Corinne and Elise Schroeder were part of the mother/daughter team that served with us in June 2014. I recently received a copy of the thank you letter that they sent to their donors and was deeply touched by all that they shared. May their words encourage your hearts...
I am writing to thank you for all that you did to partner with
Elise and I in our time of service in El Salvador, and to share some
of our experiences that God so generously orchestrated.
Our week was full
of tears and smiles and beauty and pain as we were introduced to 90 girls
living in four different orphanages. Our
team of 16 moms and daughters from Young Women of Vision, along with Jenni
Ramsey and her team of 10 from The Village Church, combined with wonderful
“translators” living in El Salvador who interpreted for us. As we drove to our first
destination on our first day, I reflected on the words from our morning devotion given by the
youth pastor, David: “Just as ‘Jesus
looked up’ and saw into peoples’ hearts and souls, we too want to see the
hearts of these girls and to listen to their stories.”
We were given that opportunity as we each took
different girls to choose their perfect dress from the 200 dresses that were
donated by our wonderful community here in Orange County. I will never forget
my time with Eva, a beautiful girl full of kindness, poise and strength who
chose a black and cream dress and then a pair of leopard shoes! When I had the opportunity to sit and talk
with her through the help of a translator named Lilly, I learned that she had
only been at this center for a few days (brought there by the police after an
argument with her aunt). Through tears
she asked for prayer that her parents would choose to come and pick her up from
the orphanage that Sunday. Sunday was
the day of our quinceanera. God chose
instead for Eva to remain at the orphanage and to then participate in the quinceanera.
One of our team members shared her story
of childhood abuse and spoke these words of Scripture from Psalm 27:10 to the young ladies, “Though my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will receive
me.” The Lord was there
pouring out His love on these girls.
They were so full of gratitude and joy from the first moments to the
last as many of them were preparing for and then experiencing their very first
birthday celebration in this 15th year birthday celebration that
holds such meaning in their culture. I
wish you all could have been there to watch them as they proudly entered the
ball room at the Holiday Inn with an escort on their arm, full of hope if even
for just that evening that one day they might grow up to go to college, or to get
a job and to live in a home, or to be married to a man who would love them and
care for them.
I wish you could have
heard them scream and jump up and down with delight as each new song began on
the dance floor. And I wish you could
have watched them walk through our tunnel of mothers and daughters at the end
of the evening with tears rolling down their faces as they were given a parting
gift and a goodbye hug. Please know that
your prayers and support resulted in something much bigger than a birthday
party for these 90 abandoned girls and that because of the scope of this event,
the First and Second Ladies of El Salvador attended and afterward, asked Kurt Ackermann (founder of Sus Hijos and full time missionary in El
Salvador) to head up the spiritual formation of all government run orphanages
in El Salvador.
Gabrielle from the
main government center shared with us the day after the quinceanera, “I believe that you desired for us
to feel like princesses. I want you to know that this is just how we felt.” The
girls also expressed that they felt like we were moms to them. Our eyes were filled with tears as we
realized that God had done such a beautiful work in both us and in them. We had felt His love for these precious
girls and they had been able to experience the deep love
of our Heavenly Father through this week that we had together.
There is something that Jesus said to me towards the end of
this trip. He led me to the verses in
Psalm 27 that follow those that Jenni shared at each of the centers: “I am
confident of this. I will see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:13, 14. Will you join me in praying with persistence
for the people of El Salvador and for these abused and neglected children, that
they will see the goodness of Jesus in the present, and that they will live with hope and joy here, on earth, even
before they reach their true home?
Hi this is Elise,
I just wanted to share one way in which I was specifically impacted by this
trip. The day after the quinceanera we went back to visit the girls for the last time. Many of them shared how we had impacted
them. I will never forget when one girl
from the orphanage said how lucky we (the 8 of us YWOV girls) must feel to have
the moms we do. She shared how she
couldn’t imagine having such an amazing mom as we all do. After reflecting on what the girls had shared,
I realized how incredibly blessed I am to not only live in Newport Beach, but
to have the loving parents that I have been given. I take my parents for granted and I had never
thought about how blessed I am to have them prior to this moment. Those girls helped me to understand what a privilege
it is to have parents who love me unconditionally, support me, and who would
never kick me out onto the streets. My
life is truly a dream come true in the eyes of these girls, and now I am able
to see through their eyes and learn to appreciate all that I have been blessed
with.
Thank you again
for helping to bring the Kingdom of God to this area of His world. Elise and I have been forever impacted by
this very special mission experience.
