We’ve been getting into the swing of things over the last few weeks, getting involved in our local ministries and continuing to help around the property at Casa Blanca. Mostly we clean. Our ministry days look like sanitizing individual flash cards and organizing paper closets at Camp Hope, a foundation where kids with disabilities can go for special education and physical therapy. They haven’t been able to reopen since COVID first hit, and so our ministry is cleaning and disinfecting the facility so that the kids can come back.
Similarly, we’ve also been working with an organization called Venezuela en Ecuador, where they were converting a room into medial offices. In order for the room to be up to code, the walls needed to be white, so we cleaned and painted and prayed over that space too.
Both of these have been amazing opportunities to be the behind the scenes in the kingdom of God. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t yearning for connection with the children that usually inhabit the rooms in Camp Hope, or an opportunity to talk to the refugees from Venezuela.
The Lord knew the desires of my heart, and last Saturday we were given a sweet blessing of connection with the girls in Casa Elisabeth, the home for girls who experienced teen pregnancy, a stone’s throw from Casa Blanca. Until that point, our exposure to them had been very limited even though our buildings are in the same gated property. But a few of us were helping clear out the bodega underneath the house and were invited to have lunch with them when we were finished.
There was so much joy in the house that day, as the four of us marveled at the chance to play with the babies, meet their sweet mamas, and share a delicious Ecuadorian meal with them. After that, they invited us to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with them the next day which presented even more connection with them.
I am so thankful to be the hands and feet of God in the mundane, in the disinfecting and the raking and the painting. I would not for a second think that I’m better off somewhere else when I know how important it is for these places to reopen. But I am so grateful that God gifted us those sweet afternoons of laughing, sharing communion, stumbling through Spanish, and smiling until my cheeks hurt.
