This was 2 of the school girls that walked with us from the school we performed one of our dramas at in Cieneguilla. They belong to the after school tutoring/nutrition program provided by the Hearts in Action church.
This is a shot of the mountain villages in Cieneguilla right across the street from the church. Hundreds of little houses built on the government's mountain land. This area has a history of tragedy and violence. These kids have witnessed so much death and destruction around them. School and the church are their little bits of freedom.
This is the beach right across from our hostel in San Bartolo. We took this path just about everyday we were in San Bartolo visiting with the kids of Generacion. Our hostel and their house are literally feet from the ocean. The yellow house belongs to Lucy Borja, founder of Generacion.
This is Carla. She was our guide at Casa Veronika which is a rescue home for girls that leave the sex trafficking industry. At Casa Veronika, they teach sewing as a trade. The girls learn to make clothes for their children and sell shirts to help bring money into the house. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funding, they have not been able to complete the construction on their additional classrooms or take care of very many girls once they are off the streets.
This was one of the little girls I met at one of the schools we visited in Cieneguilla. It was so weird but all the kids treated us like rock stars. They wanted our autographs and to touch our hair and asked millions of questions about the US. Everyone girl wanted to know if we knew Justin Beiber. Go figure.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Lupe. She is such a beautiful girl, its crazy. She is a bit of a tomboy, surfer girl but has a smile and sparkle in her eye that will melt any guy's heart. She is one of the older kids at Generacion and does her best to watch out for the younger girls. In this picture, it was our last day with them so the kids took us to the rock cliffs at the beach. It's kinda like their special place but they always take our missions teams there.
This is one of only 2 pictures I captured with Sandy (in purple) smiling. The girls on my team had just presented Sandy and Rosemary (in blue) with matching necklaces and we prayed over them. She is such an affectionate girl who loves hugs. She shared part of her story about how she ended up at Generacion and instantly captured my heart. She still sends me IMs on Facebook even though I don't know Spanish. She is patient while I use the Google translator app to talk with her.
This was our last day with the Generacion kids in San Bartolo. We had spent 3 days with them laughing, dancing, singing, eating, and praying over them. They get visitors from other organizations that come through out the year but they look forward to seeing our Fusion mission team. To them, we are their American friends, not just missionaries. Even though to an outsider, it may seem like we did a lot of just hanging out, but for us, it was so much more. We bonded with these kids who are former street kids with some of the most heart breaking stories you could ever hear. You never know what lives you can touch, just being being the light of Jesus.
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