goodbyes:
Recently my team and I had some hard adioses. A little while ago we found out we wouldn’t be going back to our ministry, Lifting Hands, due to scheduling conflicts. My heart broke a little when I found out.
Everyday I felt so lucky to be able to work and play with the kids at Lifting Hands in the afternoons. I made some really cool best friends there. Friends that continued to amaze me by teaching me so much about love and uncontrollable energy.
Our first week of ministry was a growing experience for my team and I. We were faced with a lot of free time in the morning and only about 3 hours of ministry. It was hard to feel like we were making an impact where we were and we constantly faced the question of “what are we doing here?”.
At Lifting Hands, one of the people in charge is named Julie. Julie is a rockstar. One day we walked in and started putting out games for the kids to play, and Julie pulled us all into one of the rooms. She started to share about deep parts of her life. Julie had been through prostitution, abusive relationships, drug addiction and losing her kids.
There came a point in her life where she knew things needed to change so she started a support group in the community for women going through exactly what she was. As she continued to empower the women around the community, she was asked to work at Lifting Hands.
Julie then shared about how people like US inspire HER everyday by the way we love the kids and make such an impact in their lives. She encouraged us to continue to plant seeds and continue to love those around us without borders. Our team was feeling bad about ‘not doing enough’ when God put us specifically at Lifting Hands to serve them however they needed. To us it seemed like nothing but to them it was everything. We were blinded by our own expectations – we weren’t trusting in God at all.
I have been reading through Genesis and there are some true tests of faith in there.
Abraham’s whole life is a perfect example.
Abraham’s life began with God making a covenant with him, promising to make him into a great nation and bless him everywhere he went.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)
So Abraham trusts in God and goes into the nations. Abraham faces many trials during his tests of faith and fails at many. In the end, Abraham is faced with a big test. God remained faithful and let Sarah, Abraham’s wife, bear children in her old age- even after Abraham had remained unfaithful through this in his life. Now God says to Abraham give me your only son & the next day Abraham does as he says. “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him.” (Genesis 22:11-12)
“The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Genesis 22:15-17)
God remained faithful to Abraham as he does for all of us everyday. Our last day at Lifting Hands was beyond sad. It’s hard to grow so close to kids then have to leave them. But I know God has a plan for all them and will continue to remain faithful. I loved our opportunity to plant seeds there and grow through love. We truly experienced loyal love from God at Lifting Hands and I am forever thankful for that.
hellos:
I was so anxious and excited to find out where we would be spending in ministry for the next 2 months.
After getting home from Debrief on Monday, we found out we were going to Centro Infantil Trono de Dios which is a government funded day care program for kids ages 3 months- 14 years who come from all over the area of El Domino!!! Most of the kids come from abusive backgrounds or broken families but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the way they love you.
The first day Paige and I were assigned to work with the older kids (age 8-12) and they were SO excited to see us. They welcomed us with open arms and big hugs. We played and ate and took NAPS!! Nap time was quite the struggle at first, trying to get a room full of 9 year olds to want to go to sleep was a patience builder. I image I was this way when I was 9, constantly taking advantage of time in my day for a nap:,) Soon enough we realized it wasn’t going to happen and settled on a quiet whisper. Everyday this week my team switched jobs so we could all experience all the fun. There is a room for toddlers & babies, kindergartners, middle aged kids, older kids and one of my favorites, the kitchen!!!!!
There are some amazing people who work at our ministry. The woman in charge name is Helen (kinda fun, pretty cool) (honestly all the kids remember my name for this specific reason) & she is amazing. Everything at the day care/school is centered on God which is a constant encouragement to be like Jesus and serve in all ways. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to grow closer to the kids and the teachers throughout the next few months!!!
Thanks for reading this !!
make today count <3
~Helen!!!
