I had told the girls of the event ALL week hoping that they would come and that God would make the day look the way He wanted it to look. We had spent time preparing and deciding what exactly we wanted it to look like and how we wanted to spend that day with the beloveds. to best explain to this culture what we were doing, we used the phrase Chica-Chica time (which they really liked).
As a team we decided we would have different stations for them. We would have food, music/dancing, photo shoot, nail station, make-up station, bracelet station, and a couple of testimonies. Our intention was to honor those women and genuinely spend time with them. to genuinely love them and speak life into them.
Our squad leader Tara was with us and she led the photo shoot and made it awesome. Tara brought lots of props that included scarves, hats, glasses, signs, etc….it was so great and even more marvelous because she had just asked God to give her the opportunity to use her photography hobby and she came & that station was just waiting for her. She made it so creative and fun for the girls. We were able to print out those photos for the girls and give the pictures to them to keep. so fun.
Angie, a former club manager had been on our night outreaches with us as well as teaching us of this lifestyle all through the month. She answered our questions and guided us through a lot. She shared her testimony and connected with many of those girls that day. She opened herself up and automatically connected because she knew those beloveds better than they knew themselves. it was incredible. She spoke in Tagalog ( one of the languages spoken here in the Philippines ) and although I could not understand, it was still so penetrating and powerful.
As I looked around the room all through out the day, I saw laughter as they picked up props and had their own personal photo shoot. I saw beauty and community as we did each others make-up and nails, I hoped as they made bracelets and slipped them on they would remember this day and from it God would restore. I watched as my teammates cried with them and laughed with them. I watched as we fell in love with them.
We leave now as the month comes to an end and hope that God used us to plant seeds. We pray that God protects His chicas.
