Roast Beef

"Buuuuuuueeenaaaaaass."   10 seconds later, "BbUUUUUUuuueeeeennnnaaasss."  Sigh. Down I go to see who is at the gate calling my name now. Yohanna and her little brother, with something in her hand. "Oh me, what are they going to ask for now?" I asked myself with a sigh of exasperation.

I walked across the yard and out to the gate. "Si?" I asked with a smile on my face. I can't help but smile when I see Yohanna's pretty little self.

"Yenny, sorry the bother, but I want to see if you can help me with something?" Yohanna said in a way that was going to make it even tougher for me to say "no" to whatever it was she was going to ask of me.

"What is it?", I asked her fully preparing myself to say no.

"What is rosbef?"

"What is what??" I totally did not understand her.

"Rosbef?" She opens her notebook and points at the word "roast beef" written on the page in English. I couldn't help but laugh.

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Why would I say no? Last night I finished the book, "When Helping Hurts" that was recommended to me by a missionary couple who has lived here a lot longer than Geoffrey and I. After an entire year of "helping" people and seeing that the outcomes, in many cases - not all, were less than desired, and sometimes even scary or dangerous when all we were doing was trying to "help" people, I knew we needed to find out what the heck we were doing wrong. How does doing something nice for a family get a man beaten up? How can buying a wash basin cause women to bad-mouth and bash a family? How can buying a poor family food and medicine cause them to be rejected and bullied to the point where they have to leave and find somewhere new to live? How can passing out free clothes to poor people cause women to treat us and our workers so incredibly disrespectfully? How can free shoes cause children to hit and fight? How can someone handing out cash be so disrespectful and harmful to a relationship? How is it that generosity seems to cause so much animosity? How are small gifts sowing more discord among our people and our workers than blessing? How can we turn people AWAY from Christ when we are only trying to "help"? 

So Geoffrey and I are on a very steep learning curve ourselves. And as we learn we try to warn our guests of what we've learned and ask them to respect it. But I never took a "Living Among Poor People 101" or "Hosting Short-term Mission Teams" course in college. It is important to mention that many people were genuinely helped this year, very grateful, and brought closer to the Lord from our efforts....but, it's a learn as you go job, and if you don't learn as you go, you will go under quick and bring the very people you are trying to help down with you. In every case, our intentions and the intentions of the other givers were 100% pure. But what good are intentions in the long run, really? And we did not, at least I hope, turn people AWAY from Christ, but we definitely set the bar really high for all the other gringos who come in. If they don't come in with cash and candy and clothes and shoes, they can expect to feel some rejection from the people here who have learned to see gringos as superior material dispensers and nothing more. We're newbies, baby missionaries - bare with us. Learning as we go, and by the grace of God alone, we will break that bar that we set and instead of winning people with candy, we will win them with the gospel, win them by walking alongside them - mountain top or valley- and being there in the long haul. Not giving them money or material possessions that they have done well without their entire lives, but loving them enough to gently teach and guide them, to help restore them to what the Lord, their Creator, created them to be - in right relationship with Him and the rest of Creation. We are here to simply EMPOWER them. Hence:

Empowering God's children to change the world.

 

 

So how will we take what we have learned in 2014 and let it shape our ministry for the future? For one, we will not host teams that do not benefit the children's home, what the Lord has called us here for in the first place. Two, all team leaders must read When Helping Hurts pgs 18-204, 296-299. This is because what Geoffrey and I could not articulate well enough, this book can. If the group leaders don't read the book and then explain it to the group, they can't come with our mission. It is now considered "required reading". Three, there will be no more mission trips, only empowerment trips. The projects done by the mission team, if not working at Casa Gloria, must be focused on empowering people. Not giveaway trips, not party and sight-seeing trips, not vacations, not feel good, take lots of pictures of poor kid trips, but trips where the team arrives humbly, in a position to learn what these amazing, and not so amazing, people have to teach them, and humbly work alongside them to advance or complete an initiative that they feel is very important to their community, or school, or health center. Four, any gifts that volunteers want to leave for something outside the children's home must benefit the community, or group, as a whole and will more than likely be put in a fund by our mission and saved until we see a real need that we have enough funds to complete with the help of the community.

And there's a lot more, but I will spare you. I can't wait to see what we learn in 2015! (sarcasm)  No, but really, thank God He lovingly shows us the error of our ways and gives us another chance.

 

So we had 7 working teams in 5 months, one of which was a 25 person team! We've had a total of 12 groups visit us, including the teams,  in the first 9 months of the year - with one more to come in October that we are aware of. Only other missionaries are going to understand the load in which the two preceeding sentences carry. It has been a lot of work, but it has been really good for the mission. The children's home is more than half way done because of it - praise the Lord for all of you who contributed through labor or through finances! I never imagined coming this far this fast!! Next year, unless absolutely necessary, we will try to schedule one team per month maximum in order for Geoffrey and I to maintain our mental health, lol. And we already have our January team in the works. We really, really need teams in the beginning of the year in order to get the home done and ready for the children by the summer. It can happen!! We have sheetrock, painting, trimming, fixtures, doors, cabinets, tile, and all kinds of other stuff that needs to be done. Please consider helping us acheive this as close to the beginning of the year as possible. Go, or send someone who can go, or help us be able to purchase these things and get local workers to do it!

 

Since our teams are finished with for the year I have had a lot more time to really get back into my relationships with our people. I have hired about 15 guys to start the blocking of the home, 3 of which are finishing up the last bits of the framing. We got our 53 windows in and they are being installed. I have started working with our worker Cesar for one hour once a week, a requirement in order for him to continue working here, to learn to read and write. He has multiple spelling and vocabulary tests a week in which he has yet to make below a 90% meaning he actually studies at home. He will be enrolling in school in the next month to start in January, otherwise his job with us ends. I scolded him once when he was ill-prepared for one of his tests and explained to him how important the construction work is to me, but more important than that to me is him, him learning to read and write. I was willing to fire him if he wasn't willing to put in the effort to learn. He was more important than my time and my job. As I told him these things I noticed his eyes filling up with tears - not because I was scolding him, but because he realized just how important he is to me.

Edgar, our neighbor, has conditions also to work with us. A few months ago his mother brought his report card to me and asked me if I would please talk to him because he will not listen to her. I scolded him with my words right in front of her. He got very serious as he listened. I told him if his grades didn't improve he would not be allowed to work here in the afternoons. He had to complete all of his homework, every day, first. He asked if he could come use our internet, and I told him of course not. None of the other kids use our internet and they get their homework done, so he should too. He brought me his report card two weeks ago and his grades went from 30s, 40s, and 50s, to 60s, 70s, and 80s. Remarkable. I was SO proud of him, and he knew it. He is still working here every afternoon. But at the end of each month he must bring me a note from his teachers with his grades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also had time to come up with an idea that would not only benefit the mission, but would empower and benefit women willing to work in our community. I think it has the potential to become something. I have noticed that with all our teams, everyone -- even the men -- seem to be enamored with the typical dress of the Mayan people in our area, the corte and guipil. The corte is Mayan fabric that is woven together into a strip that is 8 yards long and about 5 feet tall. It is then sown in the Mayan way to make a beautiful, flowing skirt of elaborate, colorful design. They are gorgeous and the Mayans are one of the few cultures left whose women still wear, for the most part, their indigenous outfit. So using the Mayan corte fabric, I sewed a bag purse (by hand) to see how it would turn out. It turned out really beautiful in my opinion.  I decided to find a woman in our community who did not have a job, but would like the opportunity to have one. I taught her how to sew the purse using the one I sewed as an example. She did two test runs, going back and forth making corrections here and there and then finally sewed one that turned out great. So now I would like to sell these bags, pre-sell them, and bring them back with me in December. All the profits go to the children's home and selling the bags means at ;east one woman continues to have work. If I have lots of orders for bags, I will have to hire another woman. It is a great way to generate funds for the mission and a great opportunity to provide work for women in our community.

 

With that being said, if you would like to collaborate with us: choose a bag (black/blue, olive/copper). They are about a foot and a half tall and wide (square) and can be cinched in the middle by tying the bows on each side. The fabric is expensive and we pay the women per bag, so I can only pre-sell the bags. Right now they are being hand-sown at home so the women can look after their children at the same time, so they aren't absolutely perfect, but they are perfectly beautiful and stand for so much! We are asking $30 for a bag and I will bring it home with us in December. Shoot me an email at misionvidanueva@yahoo.com or facebook if you'd like one or two or ten! What a thoughtful and great gift it could be for someone too - a gift that brings so much good to so many women and children. Help us to empower God's children to change the world.

****note: as of 10/1 we are now sold out of olive/copper. We still have some blue and I will be getting a new color soon!************

 

 

Vilma, the woman who is sewing the bags from our community.

Mayda, my sweet helper!

 

 

That's all for now I suppose. Our great God is doing some exciting things here. I am so thankful to be able to share it with you. And I can not express with adequate words how thankful I am to you all, you know exactly who you are, that have given so much of your time and resources this year to get the babies out of the hospitals and the children off the streets as fast as possible. They will be in our arms before we know it.

 

 

We love you all,

 

Jenna