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| This is me, 8 years ago :) |
Eight years ago the Lord called me to serve him
as a full time missionary and I said YES. It’s one of the biggest (and
greatest) decisions I’ve ever made, and I couldn’t imagine my life any other
way.
Even though it’s been one of the best decisions
of my life, it hasn’t been easy or joyful all the time, I’ve indeed experienced
the greatest joys and the greatest sorrows these past eight years, and even
though it hasn’t been easy, it’s been worth it!
On September 2014 the Lord answered a prayer I’d
been praying for (for a while) and gave me the greatest ministry family he
could’ve given me: the Kids Alive Guatemala family, and a new journey began. I
was presented the challenge of putting together and running a transition
program for 18y/o (and up) young ladies who’ve been institutionalized and
needed to transition from the institution life to adulthood. The Lord told me
to do it so I accepted the challenge, not knowing what was ahead, but trusting
He was in control of everything. And that, my friends, was the beginning of the
unknown and the greatest joys and memories I have so far.
During these past three years I’ve experience
God’s love in ways I haven’t before, I’ve known him in roles I haven’t before,
and I’ve been able to understand (in a way) how He (as a father) grieves for
the last, the lost, and the least. How He truly loves us no matter what, and
getting to know Him this way, and getting to understand (in a way) how He
feels, hasn’t been easy.
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| The first picture taken of my Casa Ester girls (of the original 4 as I call them). |
My girls (Casa Ester/Transition Program girls)
are the greatest thing that could’ve ever happened to me, but at times, it
feels like I had to give birth to them (figuratively speaking –keep on reading,
eventually it’ll make sense-). And after this process of “giving birth” (with
the contractions and the pain and the expectations and all those things I’ve
been told that happen when someone is about to give birth) they know they
belong, but not to me, but to the one who sent me. With some the process took
few months, with some it took years, and with others the process it’s still ongoing.
And it’s been worth it every single time!
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| Part of the Kids Alive Guatemala family with some friends from the "Centro Cristiano Internacional" Church in Chile |
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| This is my sweet Mayra, two days before going to heaven. |
The loss of the youngest of my girls at the end
of 2016 shifted everything, I experience the deepest sadness I’ve ever
experienced, I cried more than ever, my heart broke and literally hurt, but at
the same time I experienced God’s love and comfort more than ever before, I
understood that He had everything in control and that one of the reasons why I
was here was for a moment like that (and all the moments leading to that
loss/transition). After that we were united even more as a family, and we
understood that we had to be intentional in living each day (for the Lord) to
the maximum. After that some of the girls transitioned and some others came to
join the program.
Since my vision and my heart had changed due to
this loss, I prayed the Lord to give me more wisdom, love, and joy to lead
these girls to Him, so He could show them the path they should be on, and His
(not mine) will be done in their lives.
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| These is my family, my beautiful girls, This was also the last family picture with Mayra. Ah, by the way, Yenni was having fun but she didn't like to smile for pictures (she now smiles for pictures :D ) |
Then, in no time, it was 2017 already, and we
were facing new challenges, the biggest of them, the Transition Program was
growing more and more every day.
From the beginning I was on the “let’s work and
do something great” mode. I was praying more (since I move to Casa Ester and
began running the program and living with my lovely teenage girls I’ve prayed
more than ever in my life), I was asking the Lord for guidance, and I was
trying to get better at listening to His voice and knowing what He wanted me to
do. The first challenge I faced in 2017 was to develop a branch within the
program for young adults with learning disabilities and/or special needs. We
thought we had more time for that but in no time (March to be exact) we open
that area of the program and we got within few weeks 5 young ladies there. We also
hire two caregivers to take care of them, so the family kept on growing.
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| One of our family trips to the lake. |
Summer was here already and we were getting more
and more calls to receive more young ladies into the program, we were building
more apartments and reorganizing the rooms to fit more young women in there. We
went from having 6 to 8 young ladies in the program to having 12 to 14 of them.
Around that time our field director talked to me about another area I was also
directing (somehow in 2016 I accepted the challenge of running our local PR
department and due to all the work at the Transition Program I wasn’t really
doing that much in that area), He told me that we finally had gotten some –much
needed- funds for the PR department (for website, information materials,
videos, etc.) and that he wanted a person to be in charge of that department
full time. I was a little sad about that when he told me that because, I’m a
networker, as a local I have lots of contacts and connections that can be of
great benefit for us but just didn’t have the resources –nor the time- to
approach them and do more. But while he told me that, he also said: “you should
think about it”. I really didn’t understand that, or acted like I didn’t
understand it and that was it. In our following meetings he mentioned it again,
and he clarified why he thought I was the person he wanted to run that area
since he wanted to work more to unify the church in Guatemala (more on that on
a future post), to do development projects in different communities we already
do some work at, and develop materials, to plan events, and find creative ways
to share what we do with others so they can also be part of this beautiful
calling we have. After realizing he was serious about it I got defensive, I couldn’t
understand why he wanted me to be away from my girls and to do something else
(even though I’m very passionate about all those things mentioned before). I
told him he should decide because I couldn’t just leave my girls.
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| Could you imagine a life without this cuties after having them as part of your life?! |
After a couple of months, the director mentioned
this again, this time clarifying I had to be the one to make this decision
(either to stay running the Transition Program, or move and develop and run our
PR program). I was a little confused, I didn’t even want to think about this
possibility, but I understood that I needed to ask for advice. To me, the fact
that he was asking me to make a decision – he is a godly man who I admire and
respect a lot and know that he wouldn’t even mention it if it wasn’t because
the Lord was guiding him to-, the fact that he clarified that my job has
succeed their expectations and that our Transition Program was already making
such a difference in the lives of our girls and in the way other ministries and
government homes worked with the 18y/o and up population, made me understand that
he wasn’t suggesting this because they were not happy with me or because my job
was not good but because he felt that he should present me with this opportunity,
so I started praying about this.
It was difficult for me just to think about the
possibility of being away from my girls, it was difficult for me to think of
doing anything else but what I’ve been doing for the past three years, it was
just unthinkable. But the more I prayed about it, the more I asked for advice,
the Lord kept on guiding me towards taking this new challenge. And after weeks
of praying and crying -and a little fighting- I decided to do what the Lord had
asked me to do. In the end, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing, we’re supposed
to do what he tells us to –even when it’s not comfortable, or goes according to
our plans – because His plans for us are
bigger and better than ours.
So, since November 2017, I’m no longer the
Transition Program Coordinator but the PR Coordinator.
This was huge, the hardest part was to tell my
girls, for them to understand that all that “Family Talk” I’ve given them for
the past three years, all those times reminding them that we’re family no
matter what, all of that was going to be tested now. They were sad, we all
cried (I think I cried the whole month, I still cry sometimes), but we
understood that we have to be still and acknowledge that He is God. I love my
girls, they are like my own children, but they are actually God’s children, and
His plans for them are always going to be way better than mine, and He loves
them more than I ever will, and He is in control of this situation, He already
knew this was going to happen.
And two months later I can say that I have
seen God’s loving hand in my life more, he’s opening doors for us to do so much
more. It’s been only two months and we have already accomplish so much, I have
already visited some churches who want to work together with us and who are
already doing a lot to love and protect children in their communities. Also,
after two months we are learning –with my girls- to be a family even though we
don’t live in the same house (as most families with grown up kids). We see each
other often, we talk a lot, and we keep on going out and planning trips
together. I’m also learning to rest, to take better care of myself (sometimes
is hard to think about ourselves when all we think about is others, but that’s
not God’s plan for us), and I’m learning to manage my resources better (time,
money, energy) since this new area brings new challenges and now I’m exposed to
more need and more opportunities to help.
Now I’m getting to know God in other ways, and I’m
learning things about myself I didn’t know. I’m also so grateful for my
supporters, those who every month give from their hearts to make this possible,
and in a way, they are also part of all of these things that are happening.
Also those who keep me in their prayers, I know I’m in your prayers because
there won’t be a way I could do what I do without funds, and also without
people lifting me in prayers. My CTEN family also plays a big part on this, and
of course my Kids Alive Guatemala family, who trusts me so much and supports me
in many ways in my every day work. Without all of you, who are being used by
God to restore lives through the work I do, none of these
things/programs/testimonies would exist.
THANK YOU, for all these years of support and
for more to come!
May God bless you abundantly and may he keep on
using you as the blessing you are to so many, including myself.
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| THANK YOU!!! |
With love,
Julia Arreaga
Coordinadora de Relaciones Comunitarias y de Iglesias
Vida Para Niños Guatemala
CTEN
Missionary
