Sharing Gifts

This week is zipping on by!  We have four wonderful outreach participants serving with us this week.  It’s wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit continues to provide the exact people for the exact time.  What a blessing to know that our great God is in control of all the details of our lives and ministry!

We’ve had lots of fun – and some tears.  Each student is invited to share her testimony with each other, and us.  While every story is different, in each one the faithfulness of God through sometimes difficult circumstances, is evident.  What an encouragement!

Along with sharing their stories, our team has been sharing the gifts/passions/talents each one has been given by God.  It’s so wonderful to see Him at work in this, too! 

Lorianny decorating with glitter glue.

We asked Anna to bring a craft for our Little Girls to go along with the story of Isaac.  We didn’t know that she loves crafts – but God did!  Back in the US she took the time to read the story, and then went to the store, not sure of what she’d buy.  As she looked, the Spirit was with her, and helped her pull together an awesome craft. 

Because God promised Isaac his descendants would be as many as the grains of sand and stars in the sky, she brought flower pots (sand, or earth) for the girls to decorate with stars, glitter glue (a favorite!) and letters to make their names.  It was a hit!

At 18, Kierra is only a couple of years older than our teens.  She shared with them her struggles with self-esteem, and how through Christ, she began to see herself as having value.  She wanted to help younger girls learn this same truth, and started a Big Sister program at her church.  She used verses in I Timothy 2 which talk about clothing ourselves not with fancy outward things, but with good deeds (vs. 9-10).

Gabrielle has also had struggles in her life, but from an early age has known God has been with her.  One of her passions is singing.  Daisy asked her to sing for our teens.  Without any preparation, with music or accompaniment, her voice soared in our little Site. 

Duranda shared that before deciding on further education, she prayed to ask for God’s guidance in her career.  When she felt Him calling her to teaching, she did some volunteering with students and God confirmed it.  As a teacher, she’s been impacting students for 20 years.  What an important lesson for all of us in getting the order of events correct.  Prayer first, not as an afterthought.

With Alicia (and one of her sweet little ones)

Last night we had dinner in the home of one of the young women of El Callejon.  Alicia made ‘la bandera’ (the flag) of the Dominican Republic, which is Rice, Beans and Chicken.  She also made delicious Tostones, which are fried plantains. 

It was an opportunity to learn a little more about the lives of the people in El Callejon, and also to share in one of their gifts, the gift of cooking. 

We believe that just as God has blessed each student and outreach participant with gifts, He has also given them to the women, teens and girls of El Callejon.  Sometimes they don’t see it, many times the world tells them they have nothing, but we refuse to accept this as truth.  I

nstead, we want to help them understand that they, too, are beloved and blessed.  That they, too, have something to share, that they, too, are a part of the Body of Christ.

What an honor to serve Him together!