In my last blog, I mentioned how we are currently living with a family of 18 people in an old school in Cascada, Argentina. Let me tell you a little more about that and what we’re doing here this month!
This family has a pretty unique story, and are doing really incredible things here in the little nearby town of Pasman. The Lord has given them an awesome vision that they have just recently begun and it has been cool to get to partner with them in being a little part of bringing this dream to life and encourage them during our time here.
The family: the sweet couple we are living with have four biological children, 11 adopted children, and an adopted granddaughter! Their ages range from about 5-20 years old. So life is really crazy a lot of the time in the house. As you could probably guess, this couple has a big heart for kids, and after being a part of an organization that helps abandoned children on the streets in Buenos Aires, they began fostering and adopting children from the streets or with tough family situations in 2009 – and over the past eight years have fostered over 40 children. About six months ago they moved to this area, first living in Pasman, and then even more recently were given the school to live in in Cascada which is much more suitable for the size family they have. Though it still needs lots of attention (they installed showers the day we got here!) and they are still in the process of moving in all the way, life is good at the school. It’s been super beautiful seeing this family love and care for each other, and us, in big and small ways and for them to all be in this together and so full of joy.
The vision: put simply, is to start a home. The home will be a type of safe haven for children from the streets to be able to live in. It is most importantly for them to receive Father’s love, and it is also for them to have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and to be a type of rehabilitation place for children to break free from addictions they may be chained to. This family has been given an old abandoned cheese factory in Pasman that they have been taking steps in transforming into the home they have envisioned. And while that is happening, we are also working at making the school more of a home that is sufficient for this size of a family.
In the mornings during the week, all the kids are at school so we are able to have some quiet, and we also work! We have been helping out the family in any way that we can while we are here, knowing they have a lot going on and not always people around to help. We have been doing lots of projects around the house – making rooms within the house, building shelves, going through stuff that has been moved, transferring the last of their things from Pasman to here, etc. There is also quite a bit of a flooding/draining problems on the roads around the home, so we’ve been putting some work in making a system for keeping the roads dry and the water draining when it rains (quite a contrast to our time in Africa).
In the evenings when everyone returns home, it is constant craziness which is so fun! Even with that, we’ve been able to do a bible study with the older ones, play with the younger ones, help with doing homework, cooking, and cleaning around the house, and just trying to take the load off of the couple and the older ones who do so much around the house. All the while, we are building relationships the best we can with hand gestures, broken Spanish, and lots of jokes and laughs through it all. It’s been really sweet to feel like a part of the family with these people – they all feel like brothers and sisters. It is a gift.
I see the Lord so evidently at work in this place and in this family – we were able to hear how He has been so faithful in their lives through it all to this point, and see how they have and are currently living in the confidence that He is not going to fail them now. It’s incredible. I’ve been learning a lot from them, as well as from being with the Lord in the sweet quiet of the mornings, on walks in the afternoons, in the beauty of creation all around us, and from the joy that is always present in the people. Ah, I’ve been so refreshed!
Just as the cheese factory is abandoned and has been ignored and forgotten for many years and is now being restored to something new – so is my prayer for the children who will step foot in the home. Though they may have been abandoned or forgotten, I pray this home will provide a place for the Lord to restore them to the new creation they are in Him. Amen!
Join me in praying for this family and for the home that is being brought to life.
Thank you for the blessing of this place, Lord! I really love Argentina a lot.
All to Him I owe
