I am as a person. Nobody could fill his role. He is my definition of a Godly man and a wonderful father, and I feel like my sister and I are the luckiest girls in the world. But not every girl can say that. And being unable, no matter how hard I try, to put myself in their shoes and imagine how they feel… it breaks my heart. Because every girl deserves the fatherly love I have. 

 

Instead, the orphaned kids lost their fathers. The abandoned kids wonder why their fathers didn’t want them. The abused kids realized they needed to be afraid of the very men who were intended to protect them. What does that tell them about their worth? But thank God that their stories don’t end here. Because every child living at Mi Casa has learned that when the world abandoned them, God never did. Our God is not a God of abandonment, and He loves them all with an unending and unmatched love. But how can these kids understand the love of The Father without really knowing what it’s like to be loved by a father? Let me introduce you to Bob McDonnell.

 

Bob left a successful career in the United States and moved to El Salvador to answer a calling from God. He and his wife founded Mi Casa 25 years ago, and he has taken on the role as a father to every child who has lived in this home. Nothing warmed my heart like seeing them run to him with laughter and smiles, jump into his arms, and yell “Daddy!” He values each of them, he teaches them tough and important lessons, he supports their dreams. The way he loves them and welcomes them into his open arms is a picture of God’s love; the way he lives his life reveals God to these kids. 

 

And like a good father does, he protects them and fights for them. Back in January, Mi Casa took in six girls who were previously living in a Catholic orphanage. They were badly, inhumanely abused and taken advantage of there… hearing about it literally made me want to throw up. So by bringing them here, Bob was basically saving their lives. In this place, they’re loved, nurtured, educated, and taught about Jesus. When these girls left, the nuns of the orphanage lost their money makers and were furious. So four months later, they made up a story accusing Bob and Mi Casa of terrible things. This led to immediate investigation and launched a huge legal battle that they’re still fighting. All of the kids were removed from the home until investigations could be completed. Finding nothing of the accusations to be true, the judge allowed these 14 kids to come home. But 10 other kids have a different judge who (for political connections I don’t understand) is refusing to let them come back simply because he has the power to say “No.” But like God never abandons His children, like good fathers never abandon theirs, Bob is not abandoning them. He has promised them he will never give up, and in God’s timing, we all believe they will be home. Just to prove their innocence, Mi Casa has spent nearly $30,000 in legal fees and had to pull this money from the funds set aside for their schooling. Getting an English education in a private school (because public school is a recruitment place for the gangs) is the only chance these kids have at escaping the cycle of poverty and abuse. It’s so important. But when your kids are stolen away, you’re willing to put some things on the line in faith that God will come through. 

 

However, raising so many kids doesn’t leave much time for raising funds. In Bob’s words, “I want to spend as little time as possible fundraising and as much time as I can being Daddy to these kids.” So we’re doing everything we can to make this possible, and we’re asking for your help. We created a gofundme page to raise money for their education. You can find it here… http://www.gofundme.com/iqr2ko. Please click on this link to read about why this is so important, and prayerfully consider helping to fund their dreams. Please also share it with any individual, business, etc. who may be interested in helping. Thank you so much for your love and support, thank you for believing!

 

The role of a father is one of the most important roles a person can fill, and Bob is doing that beautifully for so many young girls and boys. More importantly, he is pointing them all to God… the best Father any of us could ask for, the one who fills this role better than anybody else ever could!

 

Sending love from El Salvador, 

Eryn