This month has been all about planting seeds – honestly, not my specialty. Ordinarily, I don’t have the patience for that. At home I work in a greenhouse, but the plants are already growing, and I am just caring for them. The actual process of planting the seeds takes time and persistence and faith that something is happening even when you can’t really see any results.
That’s how I felt stepping into this month of ministry in Frutillar, Chile. Our host, Daniel, had worked at House of Hope in Santiago, Chile for eleven years and had only just moved to Frutillar six months prior. Unlike Santiago, House of Hope in Frutillar had no orphanage, no home for young women who had aged out of the orphanage, no connection with a special needs school, and no community center where the youth in the community could spend their time. Basically, it felt like we were walking into something that hardly existed at all.
I anticipated a challenging month with little tangible payoff, but all of my expectations were vastly exceeded. Our primary purpose in Frutillar was to build relationships, getting word out to the community about House of Hope and creating connections. While not as straightforward as I initially imagined, the month brought me so much joy and fulfillment. I met so many wonderful human beings that I got to connect with on a deep level.
Through our time at the school, I got to know the English teacher very well and each one of my thirty-five students (among others). On the last day of being at the school, a few of my girls gave me a twenty-five-minute hug, not breaking it even when I walked up and back down the stairs. I was able to share my faith with them and get an address to send them postcards from other countries, and I was constantly asked if I would be coming back. (Perhaps I will.) At other schools, we were able to talk to the students about passions and how choices now are so impactful for the future, a message humbly yet boldly spoken in a region where only about thirty percent of the population finishes high school. At our evening English class, I had the privilege of forming deep relationships with five young girls who opened up and shared about their struggles. We were able to have many interactions through seeing them at school, at English class, and at the church we invited them to! Before leaving, I was able to write them letters telling them of their beauty and worth as daughters of the King, and, thanks to social media, I will be able to stay in contact with them and continue to be a part of their lives.
These are only a few examples of the life-giving relationships that stemmed from this month, but the connections truly were abounding. Surprisingly, it turned out to be quite easy for me to see God’s purpose for my time in Frutillar, and this came in the form of imagining House of Hope’s future. When I was in a muddy ditch digging holes for fence posts, I could see the building that would rise up from the dust to serve as the base of operations for the organization. When I heard the voice of a young girl who I came to love speaking of how she had reached a place in her life where she had thought it was no longer worth living, I could picture the broken hearts that would come to find a place in the girls’ home in the future. Even when I participated in something as simple as playing volleyball with a group of students, I imagined them in a soon-to-be community center where they could be comfortable spending time preparing for the careers they are passionate about rather than trapped in the lifestyle of alcohol and drugs that plagues their small town. Daniel and his family have a vision for the future that is filled to the brim with goodness, and I am so confident that God will bring it to fruition.
While I am sad about my time in Frutillar having come to a close and my heart is broken by the goodbyes that were said, my soul is so excited for the ten months to come. I am so beyond grateful that God put me in this time and this place to do something as simple as planting seeds.
