It is clear that this 10-month experience will be very different than the study abroad experience I had my junior year in Viña del Mar, Chile. (At night I go to bed with the sounds of dogs barking and “reggaeton” blasting outside and in the morning I wake up to roosters crowing -- it’s all part of the fun!) So far in my time here, I have been given a first-hand glance of the cause and effects of poverty, discrimination, and a poor educational system in la Pintana, one of Chile’s urban ghettos and where the House of Hope resides. I am still learning and adapting, but am excited to dive deeper into what God is already doing and to be a part of what He will do in the days, weeks, and months to come!
While at the House of Hope, not only will I be forming relationships with the girls here and helping out where need be around the house, but I will also be doing the following on a weekly basis:
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assisting the English teacher at the local school as well as planning and leading an afterschool English and Values Workshop,
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helping out at “los comedores” in “las parcelas” (a home-run community center for children) teaching English and sharing about Jesus Christ, and
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teaching English to the staff and children at a local children’s home.
I’ve come to serve others just as Christ has served and continues to serve us now. Paul puts it so nicely in his letter to the Philippi,
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)
I hope and pray that this experience here in Chile will continue to humble me, stretch me, and give me more confidence in what I am passionate about: listening to, understanding, and helping others as God is glorified through what I do and who I am. And I thank the Lord for this gift of a year to be back in Chile, a place I consider home away from home.
Please continue to pray for the girls at the House of Hope and that God’s glory will continue to shine out of these doors, gates, and hearts which ultimately all belong to Him.
