Her house didn’t even have a door. There was this curtain that hung there but the curtain was insignificant to the evil that wandered at night in her barrio. Everyday was a fight to find something to eat for her and her brothers. Her daddy was her best friend, and her worst enemy. When the drugs were in control, he was the monster that shared this house without a door. She never went to school. She was eleven years old, and she had yet to learn to read or even to count to 10. However, the neighbor near her doorless house made sure that she did attend one school; Dona Elena took her to Sunday school. On Sunday mornings, Elena would often see her playing in the streets, and would take her by the hand, leading her to the church in the barrio.
Her mother left about three years ago, and her father’s addiction and poverty intensified the impossibility of the situation. In the midst of his desperation, he went to that little barrio church looking for help, begging the pastors to take the children. He told them that if they were unable to help him with the child, his only other option was to kill himself and his daughter with a package a rat poison that he purchased at the local market.
Pastor Lucia, moved with compassion, knew of Hogar Bethesda, a home for girls who have been taken out of the high-risk situations. It is the ministry of a local Assemblies of God church with the goal of providing a safe home and an education for these at-risk children, while fostering a relationship and love for God. In a beautiful act of rescue from the horrors of the doorless shack, Pastor Lucia brought her out of the darkness behind that curtain and into the safety of a real home.
This past week I had the joy organizing four days of camp at CIMA del Rey for our Hogar Bethesda girls during their spring break. Our new little girl from the barrio and the others enjoyed these days filled with fun, laughter, and a beautiful visitation of the Holy Spirit. The girls were able to leave the loud noises of the city and spend quiet times with the God’s Word in the beauty and silence of the countryside. They painted while listening to worship music, caught tadpoles in the river, played with real bunnies, had fun on the swing set, decorated easter eggs, worshipped around a campfire and roasted marshmallows too! We set up a store with clothes, shoes, jewelry, candy, barbie dolls, and toys that they could buy with play money that they earned during the camp. This was very special for these children who have very few choices; nearly all of their clothing, as well as their toys, are donations received from groups that support the home. In our days together, the girls learned to forgive, confess their sins, pray for one another and they learned that the promise of heaven is a real, free gift that you could never, ever earn.
Among the many special moments of our days together, was watching this young child of the barrio encounter her true Savior. Because while there were never any doors on that shack in the slum, there is a door to her broken and wounded heart. And there on that mountain top, we witnessed the beauty of grace and healing as this little girl, whose soul had formerly been treated like a doorless shack, opened the portal of her heart to the Savior. That Tuesday night with tears running down her beautiful brown face she experienced the presence of our amazing Redeemer who rescues us out of the shack of bondage and promises us a real and eternal home.
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." Rev. 3:20
