I´ve known María Eugenia since she was only a couple months old… in her mom´s arms… on the streets… That was about 19 years ago… You might not recognize her name or her nickname… “Mamuka”… but you just MIGHT remember me telling a story about her… a story that 17 years later, still touches my heart…
Back then, social services wasn´t as active and babies and children would grow up beside their parents on the streets… I can close my eyes and see little Mamuka… dirty cheeks… blue corduroy overalls… two years old… living on the back side of a downtown market in Santa Cruz. It was as much home to her as anywhere else...
One night, the market vendors were packing up their wares… leaving their squat little tables empty until the next day… The street kids began to gather… This was their time… their place… I don´t know where her mom was but I watched Mamuka climbing up onto one of the empty tables… ready to curl up and go to “bed”… All of a sudden she sat up straight… She had forgotten something… She took off her little sandals, hid them… and then curled up again on the hard wood table… At 2 years old, my tiny friend knew that if she didn’t hide her shoes, someone could come along while she was sleeping and steal them… It still brings tears to my eyes… every.single.time…
A toddler… who should have at least had a blanket underneath her… someone to cover her up… kiss her cheek… say goodnight… ruffle her hair… who SHOULDN´T have had a worry in this world… but sadly, HAD to take care of herself… who else was there?
Sigh.
Her life could fill a book… When she was two, her mom was put in jail… Little Mamuka was “looked after” by her street family until she landed in a kids´ home… until her mom finished her sentence…and stole her back… Mamuka became the primary caregiver for her siblings… She had to earn their “keep” – a corner to live in and a plate of food for herself and her siblings…
Mamuka had to fight to study… figuring out how to make ends meet, how to do her chores and homework… even when those around her discouraged her and discriminated against her… but one thing about Mamuka, she always had a dream… she was going to finish high school… then go to university to be doctor… and she was going to help street kids… and sick women who didn´t have anyone to help them…
She accomplished the first goal of finishing high school… She went to night school with her baby… walking if there wasn´t bus fare… stumbling… crawling… but inching forward to reach her dreams…
There were times when her mom would leave to work in Argentina… leaving Mamuka with her 4 younger siblings… plus her own little one… without any money or support system around her… with the empty promise of coming back with money…
There are so many other pieces to these scenarios that can´t even be described… I don´t know if you ever have seen a picture like this… a plant, against all odds, making its way through the asphalt… But that plant which was SO strong, so valiant to push its way through all obstacles, is at the same time so delicate and vulnerable…
That´s Mamuka…
Mamuka has made unwise choices along the way… She now has two little boys of her own… but the way I see it is her trying to keep her head above water… grabbing onto any branch floating by to avoid drowning… and in spite of all that, not letting go of her dreams…
On Wednesday Mamuka came to El Jordán for the special meetings we are having on “Raising Kids”... She asked to talk to me afterwards… alone… “I don´t know what to do…” In the midst of so many needs: her mom´s health failing… her own kids sickly… her boyfriend being abusive… her spark had been extinguished… The dreams of being a doctor and helping others had been trampled… devastated… Eyes filled with fear and anguish gave birth to tears which rolled down her cheeks… “I get thoughts in my head - wanting to go out steal and do bad things… I don’t WANT to do those things!!! Tía, pray for me, please, pray for me… ….sometimes I don´t even want to live anymore…”
My heart breaks for this “little girl” who I first held in my arms… on my lap… in my heart… I get so angry at the enemy who wants to destroy… kill… - robbing God´s creation of its dreams, hopes and life…
Heidi wrote an update yesterday, sharing our needs on the kids´ floor at El Jordán… Our kids´ ministry goes hand and hand with our women´s ministry… Our moms come with kids (and sometimes lots of them!)… We don´t want the kids left at home alone! Our kids have already been exposed to much more than “normal” kids so teaching, providing a safe place and good examples for them are life and death – not just “good”… So many of our kids have been exposed to addictions, perversions and already struggle with issues like trauma, running away, suicide or self-inflicted harm… The parents are usually struggling so much themselves that it is hard for them to help rather than hinder their kids… Both sides desperately need help!!!
This year, attendance at El Jordan hasn´t dropped off like it normally does… a good problem… but we need more steady people in our kids´ program to teach… On top of this, there are new women wanting to coming into El Jordan… but because of our stretched child care program, we have to limit when they can come to El Jordán…
Going back to Mamuka… We´d love to open our doors wide to her, her boys and youngest siblings… but for right now we´ve had to tell her she can only come on Tuesday afternoons…and can only bring her two children – not her siblings…
Please read Heidi´s update and prayerfully consider directly being a part of our kids´ program… I´d love to be able to say to Mamuka, “Come! Any day that you can or need to… come.” We are here to love and walk alongside the “Mamukas” that God brings across our path…
Thank you – to all of you who pray and sacrifice that we can be here… We appreciate and need you!!!
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A couple quick prayer requests:
• Pray for Mamuka! Pray that nothing will stand in her way to start coming to Bible Study on Tuesday afternoons… and that God will be binding and healing her bruised and broken heart… that she´d be able to see a pinpoint of LIGHT and keep going…
• Do you remember our terrible ordeal with our property taxes at El Jordan? …where we charged a new rate…that went back five years… fines included… and how much sweat and tears it caused… as the fines went up daily and there was no way we could pay them off… well… I got a scare this week when we got 2 citations wanting to make sure we paid our bill! I was worried that they were looking for new ways to charge us more money… but three days of paperwork later, it seems like they are trying to catch those who illegally evaded paying their taxes… Thank the Lord, we paid our bill in full and have the receipts to prove it… but still… please pray for God´s protection over El Jordán... (and thanks again to ALL OF YOU who helped us through that awful time!!!!)
• Pray for María José… the daughter of Yeny, one of our students… Maria Jose is 17 or 18… and has already lived a “street” life for about 4 years… We´ve been praying for her, her older sister and two cousins who are all involved in that lifestyle… (Yeny and her two sisters spent years on the streets… one of them died on the streets… now their kids are making those same choices and having their own children who are suffering the consequences…) María José got really sick a month ago… at first they thought it was tuberculosis… and then she got stroke-like symptoms where she lost strength on one half of her body… These symptoms suddenly worsened on Sunday and she was admitted to the hospital again… Now they are suspecting lesions on the brain… Pray for God´s provision and healing… but more than anything for María José to turn her back on her past and kneel her soul before the Lord… Pray that this might be a turning point for Maria Jose, Laura, Maria Esther and Liliana…
PRAISE… through people´s generosity this past month, for the first time, in a long time, El Jordán´s account at Avant Ministries is actually out of the RED!!! Woo hoooooo!!!!!! A huge answer to prayer…. Thank you!!!! …and THANK YOU GOD!!!!
Have a great Sunday…
Because of HIS FAITHFULNESS…
Love… from, Corina (for Marco… Keiden and Marlee too…)