I really loved this picture as I was sorting through some photos yesterday. This little girl is named Yajaira. She lives in Hoyo de Bartola (The Hole). One of our pastors, Felix Abreu, started working in The Hole a little over 7 years ago during a time when no pastor wanted to. In fact, a friend of his that was also a pastor told him he was crazy for even stepping foot down there. The Hole is an inactive trash dump where close to 600 families live. In this place it is squatters rights so anyone can build a house there and that is his land. In the Hole, drugs, alcohol, prostitution and abuse rule...it seems to be a desperate place.
Although most would definitely use the word desperate to describe the Hole, G.O. Ministries and Pastor Felix began to make a difference there. What began as Felix and his wife, Jenny, just going there and doing children's ministry has turned into a church and a feeding center that feeds 120 children, 6 days a week. The children's bellies are getting fuller as well as their spiritual lives.
I use Yajaira as sort of a representative, if you will, of the Hole. If she even SEES an American she jumps in their arms and gives them a huge hug. Wearing ratty clothes and a huge grin across her face, somehow in this desperate place there is always room for a hug and a smile.
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