Content. This is the feeling that best describes my outlook on spending Christmas 2017 in El Alto, Bolivia. I have perfect peace that Christ specifically placed me here, in Bolivia this year.
I started the day on Sunday, December 24th with excitement for what was about to unfold. My team and I had planned a “spa day” for the girls in the rehabilitation center that we have been working in throughout the past month. I couldn’t wait to surprise them with facials, manicures and pedicures. The holiday season is particularly difficult for these young women because they are far from their families and many of them come from severe brokenness. Christmas for them isn’t about presents and copious amounts of food; they’re more accustom to loneliness and despair on this day.
We were determined to make these young women feel loved and special so as we prepared for the day with our girls (as I like to call them), we prayed. We prayed that Christ would show up throughout our time at the home and that our girls would feel loved and cherished instead of alone.
Our spa day surprise began with a slow start and the girls seems confused and not too thrilled about the Doterra face mask I was rubbing on their faces. They sat in silence for the ten minutes while their masks dried, and we struggled to find the perfect song or anything else that would draw out some enthusiasm. The key to unlocking the excitement, I soon discovered, was the manicure and pedicure portion of the evening. We created sugar scrub for the event (literally just sugar + lotion) and massaged the girl’s hands and feet. They began to burst with excitement, feeling pampered with their professional sugar scrub mani’s and pedi’s. They exclaimed, “MUY RICO” while receiving their massages, which translates to “very rich.” My heart swelled with joy as I rubbed their hands and feet and clipped their toenails. Serving them and bringing a smile to their sweet faces was much more of a gift to me then it was for them.
The spa day turned out to be a huge success, but paled in comparison to what was about to unfold for the remainder of the evening. Our host in El Alto and the woman who started these rehabilitation centers 29 years ago, Fineke, had a very special evening planned for our girls and my team was blessed to be a part of it. Fineke prearranged an evening of worship and set the tone with candles around the room and Christmas lights lining the ceiling of a place where we typically just dined and played games. We placed twenty-one chairs in a circle for the eleven girls, my team of six, Fineke plus her assistant and two team members from the men’s rehabilitation center who had come to assist with worship. As soon as we started singing, tears began to fall. The girls wept. They wept for the absence of their families, brokenness that currently encompasses their lives, deep loneliness, and heavy despair. As they wept, I wept. I looked around the room and was overwhelmed with the heaviness in their eyes. We sang the words of the Hillsong song, Oceans, in Spanish over and over again, letting the lyrics wash over us.
A tu nombre clamaré
En ti mis ojos fijare
En tempestad
Descansaré en tu poder
Pues tuyo soy hasta el final
After we sang Fineke asked the girls if they wanted to share with the group what they were experiencing. Girl after girl raised her hand and the evening began to turn into a time a healing. As each one shared we held hands, cried, and comforted each other while intently listening to each specific story. As the evening ended, we all chose someone in the room to pray with. I walked over to two sweet girls I have grown close with over the last two weeks and held them in my arms as I prayed that Christ would fill them in a way that would allow them to know they are not alone. With Christ, none of us are ever alone.
We all sat down to a late dinner, emotionally exhausted, but more whole than we were when we entered the room. Christ showed up in a big way on December 24th, 2017 here in El Alto, Bolivia. I will remember this evening, and these sweet girls for the rest of my life.
Content, full, at peace. These are the emotions lingering in my heart as I think about my time in Bolivia. I’m confident that I will never experience a Christmas again without thinking of my Bolivian girls and the way I asked Christ to come. He exceeded my expectations.
“The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.” Psalm 9:9-10
Merry Christmas to all my loved ones in the United States and all over the world! Sending blessings and my heart from El Alto, Bolivia!
