AN UPDATE FROM ANNEMARIE… Avant Missionary at El Jordán

 

I remember first meeting Leidy in jail – she was 20 years old, 7 months pregnant and sharing a room with her mother and younger sister. Because this was her first time in jail, she was released after only eight months. Her mom is in jail for the second time so this time most likely will be sentenced to minimum eight years. Leidy was released the night before having her second daughter, Romina, who is now eight months old.

 

Corina knows the family from almost twenty years ago when they were all on the streets. From the time Leidy was about six years old and her older sister Laura was 8, they would come to the streets to pick up “Christmas on the Streets” meals to share with their younger sisters. Leidy told me she began coming to El Jordán with an aunt when she was eight years old. A few years later, Leidy and her 4 younger sisters were put into a children’s home where Leidy was until she was in her mid-teens.

 

In February of this year, an El Jordán volunteer went to visit Leidy’s niece and met up again with Leidy.  That´s when she decided to sign up for El Jordán classes this year.

 

This year there has been a change in the way the practical classes in El Jordán are taught.  Rather than having the women learn many skills on a basic level, we want them to concentrate on learning one skill well.  We give them the opportunity to practice, practice, and practice some more until they have gained expertise and confidence. Within their weekly class, the women start selling their goods and filling outside orders.  Under the guidance of El Jordán volunteers, the women can safely acquire the basic knowledge of running a small business, setting them up with the proficiency, confidence and funds to be able to start a small business out of their home.  Their earnings accumulate in their “savings account” in the El Jordán office until they have enough to buy their own oven or other supplies needed for their business.  The three classes being taught this way are: bread making, cupcakes and snack catering.  One student, Miriam, has already bought her own oven and with the help of her children, is making and selling cupcakes every day.  Leidy is a part of the bread making class which has had a very successful start.  They began with a healthy whole grain bread and this week will now start learning to make white bread to sell.

 

Leidy is showing an external change in her lifestyle and this is a reason to give thanks.  My hope and desire is that this external change is because God is stirring her heart, that she might desire to sell bread instead of the other ways she used to earn money.  That she continues coming to El Jordán because it is a place where she feels welcomed, loved and accepted. And most of all that a lasting change would take place by truly accepting Jesus as her Savior.

 

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self,
which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22- 24

 

Please PRAY for the many women who are returning to El Jordán after a time away, or coming for the first time. Pray that there would be external changes, like in the way they talk to and discipline their children, their attitudes towards others, being responsible, and having self-confidence. But MOST importantly pray that their minds and hearts would be transformed, that instead of molding to the ways of the world that surround us, that they would look to God and see what He desires of their lives, lives that honor Him. (Romans 12:2)

 

Annemarie N.