is having words in your heart that you can't utter. --James Earl Jones
I love words and writing.
It's exciting to me. Trying to capture a thought, a moment, a feeling through words.
Truly there is no comparison to what words can do.
But sometimes, I feel like they suck.
Honestly...like they just don't work.
They are incapable of describing in full my thoughts and feelings and experiences.
Words do not do them justice.
So then, maybe a photograph can explain better...
*snap* *snap* *snap*
Nope.
That may show some different aspects that maybe weren't described with words.
You definitely get a lot more details that way.
But it still leaves something to be desired.
Some strong emotion, some strange sense inside yourself that cannot be captured through a photograph or conveyed through words...
"Something is missing."
What could that something be?
Perhaps the fact that the experience is yours, and no one else's.
The fact that, no matter how hard you try...that same experience will never resonate the same way with anyone else the way that it did with you.
It's not just that they have to experience it themselves, which might help them understand much better...even to the point of almost understanding your words and pictures.
It's that ultimately, despite the words and pictures, despite pouring out your heart...
no one will ever have the same experience as you.
Now to me, this is exciting, although slightly frustrating because I want so badly for everyone to understand the experiences I'm having.
Especially the experiences that are occuring here, in Jaco.
But it's also quite thrilling, because I am constantly filling myself up with experiences and adventures that will never be had by another person.
I mean, who else can experience a sweet hug from a child in the river, or an unexpected walk through a plant tunnel, or the sweet smell of the ocean mixed with the strong smell of garbage?
But I'm glad that we are all having experiences and that they are all very different from each others.
This makes me wonder how we can ever get bored of talking.
Just sharing with each other our different perceptions of one event should be able to keep us talking for hours.
Despite all these silly words I've just written, that I still do not feel do justice to the thoughts roaming through my head and have not captured all that is in my heart...
I do hope you have felt the joy of the experiences I've had here in Jaco. And that at some point in time I will also be able to explain the sadness, the laughter, the frustration, the beauty and just the full adventure of my life in the past few months.
And since you are not here with me, and I am providing no pictures at the moment...
Words will just have to do.
The other day, I had a really bad headache.
We went to the river and it just seemed to intensify.
All I wanted to do was lay down and sleep it off.
Instead, we ended up having some of the girls that live in the river over to our apartment.
Thankfully, it was exactly what I needed.
We had an amazing afternoon together.
Emily straightened one of the girls hair, they ate mangoes, we had girl talk and just relaxed together as girls.
As I'm sitting watching them, I can't get over what amazing girls they are.
To be honest, I exaggerate a lot. I get really excited about a lot of things and I don't know how to express myself other than to exaggerate the situation (ex: "This is the best smoothie I have EVER had!" or "I have never felt this bad in my ENTIRE life"....you get the point).
Anyways...when I say these girls are amazing and that these kids are some of the greatest I have ever known...it is NOT an exaggeration.
The girls are beautiful, to begin with, inside and out.
They have sweet hearts and really long to connect with you.
They have a warm, welcoming way about them that just makes you want to smile all the time.
They are full of life, always running around and laughing and being crazy.
They are just great.
They bless Emily and I all the time, just by being them.
The other afternoon when we had them over, one of the little girls started doing our dishes...just out of nowhere. After that, she began sweeping our floor. Then she made my bed and organized my living space. We kept telling her she didn't have to, but she kept saying how much she loved doing it.
Then her and I folded my clothes together and she listened to some music on my IPOD.
One of the other girls had started making Emily's bed and organizing her stuff as well.
I couldn't even believe it.
My mouth was gaping, I think. I was in shock. These precious girls already bless me so much, just by being around me...but then they go and clean my house and I am just left speechless!
We were all going to church that night and so some of them got ready with us.
They got their makeup done and worked on their hair.
They were just glowing.
It's a wonderful thing for me to be able to spend time with the older girls and have a part in their lives, even despite the language barrier. It's wonderful to be able to let them know they are beautiful, even without all the words.
I'm thankful I have an opportunity to share love in this way.
While it's been quite a frustration at times to not know the language, sometimes I feel it's a great privilege. Learning how to communicate love and acceptance in other forms is challenging, but also a really wonderful experience. It really challenges me to give more than just a couple sentences, but to give creative thought to how I can show them love.
As this time in Jaco is slowly winding down for me (I'll be heading back home in only 3 weeks), I feel like I've grown more in these past couple months than I have in the past couple years! I'm constantly being challenged and learning new things...about myself, about others, about God, about love...you name it, I'm learning it.
It makes me excited to go home and keep putting these things into practice, but also sad that I have to leave this phenomenal place so soon. This place will always be so special in my heart.
I don't think anything normal ever happens here.
And I don't ever want to forget it.
Life here is so spur of the moment, but I'm learning to grasp onto that...to appreciate every second of it. I've never lived my life like this before.
It's never been so open to change, so chaotic, so beautiful.
The week started out with rain. Lots and lots of rain. So much, that we really didn't even leave our house.
On Tuesday, it was still raining.
That afternoon, we ended up taking loads and loads of people from the River and transporting them to a carnival in town.
It was interesting to see everyone come to life there.
It's like the parents of these kids we work with became children again.
They were hopping on the rides with smiles on their faces.
Walking around the carnival, I realized how many of the kids I know here. I would get a hug from one of the kids in the River and then the next minute another kid from Kids Club would be yelling my name and waving at me. How do I deserve to know all these great kids?
The next morning, it was still raining.
Daniel and I were supposed to head to the River that morning. To be honest, I was really reluctant. I was trying to find every way out of it that I could. It was pouring down rain and I didn't feel like biking through it.
Then I thought about it some more.
Why can't I bike through the rain? What's the big deal? It's just water. It's not gonna hurt me.
And what's at the end of that bike ride? Kids that I love.
What was the big deal?
The big deal is that we take things too seriously. We let our moments slip by because "we don't want to get wet."
How many moments do I waste or lose or give up for silly, stupid excuses?
I'm too tired, I'm too hungry, it's too cold, it's too hot, I'll do it later.
The next day, we found ourselves biking to the river again in the rain. This time, however, we spent the afternoon skipping rocks with the kids and playing by the water.
Instead of complaining, or just getting by, I decided to grasp and appreciate this moment.
I'm sure glad I did.
I got to watch the kids skip stones and help them collect the prettiest ones.
I watched my favorite little 3-year-old build a little bridge with a brick and a piece of plywood, end up falling into the water anyway and then run up and give me a huge hug.
I saw a chicken fall off a ledge, into the rushing river and get swept pretty far down by the current.
I opened my eyes and everything seemed brighter, better...more full of life.
Really...I just love what a little change in perspective can do.
I wake up each morning
and I wonder...
"How am I ever going to leave Jaco?"
I eat some Trix cereal and a banana
then
I hop on my bike down to the River
When I get there, I'm greeted with
smiling faces
squeeze-so-hard-you-can't-breathe hugs
and lots of chitter chatter.
We play, we talk, we do homework.
And then I head back to my apartment,
even though I usually don't want to.
I just can't imagine leaving these kids.
The crazy little one who jumps from table to table
The sweet little boy that I could hold all day long
The teenage girl that has nothing but sweetness and smiles coming out of her
Or the one with the attitude, but the amazing heart
Then there's the little boy that wants to be an artist
And the older one too
Oh...and the young girl that just loves being a girl
and always carries her purse and lipstick wherever she goes
then, there is the older boy who takes care of his siblings
sets them on his lap when they are crying
and carries them across the river when they want to go home
there's the girl thats always ready to help
and the quiet little one that likes to give you puppy dog eyes
theres the beautiful little boy that climbs all over the walls
and makes paper airplanes
even though he's not supposed to
And the older girl that draws beautiful flowers
only to give them to you as a present.
I work with these kids every day that are full of talent
full of love
full of potential
full of joy
They are some of the strongest kids I've ever known
But have to live in some of the worst conditions I've ever seen
I feel like the question is constantly thrown in my face.
