Where to start?
To say this last month was amazing would be an understatement. I absolutely love house of hope and the people that work there. They serve their community in so many ways! I’ll start with a break down of our ministry the last month and what we were doing.
Tuesday- Friday
We helped out at a special needs school down the road. It was a wonderful opportunity to love and serve through action. Working with the teachers and children was a joy. The teachers have the biggest hearts and truly love the kids and their community. The kids are amazing beyond words, they were so joy filled, bubbly and happy. Plus if you know me, you know I love kids! I loved the experience! 🙂
After School we would go home to have lunch break for about an hour. Then We would help Tio Jose (the contractor for HOH) with handy work and yard work until about 5pm. We would have free time for about an hour or two then we would go down to the main house for Once=( The Chilean version of dinner. Typically bread, cheese and/or some type of salami or ham along with tea or coffee) After dinner as a community we would have devotions with the girls who stay at house of hope. Then depending on the day sometimes we would just hang out and get to know the girls more or sometimes we would catch up on writing blogs to post for when we found wifi.
Wednesdays- We would go about our normal weekly schedule posted above but at 6pm we would have community night with kids from the neighborhood and kids from the orphanage. The girls would start with Zumba from 6-6:30 roughly, then the rest of the kids would show up. It was our responsibility to have a skit and testimony/bible lesson prepared for the kids. Our first day we arrived was on a Wednesday and we were asked to do the skit we literally just rolled with it and it became one of my favorite parts of how we ministered as a team! Ask us about our Jonah skit, We killed it! After we did worship and bible study with the kiddos we would have Once (dinner) with them as one big community. It was great! I loved those kids so much! It was such a fun time and such a great opportunity to teach and pour out love! 🙂
Saturdays- We had another community day on Saturdays but it was set up different. It started at 10am. We had classes available for the kids from the orphanage and the neighborhood. It was a great way for them to continue their education, learn something they were interested in and stay our of trouble on the weekend. The classes offered were english, Math, Guitar, Drums, Piano, Arts and craft and Football=Soccer. The cool thing about this ministry day is our host encouraged us to try out a class of something we didn’t know so we could set an example of learning for the kids. We could try, fail and try again and they would see that process unfold. I ended up trying drums, helping in the kitchen, doing a skit and a puppet show for the kids class. All that along with age specific bible lessons! After classes and bible lessons we all ate lunch as community. Then we would play with the kids for a bit. After all, that Saturday afternoon looked different but one thing was consistent there was always a lot of dishes from lunch haha. Besides that sometimes we would help with projects, around the house, hang out with the girls.
Along with all those set ministry opportunities we always had random ways we could serve throughout the week. Like a couple times we had a class of high school students come over to help with projects around the property so we would work with them and then do a bible lesson and skit for them. We also helped with chores and cooking, we were assigned to a task with a girl from the house so we could set an example and serve alongside them. With my team of 7, the 11 girls that lived in the house, the volunteers and Daniel (our host) and his beautiful family there was always plenty of dishes to be done on the daily. We made it fun by jamming and singing as we got them done. Oh and I can’t forget one time we chopped around 40lbs of Onion, My hands smelled like onions for days but all these random moments are some of my best memories!
One of my favorite parts about this ministry is it was SO about living in community, truly living a life of a servant and love being action. They saw the needs of their community and did something about it. They are always looking for new ways to reach out and serve their community and they serve so well. Big shout out to the House of hope volunteers and staff you are amazing! You taught me so much about living in community and how everything we do, even if its dishes can be an example unto the glory of God!
So that was a run down of ministry, but what words can’t express is the relationships that were built throughout the month. We were living as a community, doing every bit of life together. The house of hope community became family and La Pintana became home! Which if you had asked me before if I could consider a place where gun shots were heard almost nightly home, I don’t know if I would have answered yes. But God works in crazy, amazing ways and I felt nothing but peace the entire month! I didn’t let fear hold me back and I fell in love with the community of La Pintana!
House of hope and the community of La Pintana stole my heart this month and you know what I’m ok with that! 🙂 The goodbyes that had to be said at the end of this month were nearly heartbreaking! It was honestly harder then leaving home for me because I don’t know if or when I’ll get to see these amazing people again. There were lots of tears shed our last night but I will forever be grateful for this time, as short as it may have been I learned a lifetimes worth of lessons about love and community!
Thank you Casa Esparanza for everything! I will forever treasure the memories of this time spent with you in La Pintana Chile!
As always please keep my team and I in your prayers!
Fundraising update. I’m still $1,800 short of my next goal which is due November 30th! Please donate if you can! <3 Love and blessings ~Megan
