We got back from Talamanca on Sunday, April 28th. Had Monday for Sabbath. Then starting that Tuesday we went to our first day of ministry.
We have breakfast at 6am and at 7:15am we are ready and loading onto the base’s bus to travel 2 hours every morning to ministry.
Our ministry is in Desampardos which is a very dangerous part of San Jose with extreme poverty. When we arrive in the neighborhood we must wait to be escorted to our ministry and when we leave we are escorted to our bus.
The ministry we are at is called Las Tablas and it is a feeding program for children, mostly. Our ministry host, Bella Flor has an incredible testimony. She came 22 years ago to this neighborhood and there was absolutely nothing. She started with one single room and was only there because her God gave her this specific neighborhood to help, to love and to share Jesus.
When she first arrived she looked around and tried to help as many kids as possible. She would make huge pots of beans and pass them out to kids and go out and buy shoes for them. She knew she had to do more though.
No one liked her or agreed with what she was doing. Her husband and children did not agree with this new plan God had for her life and they didn’t talk to her for numerous years. It was just her and God. The people in the neighborhood didn’t like her either and sometimes it would get so bad she would call the police to come pick her up because there were people banging at her door trying to kill her.
Over time she started to gain more respect as the younger kids who she started with got older. She was able to expand her room to a two story building, including a kitchen.
Now, she has a full blown ministry where women come in and help her cook to provide food for children coming in.
When we arrive at 9am the food is about halfway ready and we don’t help with any of food preparation. Our job is to love and teach the kids when they come in. We see a lot of the same kids everyday allowing us to build great relationships with each of them! Most of them go to school and come in and out at different times depending when they go to school.
Our second part of ministry is the learning center which is the second half of her building. Our team has some excellent Spanish speakers who take them one-on-one to help them with their homework and with basic Spanish or some basic English. Bella Flor always stressed the importance of the learning center and she really tries for us to see all the kids while we’re there because the kids who come and learn improve exponentially. We always ask how their schooling is doing and most of the time they say they got 100% on their tests!!! Education is their ticket out of where they live, yet it is not seen as important to many in this community. Bella Flor is not only feeding these children and showing them love, she’s teaching them the importance of an education.
Our third part of ministry is cleaning. Everyday we clean up everything, then sweep and mop. Every Thursday we deep clean Las Tablas- every room- sweeping, mopping, dusting, and whatever else Bella Flor needs. On Fridays, we pick up trash around the community. It’s been super cool to see the difference in the trash quantity as we walk to ministry just by the couple of hours we do each week.
It’s a phenomenal ministry that we get to take part in everyday.
For me, I don’t speak a lick of Spanish so I’m always playing with the kids. Sometimes we even go out to the playground and the basketball court to play. It’s very exhausting for sure, but it’s very rewarding. The outside playground is right in the middle of everything and it’s when we really get to see what it’s like to live the way people live in the ghetto. It’s pretty sad actually to watch, especially the young boys. The average age in this part of the ghetto for boys to become affiliated with gangs is 10 years old.
I remember holding one of the little girls in my arms as we walked to the playground. She is an extremely beautiful little girl and is honestly just genetically blessed by God but she never chose to look that way. She is an innocent little 9 year old and carrying her in my arms walking and watching as every man stopped, turned, and stared at this sweet, little girl. My heart ached in that moment for she has no choice in how she looks and she would be too young to protect herself. It just breaks my heart. We can always tell which ones come from the really bad homes and she is one of them. Goodness I pray for her. I pray that God will protect her sweet little heart as she grows up in a very dark place. I pray protection over her body that it may not be used against her. If you would like to take a moment and pray for all these kids as well, please do.
This ministry has been sobering and yet so much fun. I can’t believe it’s already coming to a close. Friday the 24th is our last day.
This was the shortest ministry we were at yet there are some people I will never forget:
Diana and her children.
It was maybe the second or third day of ministry when I got to know them. Diana is 20 years old and she is the mother of Naomi (6), Ashley (4) and Caleb (5 months). I absolutely love this family and they are seriously the cutest. As you can imagine I am always holding Caleb which naturally brings me and Diana close. She is always in high spirits and we have a lot of fun taking selfies and playing games.
One day she asked me to teach her English. I grabbed Elena and Crystal and we soon came to the conclusion that she doesn’t know much Spanish. She doesn’t know how to read or write in Spanish and I realized that having a baby at 14 really altered her schooling… I don’t even know if she has really gone to school but we got to teach her some basics and make flash cards for her to practice. I’m gonna miss her and her children so much! :))
It is such a good ministry and we are so thankful for the wonderful relationships we have made over these four weeks.