Why?
I don't know the answers.
But I know God has given me this awesome opportunity
To hang out with them
Get to know them
Love them
Be a part of their lives
Their talent
Their joy
What an opportunity...
If there is one thing I've always been a big fan of...
it's the fact that every single person is special and unique.
Honestly, I can't get over it. It shocks me. There is not a single person on this entire planet that is the exact same as someone else. Our thought system, brain, heart, skin, eyes, toes, mouth, nose are all different from everyone elses. No one thinks in the exact same way as you. No one feels in their hearts in the exact same way as you. No one enjoys things in the exact same way as you.
Amazing.
So...it makes me wonder why we compare ourselves to each other. Or why we elevate people because they are "beautiful" or "outgoing" or "talented." Why do we regard a person as better than another because of these things? Because it's just not true.
My entire life, I have always had people that have told me I'm "too shy" and "need to speak more." For awhile, I struggled with the thought that it was my downfall. "Well, I'm a good person, but...I don't talk enough and that's a bad thing" was always rambling through my head. It wasn't until later in my teen years that I realized that God made me a bit timid. But that's okay, I still connect with people and hold amazing relationships. I'm still a human being that God created with special love and care.
I've worked with kids a lot and throughout the Children at Risk school, I thought a lot about how important words are to children--well to anyone really. As I work with these kids in the river everyday, I think about the things I heard as a child or things that my friends heard. I think about what these children might hear. I think, more than anything, I want these kids--and everyone else--to know that they are great as they are. That they don't have to put up masks or try to be what people want them to be. God made them to be just as they are, to do the things they like to do and to feel and think the way that is natural to them. I don't want them to ever feel inferior because of beauty or talent or things that people tell them. Even if you don't have a single talent (which everyone has at least one), you are still a human being and God created you with special love, attention and detail.
There are no mistakes.
I just want kids to know this. To know they can grow up just as they are.
The kids that I'm working with are treasures. They have the world inside of them. They are full of life. They are special.
They are unique.
And every day I just can't wait to spend more time with them.
I'm not sure my life has ever been this crazy, unpredictable or adventurous. I thought driving through Africa was an insane feat, but the adventures just keep on coming.
As if every day here wasn't spontaneous enough, this past weekend took a strange, unexpected turn...
One of my teammates, Isaac, became sick on Saturday with intense stomach pain. On Sunday morning, Leslie, one of my outreach leaders, showed up with her six-month old baby Koa and asked if someone would accompany her to San Jose to take Isaac to the doctor. Thinking this would only be a day trip and I could spend my Monday relaxing on the beach, I gladly agreed to go. What we thought would be a quick two-hour road trip up to San Jose, turned into a 4 1/2 hour trip on a dirt and gravel road, through the mountains and rainforest, along cliff edges with a car that would not stop shaking. We had taken this road as a shortcut, but quickly learned it was not. After an hour, I felt as though it would never end. I could imagine us on this road for days, driving, driving, driving...never finding a way out. Dramatic, I know, but at this point I felt as though I was going a little insane...I could not stop laughing at what was happening. On the other hand, the nature and beauty that surrounded us on this road was unbelievable. The "fake jungles" in the Zoos at home can't even begin to do places like this justice. It was breathtaking.
After making it to San Jose and the doctor, we discovered that the car wouldn't start. I just want to remind you all that at this point we still had a six-month old baby with us. We were unsure of what to do, but Isaac made some calls and soon we found ourselves in another car, watching the van get towed to a mechanic and on our way back to a Camp Center to stay the night with a missionary couple and their family.
The Camp Center was located back in the depths of Costa Rica, surrounded by hills and forests. The roads we were taking made me feel like we were on a roller coaster. We arrived, not knowing what to expect. We knew there was no electricity, but we weren't sure about anything other than that. It turns out this missionary couple is from Kentucky, the woman grew up Amish and he was a carpenter and farmer. They are building a Camp Center to host teams, Pastors, conferences, retreats, ect. It's an amazing place and the work they have done is phenomenal. I could not believe their hospitality, generosity, selflessness or devotion to God. It was incredible and inspiring. They have not yet built a home for themselves. Instead, they are first working on getting the Camp Center done. They heard God and trusted Him for this place and now it is coming alive. I've never seen such pure faith and action. It was beautiful.
Their family was so welcoming, feeding us, talking with us, giving us an amazing room with comfortable bunk beds. Leslie and I had a slumber party that night and the next morning took some walks through the woods, played some games and then were able to pick up the car and head back home to Jaco.
It constantly amazes me that God puts such wonderful people around me. I am always learning and growing. Just watching the way Leslie handled what could be a stressful situation with laughter and grace, taught me a lot about worrying, stress and attitudes. Because of Leslie's loving, gracious and easygoing attitude toward the situation, I felt completely at ease and wasn't upset at all by the twist of events. Instead it turned into a nice, relaxing time. The family that took us in did so without any question. Then, they treated us like special guests and did everything they could to make us as comfortable as possible. Listening to their story really affected me as well. Just hearing about their faith was encouraging. I'm so thankful that God put these people in my life to show me the characteristics, attitudes and faith I want to have.
Every day is a new adventure. Every day is a journey, a growing experience, a time to learn.
I'm learning, growing and venturing in thrilling, beautiful ways.
Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, but here are some pictures I found that might give you a glimpse into what I saw...
This "kind of" shows what the road was like. Much crazier though. And more beautiful.
At the moment my mind is on major overload.
And I'm glad. I embrace the craziness of my brain. I enjoy using it.
So many things are happening right now. Challenging, character building things. Things that are blowing my mind. Things that are rattling my attitudes. Things that are changing me.
I've ventured off to yet another new home and my mind just doesn't know what to do with it. I've always been the type of person to have everything organized. I've always had plans, always needed control over the situations in my life. I love to live wild and free, but only within certain limitations. I think we all feel the same way in a sense.
Since I've been here, I've been considering freedom and what it really means.
I have my own apartment now, just bought a bike that will help me travel a lot easier, can make my own meals and, for the most part, do my own thing. Is that what freedom is? Living on your own, being able to do things your own way.
No...I don't really think so.
Today, I had this picture in my mind of people jumping into water. While I have done some adventurous things in my life, I tend to shy away pretty quickly from water adventures. I have many friends that embrace the water and jump into it full force whenever they are near it. Scott and Leslie, my outreach leaders, have a pool at their new home and I have watched their boys jump numerous times into the water. Letting go of all inhibitions. Throwing themselves into the wind. Falling, falling, falling. Breaking through the surface of the water. Plunging down deeper.
Freedom.
I'm not really sure what freedom is just yet. But I think that this time in Jaco will be a time to learn what it means to me. As I spend time with the kids in the River each day, I find the worries and anxieties of life are slowly melting away. I'm unthawing. Preparing myself for a change, an adventure. Preparing myself for freedom.
And then...
Spreading that freedom as far as it can take me.
Little by little...
"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." - Laura Ingalls Wilder
As I sit here, thinking back on my first week of living in Jaco, I am honestly just in awe of God. Never in my life have I felt so blessed as I do right now. Each day is a reminder that the little things truly count and they make life what it is. Each little step, each little smile, each little thought...they are pure blessings.
I feel like even my senses have just increased even while being here. Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch...somehow God has give me the ability to feel even more. Just as I'm typing, I'm laying in a hammock, watching the lightning, listening to the thunder, smelling the smoldering smoke from a camfire next door. It's magnificent.
God has just blessed me with so many things, I feel like each day is a new surprise. The past few days, we've had the beautiful opportunity to begin working with kids in a place called "the River." It's just a small community located on the river banks running into the ocean. The kids are phenomenal. Already I've come to love them. Emily and I have also been able to start a collection of artwork they've drawn us and we have a nice collage on our wall. A typical day involves being jumped on, hugged until you can't breath, carrying around and holding the most beautiful children in the world while sweat is pouring out of you, smiling, laughing, playing silly games, trying to communicate in Spanish, drawing strange looking animals on pieces of paper for the kids to color, screaming at the top of your lungs, laughing, helping with homework (somehow, I managed to help a little girl with her Spanish homework...I think I learned more than she did!) and just generally having fun and being silly. I can't explain how much I love it. When I'm in those situations, I can't see anything past the kids that are in front of me. The world stops and I just get to love, love, love and recieve lots of love in return. It's great...I almost want to say it's magical. I can't think of any other way to describe it.
Other than the blessing of being able to spend time with those kids, there are many other blessings as well. After a hot day of walking about 3 or 4 hours in extreme heat, Emily and I talked about how there was nothing we would like better than to be laying in a pool, on an inflatable raft, drinking smoothies. By the end of the day, we had drank an amazing smoothie, lounged in our leaders beautiful pool and had some great conversation. God truly goes above and beyond my expectations. Every day, some new, small blessing appears that knocks my socks off.
Right now I feel like this time is all about capturing moments. It's about realizing that the smallest things can make the biggest difference. I have to remember that not only for my everyday life, but also in what I am looking for God to do through ministry and love. The smallest things, like playing in the mud with a child, can do such a great thing in the long run. Little by little, we are changing lives and making a difference in the world. Nothing is too little to go unlooked. The littlest things can produce the biggest changes.
So, what am I, what are you, doing with the little things, with the moments?
"All great things are only a number of small things that have carefully been collected together." - Anonymous
"We can not do great things. We can only do little things with great love." - Mother Teresa
The past two weeks have been full of excitement. It started off with a beautiful graduation dinner from our school. We went out to a Peruvian restaurant, played some games afterwards and then said our goodbyes. It was a great night, but sad knowing that it was the end of this rough, challenging, intense but amazing school.
The next nine days I spent back home in Indiana. It was a last minute ordeal, so I had the chance to surprise family and friends. I really enjoyed every minute I had at home, relaxing and hanging out with my parents. It was just what I needed before I headed back into these next few months of my life. Which leads me to...
Jaco. I came back to Costa Rica on Sunday night. Yesterday morning, we loaded up a van (literally loaded because we had so many bags) and moved down to Jaco, Costa Rica. It's a beach town about two hours outside of San Jose and where I will be living for at least the next three months. Emily and I walked into our new apartment and could barely contain our excitement. We have a mini kitchen with cabinets, a sink and refigerator (which I was able to make ice cubes in and drink cold water). We also have a little loft with a mattress that Emily has made her home in. I'm sleeping downstairs on a nice, big mattress, right next to our very own bathroom! We also have air conditioning...which in Jaco is one of the biggest blessings you could possibly get. We decorated the room and now it feels super "homey" and wonderful.
Our outreach is just beginning. We've had a couple meetings so far just to talk about what we will be doing. The place we are living has a skate ministry and Bible study each week. We will be opening the skate ramp everyday so the kids can come and skate. We are also looking into working everyday at an after school program in the area. Opportunities are opening up and I'm excited! Now I just need to work harder on my Spanish. :)
Speaker: Barbara Ruegger
Topic: Attachment
It’s our last and final day of lectures. I can hardly believe we are finished. At the beginning, it seemed like this day would never come. Now I feel like it has come too fast. This last week our topic was attachment and attachment disorders. It’s a really interesting and useful topic, something I didn’t know much about before. There are an estimated 800,000 children in the United States that have attachment disorder. That’s a huge amount for just one country. One of the things we have learned this week is that attachment disorder is a fairly new concept and seems to be highly overlooked. Many kids that are struggling or exhibit violent behavior could have attachment disorder, but often we just put them off as “bad children.”
Attachment is defined as the affectionate tie between two people. This is a normal thing and it shows how a child will form future relationships. Attachment disorder happens when individuals have trouble forming lasting relationships. Usually it occurs when they don’t have anyone consistent in their lives as a child or have been abused. We watched a disturbing movie this week about a young, 5-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by her father when she was only a year old. A family had adopted her and her younger brother, but there were many problems with her. She abused her little brother and tried to kill him several times, once by repeatedly slamming his head into a cement floor. She was stealing knives from the kitchen and planning to kill someone. The parents had to lock her in her room at night so she wouldn’t harm anyone. Remember…this is a five year old girl. They interviewed her in the movie and it was sad to see the hollowness in her. She had no emotion, no feelings. Thankfully, the adopted parents sent her somewhere to get help. Her life completely changed, she was able to heal and even began going to church.
To me, it was such a shock that young children could be that emotionless and even want to kill. While this is an extreme case, there are many children still affected by this disorder and are not getting the help that they need. If we are working with kids, we need to start realizing that this could be the cause of why they are acting up. If we find out the real reasons, instead of just assuming, we can do so much more for the child and help them in greater ways.
If you're interested in seeing a touching, challenging, inspiring video...check this out:
Posted by
Amanda
4:47 PM
This past week, I did a teaching on encouraging children in their creativity. Helping kids express themselves, especially through creative outlets, is something I'm very passionate about. Kids are dreamers, full of imagination and unknown possibilities. I think it's a beautiful thing and as adults we can learn a lot from them. I found a couple links talking about child creativity, with some ideas for how to encourage it.
Here's what I found: It's the doing that counts
Fostering Creativity
Teaching Creativity
Also, this is our last week of classes and we are discusses attachment disorders. It's an interesting topic and something that many people aren't aware of. As we have been discussing this week, many kids are affected by it and if we are aware of it then we can help them in greater ways. Attachment is defined as the affectionate tie between two people. Attachment disorder is the condition in which individuals have trouble forming lasting relationships. I think it's possible that we have all come in contact with children/adults that have attachment disorder. It would be a really great thing to educate ourselves on this disorder, especially if working with kids.
If you would like to read more about it, here's a great website: Attachment.org
Posted by
Amanda
4:39 PM
I have never liked video games really. For all those people that enjoy them, I am sorry but I do not. I feel like they are a mindless waste of time, most of them being violent and disturbing. They desensitize you, making murder and grotesque images a normal part of life. Now, I have found a new reason to dislike them. I recently read that they have come out with a video game in Japan that is all about raping, assaulting and molesting women. You can even choose to impregnate a woman and then force her to have an abortion. The motive for this game is revenge.
Wow.
It's no wonder that things like prostitution, human trafficking and rude sexual behavior are running rampant in this world today. What makes us think these things are okay?
I can't wrap my mind around the fact that games like this exist. It's bad enough that things like this actually happen in our world--maybe this is the reason why. In the article, it debates whether or not these kinds of games should be banned. In my mind, I wonder how that is even a debate.
I'm almost speechless. I can't find any words to say. It makes me sad, angry, frustrated that women are used like that...and for what? Revenge. It makes me upset that people place no value on human lives and that video games are just reinforcing that. How is this happening?
Here is the article: RapeLay Video Game
Friday was our last local outreach for our school and there were sad faces all around. We went to Metro Ministries and hung out with the same kids from last week. We started off playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” with the kids again and then started another game of “Red light, Green light.” I just love the excitement of the kids. They were thrilled with whatever game we were playing and got so into it. The little girls were always grabbing my arm and rattling off in Spanish (so of course, I just smiled and nodded and giggled). For our program, we were able to share several testimonies and play some fun games with them. Scott, the leader of Metro Ministries, told them it was our last week there and we wouldn’t be coming back. After that, many of the kids were just sitting with us crying. I feel like it’s one of the hardest parts of only doing short-term ministry. You get very attached to the kids and they get attached to you. Then, three months later you’re leaving and you find yourself not wanting to. It’s especially hard when it’s such amazing, beautiful kids full of life and joy. It’s like, in those two hours of ministry time, you forget everything else in the world exists except you and those kids. You just give them love and pour yourselves into them. It’s hard to leave them. But, the excitement is knowing that I get to spend so many more months living in Jaco and spending everyday with the kids there. I will get to know them so much more intensely and I know they will steal my heart just as much as the other kids I have worked with.
On Saturday night, a few of us went to Jaco again. Since our speaker this past week was teaching about human trafficking, we went with her to observe the nightlife. We headed downtown around midnight and were shocked by how busy it was. There was an amazing amount of people on the streets and about twice as many prostitutes. Ro told us that she started counting the prostitutes, but had to stop once she hit 50 because there were just too many to count. And that was only including the women that were on the street, in plain sight. As we were walking down the street, we passed an old man—probably in his 70’s—with a young prostitute who couldn’t be more than 18 or 19 years old. They were laughing and talking. It was such an odd sight. The amount of men that were on the streets was unbelievable. There were old men, young men, men from all over the world, locals…any kind of man you could imagine basically. I have a feeling I will have a hard time liking men while I am living there. Anyways, it looks like outreach will be a challenge, but I know I will learn a lot. I’m truly excited for what is going to happen in Jaco. It will definitely be an adventure!
Posted by
Amanda
12:32 PM
Speaker: Ro Potter
Topic: Human Trafficking
Staring into the face of the nasty, gross injustices in this world is a hard thing to do, but that is exactly what we did this past week. My heart was a mess—some days I literally felt like it was ripping out of my chest. The pain and anger from hearing stories of girls who were trafficked, abused and beaten was overwhelming. The intensity of last week is difficult to explain with words, but I need to try. I need others to understand what is happening in this world. It is not pretty.
For those of you that don’t know what human trafficking is, it is defined by the UN as being the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of a person by means of threat, force or deception for sex, labor, slave-like exploitation or the removal of organs. There are an estimated 27 million people in slavery today. To put that in perspective, there are 20 million people living in New York. Imagine every single person in New York being enslaved…along with another 7 million on top of that. Crazy, huh?
Trafficking is a huge industry and pulls in at least $32 billion a year. If you buy a girl through a trafficker, you can make back the money within one week by selling them as a prostitute. People are pulled into the industry of trafficking because you can buy a person and use them countless times without having to keep paying or getting more resources. They use people in all spans of the world, not only in prostitution. People are being enslaved to make our clothes, our chocolate, our coffee, our household furniture and appliances. Do we know where our things are coming from? Children are used as soldiers, used to murder and kill against their will. They are used in other forms of labor: housekeeping, construction, casinos, strip clubs, hotels, nail salons, massage parlors. The possibilities of where they are being used are endless.
Trafficking is happening everywhere. It could be happening in your local town, a rest stop by your house, in your suburban neighborhood. It’s not just in the cities or in poor areas. This is a real problem and it’s close to our homes. People get trafficked into the United States all the time.
“Everyone can fight human trafficking. Knowledge is power. Talk to a friend about human trafficking. Watch a documentary, educate yourself. Talk to government representatives. Ask them what your city is doing to fight trafficking,” says Ro Potter.
Fighting this is probably going to cost us. If anything, it will break our hearts. But is it worth it? Yes.
It’s easy, at least for me, to feel disgust and abhorrence for these traffickers. But it’s important to remember that they are human too and something in their past has led them to this place. It’s also important to remember that this industry is fueled by the demand. Men want cheap sex, easy gratification—so they buy a prostitute. We want cheap products—so they force young children to work for free to make those products. Someone needs an organ—so they drug someone and remove the organ without their consent. We have the responsibility to know where our stuff is coming from.
There are a million things I can say about human trafficking. Mostly, I just think we need to realize that God has a huge heart for this issue. These people, women, men, children—they never escape God’s eyes. He can’t get away from the pain they are going through. And what’s close to God’s heart should be close to ours. God wants us to bring justice for these people. If we aren’t doing that, if we aren’t listening to what He is saying to us…He will find other ways to do it. We can see that through the many secular organizations that are doing amazing things to stop these injustices.
So…the question is:
Are we listening?
I read a recent article about the affects that losing a parent/both parents has on a child, even as they grow up. Adults still deal with their feelings and emotions of losing a parent when they were young. Many times children do not have outlets for their feelings after a parent dies. I find that when these tradgedies happen, we tend to overlook the children and their feelings. We don't let them process enough and think that maybe since they are so young, it doesn't really affect them. But it does and the results show up even in adulthood. I think it's also the same when it comes to divorce. Divorces are so common these days and I think we tend to forget the affect they have on children. They need healthy, productive ways to process their thoughts and feelings, or they will shut it inside. If they never have an opportunity to deal with their feelings and hurts, they will carry it with them for the rest of their lives and it will greatly affect what kind of person they turn out to be.
I just can't get over how easily it slips past us that our childhood affects who we are as people. We seem to forget the fact that most things that happened in our childhood have shaped who we are today. And so we forget that the children that are growing up around us are being shaped into future adults and that the everyday circumstances of their lives are important. How they deal with their feelings is important. How they are treated is important. It's important to let them be children, let them be vulnerable and open, let them be themselves.
If you would like to check out the article, here it is: Kids who lose parents still grieve as adults
Posted by
Amanda
2:42 PM
Stare ugly in the face.
Step up, stare at it.
Swallow it whole.
Does it scare you?
Does it make you cry?
Does it make you change?
Stare. Really hard.
Can you ignore it?
Can you fight it?
Is it tearing at your heart?
Ugly, hideous, revolting, repulsive.
Disgusting, sickening, nauseating.
Reality.
Injustice has a dirty face.
Posted by
Amanda
2:16 PM
It feels like it's taken forever to get here, but finally our week on Human Trafficking is finally here. This is definitely something my eyes have been opened to and I've become very passionate about just in these past 10 weeks. I think everyone in my school feels the same way. I want so badly to open others eyes to this issue as well and to help them see the reality of situations all over the world.
More slaves exist now than any other time in history--an estimated 27 million people are in some form of slavery all over the world, whether thats sexual exploitation, prostitution, forced labor, or even the removal of organs. If your curious about what you can do to stand up and speak out, here are some websites to check out:
Stop the Traffick is a movement to Prevent, Protect and Prosecute. They work to educate and raise awareness, advocate on behalf of those trafficked and fundraise for projects to stop trafficking. If you want to learn more about what human trafficking is and what things you can do to take action--this is a great site to check out and pull information from.
Free the Slaves is also a movement to end slavery worldwide. They recognize that everyone has a role to play in the ending of slavery--governments, organizations, businesses, communities, consumers and, most importantly, us. They share stories and easy, practical ways we can educate ourselves and do something about this issue.
"When people act, things change."
Outreach this week was amazing. At the end of our week, we spent two mornings working at a school for children with special needs. The first morning I spent shadowing the physical therapist. I can’t even describe how cool it was. There were kids with all kinds of disabilities that came through the doors, but he knew each one of them, exactly how to work with them and how to make them smile. We were actually able to participate and help him in whatever exercises he was doing with them. The morning started out with crawling along the mats and helping a young boy with down-syndrome play ball. It progressed into rocking and bouncing some precious girls with cerebral palsy. Just watching their faces light up every time someone would talk to them or when they got to bounce was remarkable. They are so childlike and excited about everything. The therapist that was working with them was great. You could tell that he truly loved his job and cared for each one of the kids. He was always patient and gentle with them. He made it so much fun, by singing songs and playing games. They all loved it.
The next morning we were switched around into another room. There were four kids, with several disabilities. One of them especially grabbed my heart. He was talkative and funny, always seeming to enjoy everything he was doing. Close to the end of class, I took him for a walk around the school and then we went back to the classroom. It was time for us to leave, but he did not want to let go of my hand. He was playing soccer and wanted me to play with him. I kept saying “Hasta luego!” but he would have none of it. He was so sweet and I wish so badly I could have stayed longer with him. It was really great to be in that classroom though. A lot of the educating they do with the kids is teaching them life skills. The day we were there, they were making fruit salads. One way they teach the kids is by using all of the senses. Every time we cut open the cantaloupe or watermelon, the teacher would repeat the name, give them a chance to touch and smell it and then let them eat a couple pieces. It was a new experience and one that I am really glad I was able to participate in. The children were truly wonderful, full of life and love.
On Friday night, we went to do Metro Ministries. It was at a different location that some of our students have been going to throughout the whole school. I had never been there though, but immediately fell in love with the kids. We started playing “Pato, Pato, Gonzo” also known as “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Every little girl wanted to be “it” and loved being able to chase you around the circle. I feel like those times, just playing with the kids, sitting with them and smiling…those times bring me back to why I do what I do. They make the world feel right. There really is nothing better than hanging out with kids and being silly. That night, we had a team from L.A. come with us and do some dramas. The kids were really into the program. I ended up with a little girl falling asleep on my shoulder and held her for probably a good hour. I couldn’t feel my arm afterwards, but it was worth it. ;) Kids are just so great, and if there is nothing else that I take away from these experiences, I do know that kids are valuable and they bring life. Being around them refreshes me and makes me feel like taking on the world again. And that is a beautiful thing.
Speaker: Michelle Grimes
Topic: Behaviors and Behavior Management
Class was a little different this week. Instead of having our speaker here in person, we used Skype and interacted with our speaker while she was in Kansas City! We also only had lectures two days this week. The rest of the week was spent cleaning the base (or in my case, washing, waxing and vacuuming our vehicles!) and working in the mornings at a school for children with special needs. For our two days, we spent time discussing discipline and the reasons children act up and looking at scripture for discipline.
Discipline is such an interesting topic and also one widely debated. Sometimes kids are really hard work. They act up quite often, or in some cases are quiet, withdrawn and don't want to participate. I think it's important that we get to the root of their behaviors and use the best discipline and encouragement we can. Every child is different and they all learn in different ways. That means that disciplining a child one way, might not work for the next child you need to discipline. It's so important to look at the individiual needs of each child you are working with. Also, another thing Michelle taught on was engaging your students. If you engage the students, you can eliminate 90% of behaviors. That's incredible. But if you think about, even adults work that way. If we aren't engaged, we don't learn a thing, we don't want to be in class, we have no interest whatsoever in what we are doing. Kids just need to be challenged and also accepted and involved in whatever they are doing.
As we looked more and more at what the Bible said about discipline, I think there was a very clear point God was trying to make. Discipline is good for us and He set discipline in place because He loves us and wants the best for us. Without discipline, we would be spoiled and destroying ourselves. Actually, the Bible even says for us to love correction and discipling, knowing that its for our best interests. I think often we look at it as a bad thing. Even as Christians, we don't want to discipline our children. But, really, it's good for them, as long as you are doing it through love, just like God does for us. It makes me think differently about the way things happen sometimes, like God is taking care of me and saving me from something worse. It's interesting...
One of the things Michelle said was, "The brain is a muscle--it needs to be worked out." She was saying how she tells her students that. I think it's interesting, because it's something we could all hear really. How often do we work out our brains? How often are we trying to learn new things--unless we are forced to? If we aren't challenging ourselves and learning new information, are we really growing? I've noticed that whenever I am not challenged and learning new things, I become depressed, stagnant and generally not as happy with life. This world is full of information, nature, beauty and new things. It is a neverending classroom. We can always be learning something new. Yet we squander our time playing Solitaire or taking naps. I am definitely not the exception to this. But I am going to challenge myself to find something new, something different about everyday and to learn from all experiences. Would you like to join me?
Another interesting thing Michelle talked about was repetition. It takes 11-27 times of something being repeated for the knowledge to actually make its way to a child's brain. Wow, that is quite a lot of repetition. It does make sense though. I know, for me, the more that things are repeated--the easier they are to remember. I've also heard it's the same for habits. If you repeat them more than 21 times they will stick--or vice versa, it takes 21 days to break a habit. It's a cool topic, and I wonder how much it is put into use while teaching. I think, especially for junior high and high school, it would be a really good tool to keep using. I remember quite a lot of repetition during elementary school, but not as much the older I got. I wonder if that's why I don't remember half the information I learned in high school ;)...
Posted by
Amanda
3:05 PM
I'm not sure if you all know much about the gang violence and killings going on in Mexico right now. I don't know very much, but recently read a sad and disturbing article about a shooting in Ciudad Juarez.
A couple was driving home from a birthday party with their daughter, getting ready to cross the border to get back to the States, when they were followed and gunned down by a car full of gang members. Both parents were killed, but their daughter was left alive and terrified in the backseat. The same night, another man leaving the party with his two children was shot and killed. The two children were wounded.
The article also said that Ciudad Juarez is one of the main places for the war against the drug cartels. Last year, more than 2,600 people were killed in the city. I just wonder how many people this gang/drug war is affecting. How many parents have died, orphaning their children? How many children have been lost? How many friends, co-workers, and spouses are gone? I can't imagine how this is affecting them. Many of the victims are innocent people. It's so unjust, so unfair.
It's weird, I'm a small-town girl. I grew up on a farm in Indiana and never came into contact or had to worry about gangs. But for some reason, I have a huge heart for them. They come from such broken places and are just looking for acceptance and purpose. But what they are doing is wrong. How can we better reach out to these young men? How can we prevent gangs from forming? How can we teach our kids to better love others?
So many questions...hard answers. Let's just pray for:
- The safety of those innocent lives in Mexico
- The drug cartel/gang war in Mexico comes to an end
- Gang members are ministered to
- We can learn how to prevent gangs from forming and save young men's lives
Link to the article: Couple slain in Mexico
Posted by
Amanda
2:59 PM
This week, we were learning about discipline. One of the sites we checked out was on Cooperative Discipline. It talked about several reasons that kids act up, including attention, power, revenge and avoidance of failure. On the website, it gives information about why the children act up, ways you can handle their behavior and how you can encourage them. I think it's really helpful for anyone who has children or works with children.
Posted by
Amanda
2:45 PM
One of the greatest things I have learned from this school is how to be a voice for the voiceless. There are millions of people out there experiencing trauma, poverty and hopelessness. They are enslaved, abused and treated like nothing. They have no strength to speak on their own. They are too weak to get out of their situations. But we have strength and the power to make things happen. We can help those people. We can be a voice.
I found another ministry that is working out of South Africa, a place I am in love with. Their name is A Voice for the Voiceless and they are using their voices, their skills and their love to reach out to people in need. They are working to raise awareness and build relationships. Through storytelling and photography, they are capturing the beauty of the voiceless and empowering them. Also, they have many counseling, support and training centers located around Cape Town. It's cool to see another ministry where they are using their own personal resources and skills to bring awareness in great ways.
Speaker: Phil Aspegren & Leslie Freeman
Topic: Family Based Care Solutions/Children with Disabilities
Amidst being sick this week, I learned some pretty interesting things. We spent half the week with Phil, who is the director of Casa Viva—the foster care agency we have been working with and the only foster care system set in place in Costa Rica. The last part of the week was spent with Leslie, one of our school leaders, who taught about children with disabilities. They were both such fascinating topics and I think ones that are really pertinent to working with children.
Phil started out both of our days by breaking down some scriptures. We talked about the first chapter in Isaiah and how our responsibility is to stop doing wrong and do right. We discussed what it meant to do right—taking care of the hungry, thirsty, sick, widows, orphans and standing up for justice. Then we looked into the story of Jonathan fighting the Philistines. There are many cool things about this story, but one of the things we pulled from it was that we need to take initiative but also be totally dependent on God. So often, we get off balance and are either totally dependent on God or we take initiative and go through with our own plans. But we need to learn to do both and to do them to our fullest capacity.
Other than that, Phil also spoke on the foster care system. Basically—if we were a child in need, where would we want to live? An institution? And orphanage? Or a loving family, with either your own biological parents, adoptive parents, or foster parents? Sometimes as Christians, especially living in the States, we think of orphanages in kind of a romantic way. We always want to support people who are setting up orphanages because it’s easy to see the benefit. We feel sorry for the poor children and want to help them. It’s much harder, however, to work to set those children up in families. But is it better? Yes. If you think about when you were younger, say your parents died…would you want to live in an orphanage or institution until you were 18? I think we would all answer no. That’s where foster care and adoption come in. They are such great options really and easily accessible.
Phil gave us a crazy statistic. There are 1,910 children in orphanages in Costa Rica. There are 3,000 evangelical churches in all of Costa Rica. If each one of those churches had one family decide to take a child in, there would be no need for the orphanages anymore and the children would be living with families. Isn’t that crazy? I think it’s also the responsibility of the church to stand up behind families that want to adopt or foster children and to support them. We are a “body,” are we not?
As Leslie was talking about children with disabilities this week, I had even more to think about. When we talk about the weakest, most vulnerable of children—this would be them. In the United States, children with disabilities are given a lot more opportunities than most anywhere. They are given the right to education and are protected by law for abuse. But in many developing countries, this is not the case. They are abused, neglected and forgotten more than any other children. They are looked down upon. This is so devastating to me.
I feel like sometimes we look on children with disabilities as too much work or hard to deal with. Instead, why are we not considering everything we can learn from them? They have so much to offer and the value of their human life is no different than ours. They have purpose and passion and excitement, but we don’t take the time to explore those things. We look down on them. Why do we do this? Disabilities might bring limitations, but they do not limit the love a person can give, the inspiration they can bring or the insight and perspective they can pass on to us. They have a challenge in front of them every day. Are we helping or hindering them? So many hard questions from this week…
During Leslie’s teaching, she showed us a video of a man who was born with no arms or legs, yet had figured out how to do almost everything by himself—even brushing his teeth. As it turns out, he is also in love with Jesus and travels all over the world preaching. To me, this is amazing. I feel like so often we look at people with disabilities with all these limitations. At times I’ve wondered, “How would my life change if I were suddenly disabled?” To hear these stories and see others fight through and find ways to still fulfill their passions and purposes is inspiring to me. I would hope to have the same courage and perseverance as them.
There are a lot of great things to browse on his sight and some awesome resources and ways to get involved. If you would like to check out his website and follow what he’s doing: Life Without Limbs
Posted by
Amanda
4:01 PM
One of my passions is art and I love when I find ways that people are using art to minister and raise awareness. This week I found a really cool ministry called Kids with Cameras. The organization teaches art to children in poor communities all around the world. They use photography to empower kids, to capture their imaginations and to bring them hope. Their artwork is shared in exhibits, books, films and websites. They also work with organizations in the community to strengthen the kids’ education and general well-being. It’s so cool to me that these kids can express themselves through photography and that people can find ways to use that to help the kids in so many different ways. I would love to possibly do something like this in the future.
Posted by
Amanda
3:59 PM
Sometimes I feel like technology has taken over our lives in such a way that we forget about reality—we forget that humans are real, tangible, valuable. I read an article this week about two parents in South Korea who had a child with health complication. Instead of taking care of their real child, they made a cyber child and spent all their time looking after it online. They would only break away from their cyber child to feed their real child every once in awhile. Their child ended up dying from malnutrition and dehydration.
When technology takes the place of reality, we have to know there is a problem. If you are choosing to take care of a cyber child instead of your actual, in-front-of-your-face child…there is a big problem. An important point made in the article is that this isn’t just something that happens across the world from us. While people in the United States aren’t killing their babies because they are taking care of cyber children, they are constantly enthralled with their technology. Whether it’s the internet, texting, calling or watching television, we have become a society obsessed with communicating through technology and getting away from our realities.
It’s sad to me that personal communication has gone down the drain. We no longer know how to communicate with each other verbally, we don’t know how to act with each other in person and our friendships aren’t as rich as they could be. If we could put down our computers, turn off our televisions and limited our cell phone use, I think we would find that there are amazing, beautiful people around us, full of love and stories and intelligence. We could enjoy nature, the way that God intended for it to be. I think we are really missing out on a lot.
It’s such a big deal to me that we are missing this. I definitely want to keep praying for this and keep this on my mind. If you want to pray with me, just pray that:
· The South Korean couple would be able to realize the value of human life and be able to deal with their loss in a healthy way.
· We would learn the importance of limiting our technology use.
· We would spend more time interacting with people, spending time getting to know one another and love each other in a deeper way.
· Our society wouldn’t be working its way to total dependence on technology, but start building relationships in more fruitful ways.
Article: Baby Dies While Parent Plays Online
Speaker: Mati Gali
Topic: Street Children
If there is one topic I find incredibly hard, it would be street children. There is an unbelievable number of street children in the world today: an estimated 100 million to be exact. They are living on the street, with no protection, no security, and no love. They steal, sniff glue, have sex, fight and rummage for food. But these things don’t define them. That is not who God intended for them to be or where God intended for them to live. They come from broken families, but God wants them to have loving parents and a safe home. They come from all over: slums, middle class, the streets, and even Christian homes. These are children, between the ages of 0 and 18…living on the streets, sleeping on cardboard, and scared for their lives. When it comes to hope, they have none. They find themselves sniffing glue to take care of the emptiness in their lives. When it comes to love, they are alone. So they end up having sex with each other to make up for that hole in their hearts.
Who is taking care of these children? They are taking care of themselves. That was never supposed to happen.
One thing Mati said this week was that, “With knowledge comes responsibility.” Once we are faced with the knowledge of these situations, we have a responsibility to do something. Satan has a lot of ways of destroying children. We can see that through what is happening to these kids on the streets. One of the ways Satan destroys children is through the apathy of those who can help those kids. I think it’s important to take a look at what is holding us back from helping children all over the world and children in our own neighborhood. Is it apathy? If so, we need to kick ourselves in the butts. Kids need us.
We talked this week about following your calling and taking a risk to follow God even if we can’t see where we are going. Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt without having any idea where he was going, how he was going to feed all of them or where they would sleep. He had no idea what he was doing, except that God told him to do it. And he followed God’s lead to wherever it took him. Do I have that kind of faith, where I will step out and do something God tells me, even if I don’t know where I will sleep, where I will get food or where I’m even going? I don’t really know. I have had the faith to come here and believe that this is where God has taken me. But in some ways, I feel as though this is a safe place. Would I be able to step out and go somewhere else? To follow God, even if I can’t see where I’m going? I’m trying and striving and moving forward. I think that’s a good place to start.
Posted by
Amanda
9:07 AM
On Wednesday, a few of us took a nice, little journey to a daycare center about half an hour from the base. Instead of going to Casa Viva with the foster care kids, I think we will start going to this place for outreach every week. It was a really cool place, with kids ranging from about one to six years old. It’s funny how they all try to grab your attention, grab your hand and want you to play with them. A few of us girls went and helped out with the kids that were around one to three years old. It took them a little while to warm up to us, but in the end we were running around, playing ball and being silly. There were around eight children and only one adult to watch after them. The whole time we were there she constantly had her hands full, changing diapers, getting food, cleaning up vomit. It was an eventful day, but for the woman in charge it was just a normal day. It was nice that we were able to help her out and play with the kids while she did all of those things. The kids here are great and I’m excited for outreach, where I will be able to work with kids every day. I can’t even imagine the smiles I’m going to see, the stories I’ll have to tell and the kids that are going to touch my heart. I can’t wait for six months of that!
As I read or listen to the news, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the chaos and crap that is happening in this world. I think a lot of people agree. It's hard to be faced with violence and injustice. Once we know about things, we are forced to either ignore them or do something about it.
Earlier today, I was reading some articles on human trafficking. It's crazy how many articles there are and how many of them are in the United States. One of the articles that caught my eye though was about Irap and how women there are selling their own daughters. Can you ever imagine selling your daughter or son, fully knowing what you were selling them into? That is what these women are doing. It told the story of a young girl who was widowed at the age of 19. Her mother and brothers told her they were going to sell her to a brothel near them. The girl informed police that she was friends with to raid her home and the brothel. The girl ended up going to jail for two years because that's how long it took to come before the judge and be released, but the girl said she would rather go to jail than to be sold to the brothel.
This is such a terrible situation, but the article also presented us with a side of hope. Another woman from the same culture had been raped when she was 16 and kicked out of her home because of it. After educating herself on the human slave trade, she is now an undercover pimp that collects information on sex trafficking in Iraq. It hasn't been easy for her, she's even started to get beaten as more people become suspicious of her. However, she inspires me because she says she will not stop doing what she's doing, even if she is killed. She will not give up on stopping the sex trade. To me, this is a challenging, inspiring and beautiful thing. How many of us are so passionate about something that we are willing to put our lives on the line for it?
I think it would be good for all of us to get some of that passion.
Let's pray for that passion.
Let's pray for more people to take a stand, speak out, take action.
Let's pray for woman and men to realize the value of human beings, the value of children.
Let's pray for the demand of prostitutes to end, for women and young girls to be restored, for families to reconnect and love each other.
Let's just pray.
Link to the article: Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers pimping Daughters
Here's another article from Time magazine about human trafficking: Human Trafficking Rises in Recession
Posted by
Amanda
12:46 PM
As some of you may know, I went to South Africa in 2007 to do a Discipleship Training School and work with children in need. I still have such a huge heart for the place and a desire to go back and do more there. I've also really been developing a great desire to become an advocate for human trafficking and help end the human slave trade.
Justice A.C.T.S. is a network of believers working in South Africa to bring awareness and combat human trafficking. They have a great group of people skilled in counseling, media production, photography, journalism and social work. They work with local churches and other organizations to go into "at-risk" communities and educate them on trafficking. We need more people to step up and use their skills to fight for justice. I think it's great what they are doing and shows how we can be advocates as well for these things.
Link: Justice A.C.T.S.
Posted by
Amanda
12:38 PM
This week, our speaker is talking about street children. He leads the Youth With A Mission base in Recife, Brazil and has been there for 20 years working with street kids. In Brazil, there is an estimated 7-8 million street kids out of a populations of 160-170 million. That's such a crazy amount! But, I absolutely love what the YWAM bases in Brazil are doing for street kids. It's so awesome the ministry that is coming out of there. They work to prevent children from having to go to the streets, as well as have houses to help restore kids that are coming off of the streets. In Belo Horizonte, they have homes that teach the kids different trades that could be useful in finding jobs and staying off the streets. If you'd like the check out the work they are doing, here are the links:
YWAM Recife
YWAM Belo Horizonte
This week I decided to check out some of the things that are happening with children in the United States. I’ve been reading stories from Haiti and several places in Africa, as well as seeing things firsthand in Costa Rica, but do I even know what’s happening in my own country? Well…as I was searching I found an article about a pediatrician who’s been charged with 471 felony counts for the sexual abuse of his patients. Four hundred and seventy-one. That’s a large number. For more than 10 years he has been sexually abusing children, all but one of them girls. Ten years. That is unbelievable to me. It’s really pretty crazy that for ten years you can be taking your child to a doctor, completely trusting him, and all along he is abusing your child. How does that even happen? My mind can’t wrap itself around that.
It’s like I was learning this week, “If you aren’t looking for it, you won’t see it.” If we aren’t constantly aware that our children could be in danger or that there are people out there hurting other children, we won’t see any of it happen. This is so important, especially in the States where everything seems wonderful or easy. We need to remember that bad stuff still happens there, not just in developing countries. It’s in our backyards. I can’t stress that enough. Let’s open our eyes.
If you’re interested in reading the article, here’s the link: Delaware Pediatrician
Posted by
Amanda
3:02 PM
Speaker: Dave Swann
Topic: Project Planning and Development
This week was full of hard questions and inspiring ideas. We were probed to dig deeper inside ourselves. We learned how to ask the right questions and conduct research that will help us develop projects and create change. One of my favorite things about this week was that our speaker came from South Africa and brought me five of my favorite South African candy bars! He was also an amazing speaker, super down-to-earth and full of lots of great insight!
Last September, I took a school for Community Development here in San Jose. I learned a great deal from it and could really see myself using it in the future. This week totally reinforced that idea. I find myself always coming up with different ideas for projects or building on projects that I’ve had in my head for awhile. We were able to see how to use those ideas, write them down, present them and expand on them.
One thing I really loved is that Dave asked questions. Like, “How do you know where God wants you to be?” and “What is worship?” and “How are we going to open people’s eyes?” What does it mean to do these things, to really be a missionary? They might seem like easy questions on the surface, but once you get into them they are tough. I’ve seriously had to evaluate and consider why I do and say many things in my life. But I think it’s such a great approach to things. Each of us have answers to just about everything deep down inside of us, but most of us like to be fed the answers from other people instead of taking the time to pull those answers out of us. We are all “resources” and have tons of knowledge and wisdom about things stored up inside of us. Let’s take the time to ask ourselves questions and really look hard at our answers. Let’s not be apathetic.
Something Dave said this week was that the excuse “I don’t have any personal responsibility,” has killed millions of people. When we look around at issues in the world and hear the stories, but simply say that it doesn’t affect us and not do anything about it…we are killing people. People are dying, because we just aren’t doing anything about it. “It’s not my responsibility,” or “I have my own life to worry about,” or “I’ve made a way for myself, why can’t they do the same?” When we don’t do anything about child prostitution, human trafficking, poverty, child soldiers, violence, racism, gangs…people are dying. This is our responsibility, our call as Christians and as people, really. We are hypocrites if we say we will love our neighbors, but don’t help the ones that are starving to death in Africa or being sold in India.
Another quote from Dave was, “If you’re not pissed off with the state of the world, you’re not paying attention.” If you aren’t seeing what’s happening in the world, you aren’t looking. Things are happening even in our own backyards, but we don’t see it because we are only concerned about our own little worlds. The world is in chaos right now. How do you feel about that? Are your eyes open?
I realize this blog had little to do with development and planning projects, which we actually talked about quite a bit throughout the week. It was all great stuff and we even started planning a bit of the projects we might do in Jaco, but these are some of the things that really hit me this week. I left asking more questions and learning more about my character, God’s character and the world. I think that’s a good thing…
Posted by
Amanda
2:23 PM
At the end of our 3 month lecture phase, we go on to do a six month outreach phase. For my outreach, I’ve decided to go to Jaco which is a beach town in Costa Rica about two hours outside of San Jose. Jaco is basically known for its surfing and prostitution. There is a beautiful beach, but the town is dirty and full of men “looking for a good time.” There is such a mix of wealth and poverty, all in about a four or five mile strip. The main income of the place is tourism, so if you can’t speak English and sell things, you basically don’t have a job. It’s a hard place, a mix of good and evil, and it’s where I feel called for the next six months of my life.
On Friday afternoon, a group of us who are planning to do outreach together set out for Jaco. We spent a good portion of the week observing what was happening there, in order to get an idea of how we could do ministry there. On Friday night, we attended one of the churches there and met some awesome people. After church, we walked down the strip to see what the nightlife was like. It was hard for me not to get absolutely disgusted. I don’t even know how to describe what I saw. There were old men, young men, middle-aged men. They were mostly white, completely drunk and absolutely obnoxious. They were being swarmed by girls prostituting themselves, some sitting around, some heading off in Taxis with the girls. I wanted to punch those men, in all honesty. But God reminded me that He still loves them, which is such a hard concept for me to grasp. He HATES what they are doing, but He loves them and they are broken men who have no idea what they are doing.
On Saturday, we sat down with a lady who had been working with the prostitutes for the past couple years. She gave us some ideas for how we could work with the women, because everyone on our team has a passion to help women out of prostitution. One thing she said really stood out to me. Prostitution in Costa Rica is legal, so one of my classmates asked how many of the girls in Jaco are forced into it and how many do it by choice. Her answer was, “Does it matter? They all need help and none of them do it by choice. They might not be forced into it by a parent or pimp, but they were abused as a child, in poverty or some other circumstance which forced them to that place. None of them want to do it.” It’s so true. She told us a lot of the women will stand across the road from the bar and look for every excuse not to go over there until they run out of excuses. Something has led them to this place and I just want to bring hope to them, that there is something better, they are valuable and have a purpose.
On Saturday our school leader was out surfing and overheard a conversation between an older man and younger boy. The boy was asking advice for how to have a good time here and meet the local girls. He didn’t want the prostitutes, but to meet tourist girls or girls from the area. The older man was telling him, “Just pay the extra hundred bucks, take a couple girls up to your room and have a good time. That’s what they are there for.” He was urging him to just use the prostitutes. What do you do with that?
I’m still not sure, but I do know that we can do something. Outreach there is going to be hard, but worth it. Our team is strong and full of love. We are so ready to get things started there, build relationships and change something. It’s going to be great, but now I need to start preparing myself for what’s about to come.
I feel like I am now obsessed with researching. I am constantly reading articles, finding new websites, looking up YouTube videos that will keep me more aware of what's going on in the world and what people are doing. It's crazy, but so good. I think if we all took a little more time out of our day to focus on what's happening around us, we would be shocked and amazed on what we were missing out on.
Anyways, with that being said...just wanted to share a couple of websites and some links to some videos that I think would be really cool for you to check out.
This week we are talking about project planning and development. I think one of the best organizations that I've found who are working towards transforming communities is World Vision. When I thought of World Vision before, I thought the only thing they did was "Sponsor a Child" programs, but they do so much more. In fact, their website can almost be overwhelming because they are doing so much! While they still do child sponsoring, they also do disaster relief, awareness programs, and have found creative ways to get everyone involved in what's happening all over the world.
Another organization I was thinking about this week was Invisible Children. They are simply storytellers working towards ending the war in Africa. They make documentaries, rebuild schools, provide scholarship for children, among many more things. I think what I love most about this organization is that I can identify with them. They went, saw the need and knew they needed to do something about it. It's awesome that they are using their documentary skills to raise awareness about what's happening. I think that media has such a huge impact on people and also has the ability to make people feel something. It seems to me that people in the world are becoming more and more desensitized to the horrible things happening all over. They forget that real people are hurting and forced to face terrible situations for their entire lives. In our Western culture, we are free. We forget that most countries in the world don't have that luxury.
Anyways, what these organizations are doing is pretty cool and you should definitely check it out!
Also, if you're up for watching some videos you should follow these links:
Eight Dollar Hot Dog
Modern Day Slavery
Global Forum on Human Trafficking
Speaker: Rick Allegretto
Topic: Servant Leadership
We teamed up with the DTS (Discipleship Training School) this week and held classes together for lecture on servant leadership. I feel like this is an area that I am constantly learning about and trying to apply to my own life, so it was nice to be able to focus on it for the week. We started out by talking about our attitudes and how we face situations. Our attitude has the capacity to alter the outcome of every situation and can also affect and change the attitudes of others. This is especially true when you live in community like I do. We are around the same people every day, all day long and it is very easy for attitudes to affect each other. Another thing we discussed was the people that influence us and the qualities and characteristics we see in their lives that make us look up to them. Generally we saw the same characteristics in all of the people we admired and most of their characteristics could be drawn from the fruits of the spirit (love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). These are all actions—things we can put into practice.
In the middle of the week, we had a night of worship and God totally wrecked my heart. I was sitting there, thinking about different situations in my life. I was thinking about what my life would look like in the future: marriage, kids, traveling. I was thinking about how I wanted to love others more, how I wanted my love to change people. I want to just be a simple instrument in the hands of God, loving people and bringing them hope. And then I felt like God said, “Would you give your future up, your hopes, marriage, kids, traveling, in order to see people’s lives changed through your love?” I basically crumbled to the ground. I think I spent an hour there…just thinking, crying, praying. I want to serve others through love and I want people to know the enormous love of God, but was I willing to give some stuff up in order to see that happen? I don’t know, honestly. It was hard. I argued with God for quite a while. I always pray things like that, such powerful stuff like, “God, I want to give you my everything. Use me to show Your love.” But man…do I know what I’m praying? That’s so intense. Anyways, I feel like something changed that night. I don’t know if I actually gave those things up to God. I do still desire those things so much, but I know God is good and I’m content in Him. I think it’s a process, I mean life is a process…but slowly, surely God is giving me a bigger heart, more capacity to love and more wisdom. It’s pretty cool, I think. So I’m really hoping He will teach me how to be a servant leader as I walk into my future. I want to get to the place where others are really more important than myself and where I’m not selfishly putting my needs before everyone else. Again…it’s a process. But it’s good.
For outreach this week, a group of us went to Casa Viva (the Foster Care organization). They were holding a meeting with all of the Foster parents, so during the meeting we took care of the kids and held a program for the older children. Becky and I were in charge of the babies and we ended up having five of them. I’m not gonna lie, it was a rough night. Becky and I both had headaches and it seemed that we always had at least two crying babies. Some of the staff was there helping us out, so that was good. There was one little girl who was all smiles the whole time. She was constantly blowing me kisses and seemed to enjoy anything that was happening around her. Her smile definitely blessed me in the midst of all the crying and headaches. Everything went great with the older kids. They played some games, colored pictures and had story time. Overall, it was cool to be able to take care of the kids, but still a bit hard.
Here's a picture that one of our classmates, Daniel drew for Becky and I:
Posted by
Amanda
2:20 PM
As I was browsing through Relevant’s Reject Apathy magazine this week, I came across an article about a man doing “Apartment ministry.” I thought it sounded kind of interesting so I checked it out. Basically, the article is about a middle-class man who works with kids in low-income apartments. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says in the article, but it actually really hit home with me. One of the things the man talked about in this article was his struggle between living his comfortable life and working with the poor.
Something I have constantly struggled with is this very issue. Growing up, we were never rich. Money was tight sometimes, but my parents really provided for my brother and I. We had a great childhood, a wonderful house and enough food to fill our tummies. If I were living in Indiana right now, I would have a job, a car and would probably be working towards a degree in University. I have all of those things at my fingertips, yet I’m living in San Jose, Costa Rica, sharing a dorm with five other girls and working with kids at risk.
Still…I struggle so much. I work with kids that have NOTHING. Even though I live in a community and don’t have all the comforts of home, I still have 3 meals a day, a comfortable bed, a computer and a nice living area. How is that fair? How is it fair that so many are living on less than $1 a day, but I can still lead a comfortable life and don’t even think about it or give thanks for it every day? We leave the base, hang out with these poor kids for a couple hours and then drive back to our nice, comfortable home. To me, this seems wrong, but I don’t know why. I can’t seem to justify anything in my head.
God called his disciples to go spread the Gospel and not take anything with them. They lived in poverty, they were rejected, and they were thrown in jail. Basically, they weren’t comfortable. Jesus wasn’t comfortable. He was even homeless. Should I live like that? By faith, following Jesus, without my comforts but trusting Him to take care of me. It would seem a lot easier to minister to the poor if I were one of them. But what does that look like? Like I said, it’s a constant struggle in my mind. Any thoughts?
I feel like as Christians and as missionaries, this is something we should take the time to think and pray about. We need to ask God if our “comfort” is getting in the way of our purpose. We need to pray for the poor and those that are living in conditions where they don’t have the chance to live a good, easy life. We need to pray for those who are working with the poor and working for justice, that they will have the grace to understand and empathize with those they are working with. Lastly, we need to be thankful, every day, for what we have been given.
If you'd like to check out the article, here's the link: Apartment Ministry
