A Safe House in the Jungle

Because this post is about people who are in hiding, I'm not going to put the name of the organization or the names of anyone involved in it online, but their names will always be in my heart.

6/9/12

It’s hard to believe our second week in Samoa is almost over, but at the same time so much has happened to us.

The main thing this week has been running English workshops at the safe house. When Brett first asked us to do it I was terrified. We had no idea what to expect. So the first day we went with the goal of just getting to know the women and kids and trying to feel out the situation.

The safe house has no government funding at all. It runs entirely on donations and was started by one woman  as a humanitarian project. She used to be a police woman here and started the support group because of the need she saw.

The girls (and three boys) all live in one house, on one floor, and they have one shower for about 35 people. Some of the VERY young girls have babies to take care of or are pregnant. Everyone there has been rescued from sexually and physically abusive situations and are in hiding there while their abusers go through the court system.

As soon as we met the young women and kids I knew this wasn’t going to be as hard as I had thought. The people there were so full of love and excited we were there. We read to them and played jump rope, and then they all sang lots of songs for us. Hearing those kids sing gospel songs in that safe house was one of the most moving moments of my life. We left feeling excited to come back.

The next four days we taught lots of different English lessons and also played a lot of games. We had an Around the World day where we talked about words to say where we live and where we’d like to go. We taught lessons on talking about work and jobs, talking about family, asking for help and directions….and we played lots of games to go along with those. Every day I was surprised both by what the kids knew and by what they didn’t know. They couldn’t find their own country on the globe, but they knew every word of Amazing Grace and they knew how to take care of a baby on their own. They were so hungry for books and for pictures and for attention.

One day we were talking about action words, and I had put on the whiteboard something like

“I like to

                Swim

                Read

                Play”

And I asked the kids to come to the board and write other things they liked to do. They wrote things like “pray” and “learn the Bible.” It was obvious that God was the center of their lives.

So, we thought it would be okay if we taught them all to sing "I Am a Child of God" on the day we learned words about family. We were surprised to find out that 4 or 5 of the girls already knew the song in Samoan. (Brother Macdonald told us later that about one third of the kids there are members of the church). Everyone was excited to learn it in English. As we all sang it together, a couple more of the young woman (some of the girls who usually stayed upstairs taking care of their babies) began coming downstairs and singing with us because the song was familiar to them. That was one of my favorite moments with the kids.

Towards the end of the week I had the kids fill out “All About Me” sheets that had fill in the blank sentences with phrases we’d learned during the week like “My name is__” “I am from___” “I like to eat__” “I want to visit___” “I want to be a___.” I had them draw a picture of themselves at the top as a way to talk about words to body parts. Then I had them each come up and read their About Me sheet to the other kids. I listened to those girls say “I want to be a nurse,” “I want to be a teacher,” “I want to be a lawyer.” And I just hoped and hoped with all my heart that they could be someday. At least three of them said they wanted to be pastors. I’d listen to their sermons.

On our last lesson day, we made cookies with the kids in their tiny kitchen. Making chocolate chip cookies with kids who had never seen such a thing was an interesting experience. We gave them chocolate chips to try while the cookies were in the oven, and a lot of the kids just started licking them. They weren’t sure what to do.

On that last day we also gave the kids friendship bracelets we’d made them the night before. (Making that many bracelets took longer than anticipated – two and a half movies and one was Harry Potter.) I told the kids that Abbie and I would wear our friendship bracelets too and that we’d all be friends always no matter where we were. At first only a few of them understood, but as I put my wrist next to each of theirs to show our matching bracelets and said, “We’re friends,” their faces lit up. It was hard leaving them. As I was getting into the car, one of the girls ran out of the house with a rusty silver chain with nothing on it and handed it to me. I wanted to cry. These girls have almost nothing of their own, so for her to offer me something of hers meant so much. I’ve been wearing it ever since.

When we do small things with great love, those small things tend to have a ripple effect. One of the missionary couples just went home, and right before they left they donated all their extra food and lots of unopened shampoo and soap to the safe house because they had heard us talking about it. Brother Macdonald just got a big chunk of money from the church budget approved to build new showers and bathrooms there, as well as a greenhouse, reading area, and a craft room. We are so happy for our girls!

I know those kids are being watched over and that there is a plan for each of them.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound: