On Friday and Wednesday (July 11 and 16) Maria made the 45-minute trip to the rural community of San Antonio Sur to visit Karla S and Karissa, who are working at Hogar Belen (Bethlehem Home), an orphanage for handicapped children. The community lies in the municipality of Managua, the capital, but is several miles south of the city outskirts. However, the urban sprawl of Managua is heading south, towards the neighboring city of Masaya, and many new houses are being built in this area.

When Maria arrived at Hogar Belen shortly before 9 a.m., the GC students were also just arriving to begin their work day. Every morning they are assigned to either help the children with physical therapy or, in a separate room, work on developing their senses. Today they were doing sensory work, for which they used music, different lights, and a variety of objects to touch. All their work with the children is one-on-one, which means they take 15-20 minute turns with each child.

Karla wrote in her journal how she has been impressed by the organization. “Every place like Hogar Belen that is built is dedicated to helping handicapped children live like the rest of the world. They not only give them a house to live in, but they also offer therapy, they take them to schools that help them, they have a psychologist that works there, as well as a nurse. It’s marvelous all that they do there, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work a little with them.” The organization that runs Hogar Belen is Mustard Seed Community, www.mustardseed.com/ . “It doesn’t work only in Nicaragua, but it also has places like Hogar Belen in Jamaica, parts of Africa, and soon a new one will be built in Guatemala also.”

When the time came for the employees to have daily chapel at 10:00, some of the kids looked for adults to hold them on their laps, and one wasn’t too shy to ask Maria. After chapel Karissa and Karla worked again in several one-on-one shifts with the children. At 11:30 was lunch-time, and Maria accompanied Karla home.

Karla noted that this community has a different feel, since it is much smaller than Jinotepe, but that some contrasts are also more apparent. “Everyone knows everyone here. If you tell a moto-taxi that you live at the Estrada home, they know exactly where to take you. There’s something I realized when my brother took me on a walk to see the town. If you walk about 20 minutes in two different directions you’ll find huge, luxurious houses where people with a lot of money live. It’s odd to see houses like that so close to my community, which is so poor. It’s sad that it happens. I know that there are places like that in the U.S. also, but here the differences are more extreme.”

Karissa’s mother wasn’t at home on Friday, so Maria went back on Wednesday afternoon. After lunch each day Karla and Karissa start work again at 2:00, later there is a short chapel service especially for the children, and at 5:00 the work day is done. So Maria met Karissa as she was getting off work and accompanied her home to meet her family, as shown in the pictures.

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A journal entry from Karissa, “SST and My Faith”

My personal faith journey has definitely been impacted by SST. I’ve felt the hole left by the lack of a church community that I can engage with on a regular basis. I’ve realized how vital it is to my own personal journey to have a community with whom I can discuss what it means to follow Christ. I have had that to an extent on SST, but at the same time I miss the specific relationships where those conversations took place naturally and regularly.

One question I’ve had to deal with a lot the past eight weeks is what my relationship to money should be. Seeing the need for money around me constantly has made me rethink some of my emphasis on stewardship as it has been taught in my wealthy context. Being immersed in another culture with a completely different history and context than my own has increased my understanding of God, while at the same time showing me the value of different beliefs as they are shaped out of a context I will never fully understand.

This has given me more conviction to hold tightly to my beliefs, but not so tightly that they can’t be changed or adjusted. I’ve come closer to being at peace with the fact that I’ll never fully understand what God is calling me to and how he desires that we live. I’ve also come closer to being at peace with knowing that if I simply do the best I can, God’s grace is sufficient to cover the rest.