Reflections on Serving - Jamie

Every year, I get lots of questions about what we do when we travel to Hogar de Amor. The aswer is - we do a lot! We engage in work projects to make the homes more comfortable and homey, including lots of painting, sewing curtains and bedcovers, and plumbing and electrical maintenance. Basically, think about all the things that don’t get done around your house, and then imagine you had 100 kids - that’s the stuff we do.

But the reality is that we are only there for a week.

The “doing” really isn’t the focus of our time at Hogar de Amor

Truthfully, when we started this trip our focus 11 years ago was on cramming in as much “productivity” as we possibly could. We wanted to do, do, do.

But over the years, we’ve learned that a week isn’t enough to really change anything. Any walls we paint will get scratched and scuffed again. Any curtains we sew will tear. And Lord knows that any drains or toilets we fix will break again. That’s all just stuff.

The real transformative work of our time in Colima is the relationships we make

It's ways we get to come alongside the caregivers who are tirelessly working to help kids who have endured the unthinkable and to lighten their load just a little for a few day. It's the fun we get to have with the kids doing crafts and sports and building happy memories for everybody. It's the privilege of coming back as a church family, year after year, and demonstrating in word and action how worthy Hogar de Amor is of our love and support

Relationships are what counts and they’re what lasts.

Year after year I’m reminded that God created us for community.

God is a relational God, and he created us as relational people. But I’m an independent gal. And my default posture is assumption that the best kind of living, the best kind of Christ-following is when I dig deep and do it myself (with God’s help, of course). Left to myself, I see relationships as God’s Plan B - what I can fall back to if I’m not good enough to hack it on my own

And that’s a lie.

Relationships are not God’s Plan B

Relationships are God’s Plan A. From birth to salvation to growth to highs to lows, God has designed us to do it in relationship

When I’m at Hogar de Amor, it’s easier for me to see how beautifully God designed us for relationship. I get to be immersed in a relational place, in a relational culture, and I get to see God’s relational work in action.

I think about a moment that happened early in this year’s trip.

We had a chance to take the houseparents out to lunch, which is such an amazing time of connection, and I was sitting between a team member and a some orphanage staff that I didn’t know well. So I asked the houseparents which homes they worked with and it turned out they were the leaders of Casa Belen and Casa Valientes, the women’s and men’s restoration homes

These are another ministry of Grupo Amor in their community - a place for men and women to live and to work through their challenges and addictions, sometimes while their children are being cared for in Hogar de Amor.

And I turned to our CenterPoint team members and translated for them and their eyes lit up. One of the CenterPoint team member said, “I have my own recovery story and I would love to help out with their restoration home however I can. I was hoping that somehow my story could be helpful during this trip.” And in that moment, another deep connection was made between the people of CenterPoint and the poeple of Hogar de Amor.

The men on the team had a chance to visit the restoration home and share their struggles, and experience their shared need for God and community. The people of CenterPoint and of Hogar de Amor got to be a part of a shared story

That’s the heart of this trip

Because that’s the heart of God