Hope is needed…and beds please

It is the second time that I have been out with Project Prevention and have had the privilege to meet Eva 38 and Peter 41 at their place in the Rampart neighborhood. The first time I met them I was just standing quietly in the background helping bring the food into their apartment and talking a little bit with their youngest son. They speak very little English and so most of our conversations were stilted and had to be repeated through a translator.

This time I was left alone with Eva, while Becky and Rosa from Project Prevention had to return to the truck to get more diapers and food for the family. It was very awkward at first, we stared at the floor and intermittently looked at each other and smiled shyly hello. I finally asked her in really broken Spanish about her children and she gestured for me to follow her through the apartment. It was then that I really started to see how much they truly needed the Dream Center’s help. Her youngest daughter at two years old was curled up on the floor under a make shift blanket of coats.

Rita let me see the all of the other rooms, all which were almost empty and had no beds. There were only piles of clothes on the floor where a chest of drawers or a wardrobe should have been standing in their place. She told me that she had five children in total ranging from 2-17 years old. This information hit me more powerfully this time round, maybe it was because I was focused more on Rita rather than Rosa who was acting as my interpreter. It’s really hard to look into a proud mothers eye and not want to be a part of the solution to her family’s problems when you can see how hard they are working at just surviving.

Maybe it’s a good idea for all of us to stop looking at people in need from the comfort of our television sets, camera lenses or our even our friend’s experiences and spend time one on one to truly empathize and want to be a part of the positive change in these precious peoples lives. I don’t think that God ever called us just to be comfortable…

-Chaka