It’s amazing to me how much hurt is in the world. One of the reasons I wanted to come on the Race was to see what I could do about it, and I just knew God would give me opportunities to use my knowledge in speech therapy to offer help and hope. I just had no idea it would happen during my second week.
Two of the most precious people I met in Honduras are Ivannia (top) and Erika (bottom), two precious girls at the children’s home at Corazon de Cristo. Both girls have cerebral palsy and can easily steal your heart.
Erika and Ivannia are both orphans. Our missionary contacts believe they were both sexually abused before they made it to Corazon de Cristo. What they’ve been through horrifies me. Unfortunately, according to Gracie, our missionary contact, it is commonplace in Honduras for children and adults with special needs to be neglected and abused. Often, children with special needs are left on a bed in a back room and are only visited to be fed. It seems there is a lot of shame and ignorance in Honduras regarding these issues. If only the people here knew the options they have to improve their quality of life! Now, here is where my part in the story begins….
One of the first things I noticed when we arrived at this ministry was how Ivannia and Erika were being treated by their caregivers, the nannies. It seemed to me like the nannies care about them, but I noticed the girls were continually left on a dirty mat on the ground and I never noticed anyone playing with them… they were simply left on the floor with their arms stretched out for someone to hold them. One of my teammates also noticed that one of the girls’ had severe head lice (literally seven or eight nits on each strand of hair). Can you imagine having a head full of lice and not even being able to scratch your head? I also noticed the nannies’ feeding methods were antiquated and completely inappropriate for children with cerebral palsy. In fact, the way they were being fed is quite dangerous.
At Corazon de Cristo, we had to opportunity to try different ministries, including helping with housework, visiting and praying for the locals, helping take care of the orphans, and doing painting and other types of construction. I volunteered one day to help take care of Ivannia and Erika so I could observe how they were being cared for. To make a long story short, I was pretty angry after my first day of helping take care of Ivannia and Erika. They just weren’t getting the care they need and their quality of life was horrible. I feel God calling me to be an advocate for justice. There was no way I was going to leave Honduras without the girls getting appropriate care.
Fortunately, one of my squadmates, Michelle, both a fabulous person and nurse, was also concerned about Ivannia and Erika. The two of us decided we needed to approach the missionaries and offer our help to improve the girls’ quality of life. Our missionary contacts were very thankful and receptive to our suggestions, but warned us they have made multiple attempts to implement programs for the girls, but they rarely saw carry-over, especially since the turn-over rate for their staff is so high. Despite this, they welcomed our help and encouraged us to work with the nannies to try to help the girls. Michelle and I knew we had to do something to help, but we knew training one particular nanny, Maria, was going to be extremely difficult. I had talked to her before and my suggestions were not received well. I prayed for God to help us.
At first, the other nannies were increasingly receptive to our help and slowly began to implement some of our suggestions. This was great! However, after several attempts to train Maria, we could see she was absolutely not interested in hearing what we had to say, even though our missionary contacts told her we were there to help. We endured days of angry glares and eye-rolling. While we were in the room, she would half-way attempt to improve, but as soon as we turned our backs, she would go back to her own way. I kept thinking, why on earth would she be doing this? I started to feel anxious that I may not be able to make a difference in the girls’ lives and that all our efforts were in vain. Then I realized I was trying to focus more on my own efforts.God reminded me of something very important….
God loves Ivannia and Erika more than I ever could. He can see their hurt and knows what they need better than anyone. He is their helper and their healer. “But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.” – Psalm 10:14. During my time with the girls, I had to actively tell myself that God is their ultimate healer. All He expects of me is to do is my best for the girls. One day I started to get sick with a headache and a sore throat. I was desperate to help the girls so prayed that God would heal me so I didn’t have to miss any days … the next day, my sore throat was gone!
God also told me something else… the reason why Maria refused to listen to us was not just a cultural issue, it was something much deeper. I heard God tell me that deep down, she was hurting. The fact she was not complying with our instructions was just a symptom of a deeper issue. I prayed God would help me have compassion on Maria and a few days later, something amazing happened.
Our squad decided to have an evening of praying and feet- washing of the staff at Corazon de Cristo. Someone asked me if I wanted to help wash the staff’s feet and I immediately knew God wanted me to volunteer to wash Maria’s feet. Yes, that may sound insane… why would anyone want to serve a person who had acted so disrespectfully towards me? I remembered this is what Jesus taught and it’s what Jesus did. “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… for if you love those that love you, what reward do you have?”- Matthew 5. I knew God needed to do something special in me to make this happen. Loving my enemies is not my forte. That evening, it was like God cleared a path to Maria so I could sit at her feet and wash them and pray for her. While I was washing them, it was like something broke inside her. She couldn’t stop crying. Michelle came up and washed her feet as well. When we parted ways, Maria gave us a big hug and every time she saw me before we left the ministry, she smiled. I’m so glad God used us to bless her. I found out later that Maria’s husband was not present in their family and her son needed surgery they couldn’t afford. No wonder she is hurting. God is so good to reach out to us in our pain and to give us the opportunities to play a part in the healing of others.
If you made it this far in my blog, please give yourself a big hug from me! Thank you for reading. J
