Thursday, March 14, 2013

Hogar De Paz (Home of Peace)


Today I managed to navigate the “feeder bus” and Trans-Mi on my own.  If you saw the maps and all of the choices and options for this, you would be really impressed.  But, keep in mind, the STEPpers have been doing this for months and are true experts.  I was able to spend the day with Eryca today—we had clear communication today and actually met at the right place this time!  J 

Eryca has been serving at Hogar De Paz.  This is a safe place for children to come after school.  Most of the children come from homes of extreme poverty or single parent homes, from a very poor neighborhood.  Eryca has been helping, Michelle, (another teacher there) to teach the children English.  Eryca has also been putting together all of the lesson plans for Michelle to use.  Today, they continued working on the days of the week.  Eryca taught them with a song, to the tune of “The Adams Family.”  The kids loved it!  The girls and boys split into two groups and quite a competition broke out! 

I had an opportunity to meet with Rafa (the founder of Hogar De Paz) and heard about the work that is going on at Hogar De Paz.  I also had an opportunity to meet with Luz Mary (Director of the children’s program).  My visit with her turned out to be much longer than I anticipated (1.5 hours) where she shared with me (through a translator—Michelle) her story and things she is struggling with right now.  God works in mysterious ways—He arranged that meeting today.  I was able to share my testimony and the journey that Jared and I have had.  I am so thankful that God can use everything that happens in our lives to be an encouragement to others.  Please pray for Luz Mary and the situation in her life. 

After the visit with Luz Mary, I ended up having another lengthy conversation with Michelle and Eryca.  Michelle is not a Christian.  She was brought up Catholic and believes there is a God, but she is really searching right now.  She had a lot of tough questions.  Again, another God-arranged meeting today.  Michelle was really open to talk with Eryca and I about the questions she has.  Please pray for Michelle and that God would make Himself real to her.

After all of those God-ordained meetings (totally not expected for today), Eryca and I had some time to really connect and share together, too.  Eryca has been struggling during her time here in Colombia.  She also has quite a bit of things going on at home in her personal life.  She is really learning a lot about herself here and learning to rely on God. 

I’m still processing all of the conversations that went on today.  I just think it’s funny how God chooses to work and use me in ways that I least expect it.  That’s what He does—not sure why I’m always surprised at that!?

Tomorrow I’ll be spending most of the day with all of the STEPpers.  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is my last day here!  Please pray that Friday is a great day for all of us and that team bonding would take place.





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