The Girls' Home
Alrighty, I started writing this post in December, as once school started I didn't have the time I wanted to write in my blog. I wrote the majority of this in May after I graduated from Hope College but then had to finish it now, in August, as I have been sooo busy this summer. As I said that I would post about the girls' home and my time leaving Chile, here I go! This post will be about the experience I had in the Girls' Home while I was in Viña del Mar, Chile. Let me just say -- it was SO GOD-EMPOWERED AMAZINGLY AWESOME THE BEST EVER! Are you excited?! ...I am!!
El Hogar Teresa Cortes Brown (the home) is a home for about 30 girls ages 4 - 17 (approx.) who come with a variety of different problems having lived traumatic experiences. Some have family problems, custody issues, financial problems, while others have been maltreated or abused mentally, physically, or sexually. During the week, the girls go to school at the public schools nearby and then come back to the home afterwards. During the weekends, some of the girls get to go home with their families while some stay in the home.
I heard about this volunteer opportunity through my study abroad program, CIEE. I first started going there to help the girls with their homework, in August of 2010. It was difficult at times as these girls have no discipline. They had no desire to do their homework and would do anything to get out of it. Having helpers who didn't fluently speak their language made it easier to weasel their way out of doing work. Even though they were incredibly difficult to work with, they were all "amores" (loves). When I would walk into the home, the youngest ones would run up to me and latch on like leaches! Such cutie pies! They longed for attention -- for love.
One girl, Yamilet, would always ask me, "Can you come just to see me?" It was this question that made me think. I would LOVE to do something else with these girls than just make them do their homework. I started talking with Gloria, the volunteer coordinator from CIEE, about the possibilities of doing something at the home on the weekends. I decided to plan a fun day once a month on a Saturday. It was during these weekend fun-days when girls started to ask me why I was doing what I was doing. They would ask me if I was getting paid or if I was getting credit for school. "Nope. I'm doing this because I love you and because God loves you," I would reply.
The summer came and some girls from a home in Santiago came to stay in Viña, as there's the beach and other fun summer activities there. I went along on some of the trips they took over the summer, but as I was out of town for some of the summer and then I got sick at the end of summer, I wasn't able to spend as much time as I wanted to at the home during those months. I prayed and prayed that I could be able to make a difference in the home for the Lord, as I really felt the need of God and His love there.
It wasn't until April of 2011 that I was able to go back to volunteering at the home (as I was sick for quite a while). The first day back I was helping a 6 year old girl, Belén, with her homework. Out of the blue she told me how she didn't like a girl in her class because she was ugly. I asked her, "You don't like her because she is ugly?" And she replied, "Yes, she's ugly!" I then began explaining to her that nobody is ugly and how we are all created beautiful by God. She then argued that God didn't create us. Honestly, I was shocked as this home was explicitly traditionally Catholic. (All over the home they have icons of the Virgin Mary, pictures of Jesus, and even have a chapel). I explained to her that God did create us, and that He also created the plants, the animals, and the entire world. She continued to argue that the world already existed and that God did not create us. I said something else, and as she realized that I wasn't going to budge on this one, she completely turned her argument around and started arguing my side! haha! I told her she was right, and she went back to working on her homework. Other girls came into the room where we were and I asked them if they went to church on Sunday. They said they didn't, but that they sometimes did something in the chapel on Wednesdays. When I asked them what it is that they do, they didn't seem to have an answer.
Later that week I went to CIEE to talk to Gloria. I asked her if I could go and observe on Wednesdays to see what they did those days. I was still in shock that Belén didn't even know the Creation story, knowing that this was a Catholic home. Gloria said she would call the director and get back to me. I went in a week later and still no response (long waits and poor communication is common in Chile). Gloria called the director again right away. She told me that the director explained that although they have Wednesday evenings open for a "religious" activity, that nothing usually happens. I accepted those news as I guess there was nothing I could do then...while at the same time I felt something tugging at my heart. An idea came to my mind -- this could be a perfect opportunity for me to do something at the home -- this could be an answer to my prayer! But I had never really done anything like this before! I thought: "I can't do anything...I don't know how to talk to those girls about Jesus...much less in Spanish! I won't know what to do!" So...as I was in the CIEE office, I went upstairs to the computers to avoid talking to Gloria. Then...I felt God telling me (I didn't hear an audible voice) that I had to at least
ask if I could do something. I went back downstairs and asked Gloria if I could do something with the girls on Wednesdays. I asked her if I could do some type of fun activity that involved learning about God and the Bible. Gloria said she would call the director and get back to me. Later that day when I arrived home, I received an email from Gloria saying that yes, I could do something every Wednesday from 6-8, starting next week! This was incredible! I almost couldn't believe it as (1) in Chile it takes f o r e v e r for things to happen and (2) I still had no idea what I was going to do! All I knew was that God was going to have to help me!
I started to plan the first activity/lesson/Bible study. I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to look like or how I was going to do this. I also sent a Facebook message out to 20 of my girl friends from church -- calling for reinforcements! Even though I had been planning weekend events for the girls at the home since last semester, during the week was going to be different because all 30 of the girls would be there (not just 6-10 on the weekends). Honestly, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.
The next week came around, two of my friends had agreed to come and help (one of which was going to arrive late), and I had prepared a little introductory lesson on who Jesus is using Matthew 19:13-14 (“Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these””). We arrived at the home and it probably took us a half hour just to get all the girls on the patio. My Chilean friends led some icebreaker games, which the girls loved, and then we huddled around for my little lesson. I had written out word-for-word what I was going to say, as I had previously convinced myself that I wasn’t going to be able to remember how to speak Spanish when it came time for me to talk in front of all the girls. Turns out, not once did I look at my notes! I asked the girls some questions about what they knew about Jesus and who He was and about the Bible. Then I explained to them how Jesus loves little children and He desires us all to run to Him. I prayed for the girls, handed out some candy, we played some more, and then we had to leave as it was time for the girls to eat dinner. The night went pretty well! But we needed more help as it was difficult for three of us to control 30 of them.
For the next lessons, one of my Chilean friends from church, Bedsi, helped me plan out a series. We decided on the following:
1. Who is Jesus? He is fully God and fully man. He is God’s son.
2. Why did He come? Because God so loved the world. To save us. To give us eternal life.
3. What is the problem? We are sinners. We need Jesus to connect us to God.
4. What does it mean to be Christian? A disciple of Jesus. To follow Him.
For each of these lessons and the lessons to follow we had a system of (1) arriving to the home, (2) praying outside before entering the home, (3) entering the home as we are bombarded with hugs form the girls, (4) rounding up the girls, dividing them up in groups based on their age, and finding a separate place in the home for each group, (5) sharing the lesson and key Bible verse with the girls, (6) asking the girls questions to check understanding and reward good behavior, (7) handing out a coloring sheet that went along with the lesson and that had the Bible Verse on the back, (8) as they color, spend time with them, talk with them, love them, pray for them, etc., (9) leave the home as the girls head to the dining room for dinner.
At the end of the fourth lesson (see above), we gave the girls the opportunity to decide to be a disciple of Jesus -- to “accept Jesus into their hearts” -- to trust in Jesus with everything. All the girls said, “yes!” My group of girls was girls ages 8-11. I prayed with them and had them repeat after me for deciding to follow Jesus. As I said amen, I looked up and with a huge smile said, “Guess what! … We’re sisters!” I explained how when we decide to follow Jesus, we enter into His family and they all glistened with joy.
The next lessons that we did are as follows:
5. The Family of God (This lesson we gave them all their own little New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs Bibles!)
6. Overcoming Fear and the Everlasting Joy in Christ (This lesson was done with two skits that we put on for the girls with people from a Bible study I was a part of).
7. To Love God and Love Others (I gave them all a little booklet of a Bible story as a gift. We also made paper hearts and colored them).
8. Worship (We sang songs to the Lord with people from my Bible study who came to sing, play guitar and clarinet. This was also Breann (friend from Hope College also studying abroad in Chile for the Spring Semester) and my last night at the home).
Each week would go smoother and smoother in terms of rounding up the girls, splitting them up, and doing the lesson. There were some incidents here and there, but nothing too major.
