Short-Term Missionary Testimony: Paper Hearts and Wooden Shacks

One of our goals as a missions organization and blog is not merely to challenge you to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord but to also encourage you with stories about people that are living out their faith in dynamic ways. Anna has a story like that. Currently, she is a short-term missionary in Argentina. The following is one of her updates about the things that she has been doing - or, more accurately, that God has been doing through her.

The things God has shown me in the month of being here are absolutely incredible. He is opening my eyes and breaking my heart in so many different ways. Among the different ministry sites we go to, my absolute favorite is Los Galpones, a shanty town about five minutes from where I live. The ministry we do there is mostly with the kids. On Thursday afternoons we go for a few hours to help them with their homework, and on Saturday mornings we go to play with them and serve them lunch. 

I wish I could portray the broken things that I see every time I step foot inside those walls. 

During my third week here, I wrote in my journal: "I feel a combination of five things: joy, confusion, anger, sadness, and incompetence. Joy at seeing the faces of the kids I love when they smile and laugh; confusion and anger with God for letting beautiful children like them live in conditions like that; sadness at seeing how emotionally damaged they all are; and raw incompetence at knowing I can't completely heal the hearts of every single one of them and protect them from all evil." I wish that I could heal them, but what happens is all in God's hands. If there's one thing I learned in the past six months, it's that God's plan is always best. Always. 

All I can do is pour my love all over them and pray until my knees ache. 

After going there twice a week for a month, I have learned a lot of the kids' names and developed some strong relationships with a few of them. As I am developing these relationships, I get the reward of seeing them develop in character. Yesterday, I held a little girl on my lap. One month ago, she couldn't draw a heart. Every chance that I had I sat with her and showed her how to do it. Yesterday she surprised me. I watched with pure joy as she covered a piece of paper with hearts and gave it to me. She is a different girl than the one who, when I first arrived, called everyone names and threw a tantrum whenever any small thing didn't go her way. I would tell her over and over that I would never stop loving her even if she hit me. Last week she walked up to me as I was saying goodbye, gave me a big hug, and wouldn't let go. 

Seeing breakthroughs like that are the moments I feel the most joy. I feel like I am doing something for God's kingdom, making a difference in these kids' lives. I remember exactly what I am here to do: to love the kids who are broken and to share with them the truth of who Jesus is - that He will never stop caring for them. 

There is one little girl in particular I have a special connection with. She is three years old and stole my heart from the first day. Last Thursday, as we were leaving, she would not let me go. No matter how many times I or someone else pried her fingers off of me, she would always find her way back to my leg. She kept saying she wanted me to go back to her house with her.  I wasn't allowed to leave the group and go to her house. One of the staff members, Gonzalo, saw what was happening and said he would go with me so I could walk her to her house. When we got there, her mother was sitting outside with a few of her other little kids. I can't describe the aching I felt in my entire body as I looked at what they called home - nothing more than some wood and tarp thrown over the top. I knew that most of the houses in the community are like that, but something about being there with a little girl I love so much and knowing that she had to live like that just broke me to pieces. I just began to pray, "God, pour your love over them." There was nothing else I could say.

I know that among all the terrible things happening in the community, God is moving in incredible ways and making indescribable changes in these kids' lives and their families. One of my prayer requests is that God would continue breaking down the walls in that community and shining His light into the darkest corners. 

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