Back2Back Cancun is in the process of making offices for the pregnant teens that come weekly. They were starting to realize that the girls that have been abused, abandoned, or even raped were wanting to talk with a psychologist, didn't have any privacy. The offices were so close together that you would be sitting side by side to another girl sharing what had happened to her. Enabling you to hear everything of the other person. There was shame, guilt, and no privacy! Realizing there was a problem, Back2Back has come alongside the DIF and are in the process of preparing 4 new offices for the girls. This way there will be privacy, security, and confidentiality. Matt told us about a men's group that had been down right before the women's group. They were at the new offices and joking around about all the things you would find in between the structure of the walls if you were to tear them down. Things like coke bottles, cigarettes, and lots of trash. So, Matt and Mau had a great idea. The women were going to "dedicate" this building to the Lord. Instead of finding trash in between the drywall, if you knocked it down, you were to find scripture and prayers! So that is exactly what we did, we dedicated the building/offices to the Lord. We wrote scriptures and prayers all over the drywall. Bringing a sense of peace instead of shame, love instead of hate, and Beauty instead of ashes!
Oti's house! Meet Oti, she is a widow of about a month. She has 8 children. The oldest being about 14 and the youngest 6 months. After dedicating the DIF offices, we drove to Oti's house. We had heard that her children had never been in school. Except for the oldest boy, but only up to an education of 1st grader. And we had also heard that she wasn't able to (pretty much ever) give them Christmas presents. So, our women's group took this as an opportunity to serve Oti and her 8 children.
When we arrived, the kids were all around us, pretty much in their underwear and the oldest boy was very embarrassed that all of these women are coming into his house/life and looking around. He kept hiding and going into the back room. But we gathered all the women together and Oti shared about her life. After sharing, we gathered their family together and put our hands on them and prayed for them. We prayed for healing in Oti's body. She has a hernia that is Huge, but she has no money to get it fixed and also, no one to take care of her children while she would be in recovery. We prayed for many things for this family and God was in control during that sweet prayer time.
Then it was time for the kids to open presents. The oldest boy finally came out of the back room. Still looking disappointed. We started with the youngest and gave out the presents. We watched her start opening and then let her start playing with her new toys. We were taking so long, the 4th youngest girl thought she wasn't going to get a present so she started crying. So we quickly started passing out all the presents so all of them would know they each had a present. The 14 year old boy was passed his present and words can not describe the way his face lit up. He said that normally things are for the youngest baby or for the girls, and he often gets left out. NOT THIS TIME! His face lit up as he started opening his gift. First a t-shirt from old navy, then a super cool watch... it just kept going and going! His whole attitude changed right there in that moment. It was very cool to watch how something so little, could make a 14 year old boys Christmas. And, knowing that God has not forgotten him and his situation. That is what I hope he received from that moment! God is in pursuit of him!!!!
Craft time at the DIF-
This is where i had spent most of my time the weeks i was with the Cooper's. It was so fun seeing some of the same faces only weeks later. And that they remembered me! This is the temporary DIF. basically these kids have been taken away from their family situation instead of their parents bringing them to a childrens home. We brought them a tree, we decorated cookies, put Christmas tattoos on them, we played games, we put on a skit (that they loved), we decorated their tree, we made crafts and ornaments with each kids face on one, and we loved on them with the love of the Lord.
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