One little incident in particular happened during lesson 6 when I gave all the girls a little Bible story booklet. It was after this that I finished the lesson and started to pass out candy to the girls who were very good listeners. There were some girls whom I warned twice that they weren't going to get a lolly-pop if they didn't start behaving and listening to the lesson. Well, one girl in particular, Danixa, kept goofing off, interrupting, and didn't start listening. So, I didn't give her a lolly-pop. She looked at me with angry little eyes. Then she explained that there was another girl, Xiomara, who also wasn't listening and that she shouldn't get a lolly-pop either. I told her that I didn't notice that Xiomara wasn't listening. I turned to Xiomara and asked her, "Xiomara, were you listening to the lesson?" Danixa butts in exclaiming, "She won't tell you the truth! She's a liar! All of us are liars! We're all bad girls! The only good girl is Atalia -- she's perfect!" I was shocked! I looked at Danixa and said right back, "I don't believe you. I don't believe that you are all bad girls and I think that Xiomara can tell the truth." I really didn't know what I was saying, but as I turned to Xiomara I prayed that she would pleeaaase tell the truth. I said, "Xiomara, I believe you can tell the truth. Were you listening to the lesson?" Xiomara looks away from me, then back at me and says, "No." (I thought, okay -- now what?!) I responded, "Well you already ate your lolly-pop, so I can't ask you to give it back." Xiomara says, "No, I didn't eat it yet," as she takes it out of hiding (I really had thought she had already eaten it!) I thought, oh uh...now what do I do? So, I gave Xiomara the opportunity to put it back in the bag if she thought that that's what she should do. She did. Then, Danixa continued on her little tantrum, seeing that her first statement had failed. She explained to me that she didn't even want the candy, that all the girls do is listen to the lesson to get candy, and that she was sick of doing that. As she stormed out of the room she said that she never wanted to come to the Bible study again! I was so sad. That was last thing that I wanted from these girls -- for them to completely dislike learning about God and the Bible! The next thing crushed me even more. One of the girls said to me, "Tía Diane, tonight is our last Wednesday here -- we will be on vacation next week!" What?! -- I did not realize that that night was the last night for some of the girls (some of the girls stay at the home even during vacation times) which meant that that was going to be my last time I would see them before I left Chile. Oh my. I began to tear up a little. At that moment a little girl, Atalia, came to me and said, "Tía, are you crying?...I've never seen a tía cry before..." I said that I was crying because I was sad to say good bye. Then Xiomara came up to me and said that she and Danixa were sorry. I accepted her apology, but told her that Danixa needed to talk to me if she wanted to apologize. Xiomara brought me to her and after some trouble looking into my eyes, Danixa also apologized. They asked for their lolly-pops back and so I gave them to them. Ohh...what a rollercoaster.
Lastly, then next week it came for me to say good bye. I prayed that God's will be done in that home, just as it had been done this whole time. We had a very nice time of singing songs of worship, which they all enjoyed and then I stood up to make the announcement of my good bye. I surprisingly didn't cry as I told the girls how much I loved them and was going to miss them. During this whole semester I wanted them so badly to God as a Good Father, even when many of them have horrible earthly fathers. I wanted so bad to tell them that right then as it was my last chance, but restrained because more than wanting to tell them that, I wanted them to realize it for themselves. So I said good bye. Sol, the oldest girl there at the time, stood up before I sat down and asked if she could say something real quick. Of course, I replied! She began to speak from her heart saying something along the lines of, "I just want to thank Tía Diane for all that she has done here and for loving us. Because of how much she has loved us, I now know how much God loves us. Because of her I now have the joy of the Lord inside of me and I know that no one can take it away from me! I now know God and I know that He is good." As she spoke, tears began to flow from her eyes, and mine also. As she spoke, the entire room broke out into tears. I had a girl at either side of me with their faces buried into my hips. After Sol spoke, I affirmed what she said and added that what she and all the other girls have inside of them is way better than me being there. I told them that even though I am leaving, God will never leave you, He will always be with you, and no one can take Him away from you. We cried, we hugged, and I told each and everyone one of them that God and I love them. It was quite the emotional evening.
We left the home thanking the Lord for showing us a little bit of the fruit of the harvest. I knew that God was always working in the home, but to be able to see that fruit was incredible! As we walked towards the center of the city away from the hill that the home rests on, my Chilean friend, Cony, shared with me how encouraging it was to see that and to see how God brought me all the way to Chile to do His work. It is Cony, Bedsi, and another Chilean friend, Camilia, who are in charge of going to the home each week to this day. Praise the Lord that His work continues there in that home and in the lives of those little girls!
I couldn't have done it without God. I am nothing without God. I am nothing without the Love that God gives me and allows me to share with others. God is good, God is love...always. Amén.
