11-4-17
La Pintana, Chile
Some of the Highlights
There are so many stories I could share for this blog, which is wonderful, yet challenging at the same time because it’s hard to choose what to write about. I could write about:
– the time we drove through the Andes Mountains, swam in the hot springs, rode horses and hiked to a waterfall
– the time the teacher we have been working with the past few weeks invited us to her home, cooked us a meal, let us play with her 1 year old son, and allowed a sweet time to share a meal with the mountains as our backdrop
– every morning when we arrive at the school, a student with something similar to down syndrome and is non verbal squeals with excitement, raises her arms in the air and comes toward us ready for a huge hug.
– the time one of the girls living in the house (who I will talk about later in this blog) braided my entire head with tiny braids
– the multiple times we performed skits and acted goofy in front of a bunch of kids that speak a different language
– the time we had a jam session at the dining room table with a guy named Esteban who usually leads worship here, and sang Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and also some worship songs while he played the guitar
– the time I just took a nap on the couch and and got to cuddle with one of the girls who live here
– the time I got to know a girl named Laura, who was volunteering at the special needs school and speaks French because she is from France. (There will be more about her later, too.)
– the time we all had homemade empanadas, an ice cream party, and then ended the night with a dance party and singing, “Break Every Chain” at the top of our lungs
– the time my teammate and I went to meet our squad leader across town, and got to our metro station 40 minutes before it even opened and waited in the cold LOL
– the time we hiked to the top of a mountain in the middle of Santiago called San Cristobal; then found a Taqueria with an inappropriate name that had the funniest guys working there, the biggest hamburgers I’ve ever seen, and some delicious tacos; and also drank the BEST freshly squeezed orange & kiwi juice from a cute little old lady on the street corner.
– the time time Tio Jose brought cheese empanadas to the house for breakfast
– the time a 15 year old girl named Paola that comes to Hope Community on Saturdays, who taught herself English (which is super impressive), gave me a present and wrote a sweet note to me as a goodbye gift
– the time I played soccer with a bunch of Chileans and was surprisingly not terrible.
– the time my team struggled some of the people from the other U.S. missionary team that came here in the middle of our stay, switched up the schedule, and had a different leadership style…and how through prayer and humility from the Lord learned to find the goodness in them and come to genuinely love and appreciate them.
– the time one of the girls ( I will call her Hope) here who we all were especially fond of, shared her testimony at the fundraiser dinner in front of everyone and were overwhelmed with emotions. Her schizophrenic mother was raped by her uncle, and Hope was the product, meaning her dad was also her great uncle. She was sent to the orphanage when she was around 8 and could see her parents on the weekends and one weekend she went and was raped by her other uncle, who when investigated committed suicide. Then Hope was blamed for his death because she “talked”. Several years later she left the orphanage to live with a boyfriend, who physically abused her, so she eventually left that situation and was sleeping on the street. Casa Esperanza took her in, and she left, then a month later begged to come back, and now she practically runs everything, especially when it comes to meal prepping. This is the short version of her story. She is now 20 years old and has been one of my favorite parts of being here. (See more below)
– the times we’ve woken up in the middle of the night because you can hear gunshots somewhere close in the neighborhood to signify where the drug deal is at
– the 57, 000 times we have washed dishes since being here
– the time we went out, asked the Holy Spirit to guide us, and prayed with people in the neighborhood. Even with the language barrier, God came through. There’s so many cool things that happened during this time with my teammates, but there was a group of 4 young people sitting in the park smoking weed, and God told me to tell them that He sees them and He loves them, not in a condemning way, but just a gentle, loving, Fatherly way. So my teammate and I picked little flowers and spelled out “Dios te vea y te ama” with the flowers and showed one of the guys. He was so happy and thankful and even took a picture. It’s amazing how God will pursue His children and how Jesus meets us right where we are.
– I could keep going, but to keep this from becoming a novel I’m going to stop and begin with what I really wanted to write about…
We have been here almost a month now, and we will leave on Wednesday for Valparaiso, Chile to meet up with the rest of our squad for a few days before traveling to Argentina next. There have been countless moments here in La Pintana that I will hold on to forever, but I feel like the most valuable piece of each memory is the person or people I got to share it with.
This first month especially, with all the change and transition, has required a lot of learning, patience, and adjusting, but it has been amazing to feel the peace and grace God gives. It almost makes it easy, in a way. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been away from the people and life I’ve known for a whole month already, and there is still 10 months to go until I get to see them and hug them again. It’s also crazy how the people I am with now have become family, not replacing the family I have, but definitely bringing that sense of belonging and being a part of something together. We live together, share meals together, spend most of our time together, laugh together, work together, help each other, cook together, clean together, and actually live in community the way I feel like God wanted us to.
(See Acts 2)
“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper ), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”
??Acts of the Apostles? ?2:42-47? ?NLT??
So this one is for the people that I will never forget… (I realize that for most of you reading this, these are just names & faces, and there is not much significance to you because you’ve never met them, so thank you for taking the time to see parts of my heart. If nothing else, I ask that you would please take a moment to pray for them before you close this tab. Thank you! )
Laura- (Picture coming soon…not uploading)
This is Laura. She is from France and has been here in Chile volunteering at the special needs school we were helping at, as well. She sleeps down the hall from us, and we share a bathroom with her. This girl is so incredibly beautiful and has made a huge impact on me in a very short amount of time. I am thankful for her heart to serve others and help people without ever being asked. I am thankful for the many memories we made together, including all the times we just tried to have a conversations. She knew some Spanish, and I know some Spanish, so we communicated mainly with broken Spanish, using Google Translate here and there for the conversations that required words that weren’t in our basic Spanish vocabulary bank. I came to learn that she was not a Christian, her parents were Catholic, but religion or a relationship with Jesus was not “practiced” at home in France. She is also 27. She prayed with us, worshiped with us, went on adventures with us, walked to school with us, stayed up late some nights and laughed with us, downloaded the Bible App in French, downloaded the worship songs we sang in Spanish and listened to them on her own, and came to devotionals even when she didn’t know what people were saying. One night, it was just her and I on the couch and I we got to have a really good talk. I was able to tell her why I was a Christian and how the Jesus saved me from the life I was living. Now is one of those moments when I wish I were great with words because the amount of love I have for her is definitely something that is from God and I wish I was able to express it. It’s like I can feel His heart for her. Like, I am crying writing this out right now. It probably doesn’t help that we said goodbye today. So…now I will be going to France at some point. And Fiji lol. She borrowed my nail polish a few days ago, and when she tried to give it back, I told her to keep it and remember me lol. The name of the polish color was Fiji, so I told her one day we will go together. And I really hope that we can. One day, I will meet up with the my friend who is from France, who speaks French, who I met in Chile, and hang out in Fiji speaking Spanish. LOL. Only God. Who says He doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Estephania (Picture coming soon…not uploading)
This chick is crazy and she is the best!! I am really going to miss her sense of humor, her hospitable nature, her goofiness, and her saying “cachai”. I don’t know if I spelled that right, but it’s a very Chilean word that she says all the time. Estephania, aka Stefi or Estefa, lives down the hall from us, too, and shares her bathroom with us as well. She is 30 years old, but looks 23 and is getting married in March. When she was younger, she lived at Casa Esperanza and was one of the original girls here, and now she is basically running this part of the ministry with the girls. She organizes the chore schedule so that the girls have responsibilities they can take ownership of. She makes sure they are learning how to budget money as they plan for meals and food. She takes care of a LOT of the behind the scenes things, can translate English and Spanish, and she just has a such a great personality. She’s is smart, encouraging, loving, funny, and just wonderful. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time our paths cross.
Her job is tough. The girls she is responsible for here at the house are 1- teenagers, 2- from super broken pasts, 3- usually victims of abuse, and 4- mostly from the local orphanage (called the Hogar). They don’t always want to cooperate, they have things they struggle with, and she is constantly giving herself and her time to invest in their futures and share the Gospel with them. Many times she doesn’t get to see the fruits of her labor, or the harvest of the seeds she plants. You can be praying for her in this, for her wedding coming up and the stresses that come with that, and that her transition would be smooth as she adjusts to living with her husband instead of here at Casa Esperanza. That will be a big change.
“Hope” (Picture coming soon…not uploading)
I wish I could write her name, but just for her privacy and protection I will call her Hope. I mentioned her testimony a few paragraphs ago, but this girl, man. She is so inspiring and so dang funny. She laughs at us as we try to pronounce Spanish words, puts her pet hamster down the backs of our shirts, examines our eyeballs because you don’t see a lot of blue eyes here, and her favorite word is “no” when we mess with her LOL. To know her story and see how fun, how silly, how smart, how skilled, and how responsible she is, blows me away. To say she is super special to our team is an understatement. This girl is going places, and God has so much in store for her. I literally cannot wait to hear about what He does in her life.
There are several others I could write about, too, but because I am out of time, I will have to cut this blog short.
Jesus, THANK YOU. For everything. You are so so good. Thank you for the person reading this. Bless them ten fold! AMEN. 🙂
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
I’ll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday
