La Esperanza (The Hope) Rehab

Every Wednesday at 2pm we go out to visit the girls at the La Esperanza Rehab (on the way to the shipwreck in San Jacinto) and bring them a delicious dessert.  In the beginning, this used to be an outreach that I would merely tag along on.  No more, no less.  I felt no particular use or purpose being there since I didn’t know enough Spanish to understand very much of the lesson that was given by our helper Maritoña and I was too intimidated by the ladies in the rehab to try and practice the few words I knew with them.  As time went on though, I began to understand more and more and started to make more eye contact and smile at the ladies even if I was still too uncomfortable to talk to them.  It’s almost weird for me to remember these feelings as now I have come to feel so comfortable with most of them that we have decided to be “pen pals” (well, through facebook, at least) after they get out.  Granted, this is partly due to the fact that a majority of the women right now are bilingual (many coming from California – Vista, Oceanside, Riverside, etc., Las Vegas, and other places in the states) and also very young, many are in their teens still.  One girl in particular has caught my heart, she is SO incredibly sweet and pretty and so nervous about leaving the rehab because she doesn’t want to “mess up” again.  The women don’t have much spiritual or life direction in this particular rehab….it’s become more of a “drying out” home where they get clean for 3 months and then are flung back into the world.  SCARY.  I’m excited to keep in contact with these girls after they leave though and check up on them.  Between La Esperanza and the Mission Church, Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week that I look very much forward too every week.

Parent Visit Weekend

Two weekends ago, I was blessed to have not only my mom and Norm come down and visit me (which I knew about ahead of time and which is not uncommon for them), but less than an hour after they left my dad and Karen showed up!  It was such a blessing and at the most perfect time.  The week before this, these thoughts had been looming in my mind, “What if I’m not supposed to be here forever?  What would I do back home if I decided it would be best to move back soon?  Should I be ‘getting on with my life’ or is this my life?”  But those thoughts just ended up making me really sad.  I tried to imagine saying goodbye to the church at La Gloria and I welled up merely thinking about it.  Then when my mom and Norm arrived, they were just in time to help get things ready for Friday outreach in Rancho San Francisco.  While at outreach, my mom especially was really encouraging me that I was supposed to be there, loving the kids with God’s love and that I was were God wanted me to be.  When my dad and Karen arrived just after my mom left on Sunday it was a complete surprise for me!  I had no idea they were coming, in fact we almost (well, we should have) missed each other, but God worked it out by keeping me from leaving for outreach when I was planning on, and keeping my dad and Karen from their last bathroom stop.  Anyways, it all worked out just perfectly and they were able to join me on our Sunday outreach to the church, La Gloria, in Lazaro Cardenas.  When we arrived they were also able to fill me with more words of encouragement and confirmation that this is where God wants me and can use me most right now.  All in all, it was a most blessed weekend and even though sometimes it difficult for me to be here, alone, without my family, I know that this is where I am supposed to be and I have peace about that and am very blessed to have friends and amazing “coworkers” and neighbors who look out for me and take care of me when I really need it.

La Gloria Baptisms

Praise the Lord!  What a wonderful, fun-filled, celebratory day that was!  A few Sundays ago (I believe it was August 14th?), we took the EFF school bus down to Lazaro Cardenas where Pastor Hector (pictured on the right) picked up nearly the entire congregation (plus some!) and drove them to the beach to celebrate in the baptisms of four of our hermanos from La Gloria.  The kids has SO much fun playing in the water and the sand (as did I :-P) and the joy on the faces of those baptized was priceless.