Stepping off the bus at the Jogar Girls orphanage in San Tiago Chile, we were met by the cutest little girls you ever saw! They were so excited to see us coming and greeted us with hugs and kisses. How anyone could have ever abandoned or abused these precious children was beyond me.
As I looked around, I noticed bars on the windows. I learned that men from the adjoining slum had formerly broken into the orphanage and sexually assaulted a four-year-old girl. Vision for Chile had come in and built several safe dormitories for the girls to stay. Our short term team was going to build the foundation for a third dorm.
On the first day there, one particular girl caught my attention as she looked out through the bars of a window and I took this picture. The girl’s name was Jacqueline and throughout the week she watched us intently as we worked.
As with any “short term team”, there were a lot of blood sweat and tears as the different personalities learned how to work together towards the common goal of serving the orphans. Often times in Christianity, we have a comfortable church structure where the “professionals” handle everything, and the body never needs to work side by side. This is definitely not the case on a vision for Chile trip. Differences are overcome in order that the girls would have a safe place to stay.
At the end of the trip, Jacqueline came up to me and asked if we could talk. She didn’t speak English, so we had a young missionary girl named Suzy translate. Jacqueline said that she wanted what we had. She saw Christ in the short termers and she wanted Him for herself. I explained the gospel and told her that she could pray to receive Christ. She told me she had never prayed before…and then she prayed to God for the first time in her life. I snapped this picture later on that day.
You can watch the current vision for chile video below: