In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to restate my deepest thank you to all my friends and family who helped me get to this beautiful place and encouraged me to do something that I absolutely love, something that fulfills in a way nothing else has. I could not be here without your encouragement or your love and support.
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your interest.
Thank you for believing in me.
You have given me an invaluable gift, you helped me reach one of my dreams in life and you continue to support me in this. And since I don’t write all that frequently I though a action of thanks could be to tell you more about the place you have encouraged me to go to.
When I went home in October many people asked me how my work was, did I like it? Was it hard? How was my Spanish? What has moved me in my time here? And, where has I seen the hand of God? To summarize it all, this past year and a half has changed my life. And for the better.
My work is forever adapting to meet the needs of the home but it is well worth my time and effort, especially if it puts a smile on a child’s face and I love it. I no longer teach preschool but have transitioned to work many hours in the office, helping with special projects, organizing our donations in the bodega, taking pictures, posting to the Amigos Blog, and serving as the coordinator for the new volunteers. My favorite side job is running an afterschool program for the girls. It’s all about empowering them, giving them a place to voice their fears, their successes and to learn to express themselves.When not in the office of doing those side jobs the most important thing is just being with the kids. Technically this is part of my work — learning more about the kids and entertaining them. This, however, rarely feels like a job. In fact it feels like being with my 100 younger brothers and sisters and just enjoying each other’s company or playing (with the occasional -, or frequent, redirection of behavior…because they are kids, you know.) So yes, I love my work. It consumes all of my time (minus sleeping and a couple hours of reading before bed) but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And sometime, yes it can be hard and draining and overwhelm me but mostly it’s just rewarding. And if it weren’t all of those things then I wouldn’t be growing, learning and opening my heart up and if those were no longer true then I would no longer be here for the right reasons. So tengo suerte, I have a job I love and it helps fulfill me.
As for my Spanish it’s mas o menos, with room to improve. More often than not Spanish speakers know what I am talking about, so that is always a plus. I can hold a conversation and staff members are comfortable enough with me that they now correct me when I am wrong (score!) Perhaps I downplay how good I have gotten at it but I want to be better, and there is nothing wrong with having some goals, right? When I come home in 2014, I plan to take formal Spanish classes, because I want to understand the formation and grammar better and in doing this I think my Spanish skills will improve tremendously.
My two favorite and the hardest questions I am asked are ‘what has moved me in my time here or where have I seen God’s hand at work.’ My answer is this: Almost everything I have seen at Amigos de Jesus has moved me. The biggest being the transformation that our children go through in coming to this oasis. Because for them Amigos is comparable to finding water in a desert. They come thirsting to be loved, to be taken care of, to grow and to simply be children, and to lose the fear that shadowed their bright and beautiful eyes. In the time that I have been here, we have welcomed in a little under 50 new children. Each, as you know, coming from some horrible home life or lack thereof. Some come to us fearful of everything and everyone, some believe that they mean nothing and are of no importance to anyone, others come angry and explosive and some come with a dark cloud over them. But, it doesn’t matter what has happened to them, what they’ve been through, who they were – we love them, in spite of everything we love them and the other children love them and it’s unconditional. And that love is something many have never felt before. And that my friends is God’s hand, he makes these children easy to love and blessed Amigos de Jesus with such loving staff and children. Love is the foundation of this place. And that mixed with the stability and accountability at Amigos transforms our children so that they let their true selves shine. And even when a child may seem like they will never stop being angry or that their behavior just won’t change, it does change, it always does. I have never seen a child not change after arriving here. They learn to love, and to laugh again and to thirst for hugs and kisses and to play and to just be kids, with the freedom to be happy. And they aren’t perfect, neither are we, they still get angry or can’t express themselves age-appropriately but they get better little by little. And each inch of that improvement is a victory on their part. What moves me is that the lives of these children have changed forever in coming to live at ADJ and that they now have brighter futures. And just knowing that they have the opportunity to succeed in life, that moves me more than anything.
Something great that is starting to shape up in the US is a documentary named the Least of Us: A Story of Hope and Healing…guess what it’s about? OUR KIDS. I don’t know much about the story line, but I do know I am excited to see it when it is finished. The film crew came in October to get footage of kids, do interviews and generally get a feel for Amigos de Jesus. They will be back to film more in the coming months. But today, they revealed their poster. You can check out their facebook and see the new poster there (hopefully you will “like” it literally!) I have an inkling that the plot may be based on that last paragraph I wrote…but that’s just speculation.
The picture they are using for the poster melted my heart. You may recognize the majority of those children as my former preschool class! How cute are they?
I thought I would post this youtube video, because I like this song a lot and it fits how I feel today
My Adventure in Honduras 