This month in Bolivia has been fantastic! I know I’ve said that before, but I legitimately love it here. The scenery is beautiful, our ministry is awesome, and I just love working with everyone I’ve been placed with this month. I’m only about two weeks in and just going to ministry every morning is so exciting. I love getting to hang out with the guys and see them and just be there. They’re tough kids. They’re ornery, they’re sneaky, they don’t always listen, but they’re also so loving, so open, and so willing to share and learn. I’ve been so blessed in my life and haven’t really had to deal with too many traumatic or difficult things and hearing bits and pieces of some of their stories is so heartbreaking. Some of them don’t have parents at all, some have parents who are in prison, some have parents who are both living and are together who don’t care that their child is in rehab, and some have parents who care very much. It’s also difficult to see these guys not care about anything because they don’t care about themselves. These guys have so much to offer and to share, but they’ve spent their whole lives believing that they’re nothing and it’s easy to see how that belief has manifested itself in their thought processes. Even though it’s tough here, I still absolutely love it and since I’m loving it here so much, I thought I would take a blog and introduce you to a few of the guys at Mision Adulam. I’ll add in pictures of the guys when I am able to upload them to the internet.
First there’s Manuel. He is the youngest guy at the house and he’s thirteen. He looks adorable, but he’s a stinker. He is one of the most talkative guys at our house and he loves attention. I don’t really know how to describe Manuel. He’s just a big ball of energy and loves to ask questions and help us when we’re working on things. He loves to play sports and the guitar and he idolizes his big brother Israel. Even though he’s super loveable, he’s always getting in trouble and he knows what buttons to push on the other guys. Since he’s the youngest, I think he feels like he has to prove himself to everyone else. The first day we came to the rehab center, I sat next to him at lunch and he told me “I love God” in perfect English and it melted my heart. He is one of the most fun people to talk to and he’s never tired of playing an endless game of charades to communicate with us.
Then there’s Israel, Manuel’s older brother. He’s seventeen and he’s a little bit harder to get to open up, but he’s a really awesome dude. He doesn’t smile much, but when he does you know something awesome happened. When we first started working at the rehab center, they told us that Israel had run away from the center and just came back that day. I’m not sure how long he was gone for, but I know they said he didn’t call or check up on Manuel at all. The most important thing is that he’s back now and he seems to be doing well. When I asked him what he likes to do, he told me he does a little bit of everything, but he’s always doing something with music. He loves to play the guitar and he loves it when we bring music to listen to while we work. He also made some really sweet videos with my camera that will probably be coming in another blog soon. It’s really awesome to get to talk to him because he doesn’t say much, but he’s really real with what he says. If he doesn’t like something he’ll tell you and if he thinks something could be done differently he’ll tell you, but at the same time it’s really cool to see how he interacts with Manuel because he lets him learn everything on his own while still keeping that protective older brother watch on him.
One of my absolute favorites is Brandon. He’s sixteen and nothing is hard for this kid. He’s probably the best English speaker in the house, he’s awesome at sports, he can play the guitar like nobody’s business, he’s hilarious, and everyone just loves him. The first thing he ever said to me was, “You know how to play chess?” and before I even had a chance to answer he said, “I’ll teach you, don’t worry.” He’s just so much fun to hang out with and he’s so eager to learn. He loves to talk with us in English and he’s just really curious about everything. He also knows how to get away with everything too. He’ll just flash you his one of a kind smile and walk away and there’s nothing you can do about it. He knows how to work his way into your heart.
Another one of the guys is George. He’s fifteen and he cracks me up. He loves to play games, but he hates to lose so he’ll do anything to win, including cheat. This is especially true when we’re playing chess, except he doesn’t have to do much cheating to beat me. He’s also really awesome at playing this pan-flute type instrument that’s from Bolivia and he’s going to teach me and my teammate, Marie, how to play later this week and I’m really excited about it. He’s just always smiling and I so appreciate him and who he is at the house.
Lastly, there’s Javier. He is one of the sweetest seventeen year olds I’ve ever met. He told me that before he was at Adualm, he was a musician. He’s really great at playing the Spanish guitar and he played a few songs that he wrote for us during their worship time. He’s always one of the first ones to ask us how we’re doing and he’s just really nice. I’ve really loved getting to know him and talk to him.
These are just some of the guys from Mision Adulam that make every day of my ministry experience so much fun. There are three more amazing guys at our ministry too who are just as awesome, I just haven’t gotten to know them quite as well. I cannot express how much I absolutely love working here in Bolivia and all the amazing contacts that have made this month so fantastic.
