Week 1 - Girls Groups Introduction

There has been much anticipation, on my part, for these girls' groups to begin. This summer I've developed some great friendships that have made these groups possible. I've been nervous, excited, scared, overwhelmed and a whole slew of emotions leading up to this past Tuesday. I e-mailed people and called people and talked to people asking them to cover all of this in prayer. I've done my best to leave my expectations at the door, because in reality, expectations sometimes ruin the beauty of things. And these eleven girls are the beauty of things.

When eight girls showed up for our first "class" I giggled a little to myself in that I had brought exactly an eight count of materials, not knowing how many would come. Maybe I limited God in that. Maybe if I had prepared for twenty, twenty would have come. But I was elated with eight. And more elated that I had enough materials for each of them.

The other Maestras (Yudy, Tatiana, Elba) and I began with a short introduction about what we hoped for these girls and why we were there spending time with them. Each story was so inspiring and exactly what I'd hope God would place in their hearts to tell these girls.

Rosa Angelica, age 15 and Lylyana, age 13

Cindhia, age 13 and Angela, age 12

Marilin, age 13 and Sondra, age 13

Maria, age 12 and Yolibeth, age 15

After introductions, I had prepared a little craft for them. The name of this group is "Las Mariposas" or The Butterflies. So I found a tutorial for butterfly barrettes and we spent the last half hour of our class working on the craft and just chatting.

As our time together began to close, God gave me some incredible wisdom that pertained to our craft and the class. So I asked the girls, "Tell me something you learned from making these butterflies that you can apply to life." One said, "What looks easy, what looks beautiful, is actually a lot of work." Another said, "We had to share and ask someone else for help." Then I asked them, "Who here knew how to make a butterfly barrette before today?" No one raised their hand. "Who knows how to make a butterfly barrette now?" They all raised their hands. "And why do you know how to make it now?" "Because you taught us," they responded. I went on to explain that this is exactly what this class is about and what our lives are about. There are many things we don't know and we need people with more experience than us, that we can rely on, to teach us. And once we are taught, we have to do the hard work to become something beautiful. And then it is our responsibility to teach it to others. To help them become something more beautiful too.

Wednesday, we started our pregnancy class. Three girls came, and apparently we were supposed to have two more, but over the weekend there was some drama and the other two couldn't make it. I was happy to have these girls show up. I do pray we get a few more girls so its not so intimidating having only three "students" and four teachers.

Carolina, age 22, 6 months pregnant--Yuleidy, age 13, 5 months pregnant--Yoeily, age 15, 3 months pregnant

We started with introductions, just like with the other girls, and spoke more specifically on motherhood. The difficulties, the joys, pain of childbirth...etc. I could tell these girls were a little more uncomfortable than the younger girls in the other group. So I didn't press too much conversation and we just went into doing our craft.

The name for this group is "Las Flores" or The Flowers. So I found another tutorial for flower barrettes that the girls could do. It was a little more intricate so it gave me a good amount of time to observe and just listen to their conversation. I also had extra materials, since I planned for eight, so the teachers got to do one too!

Yudy, Tatiana and Elba

It was such a great couple of days. A lot of the stress that I was putting on myself, just getting everything together, faded away. I felt a lot more confident going into the second group just knowing how easy the first group flowed. I'm excited for next week, especially for the pregnancy group. One of our medical staff, Deloris Norman, will be coming next week to weigh, measure and take blood pressures of the girls and we will be speaking on the importance of Nutrition in pregnancy.

Just a tidbit of information, we are handing out a week's worth of prenatal vitamins to the girls at the end of each class. Prenatal vitamins are EXTREMELY expensive here. Mike and I are paying for these vitamins with some of our ministry money but we could still use some help. If you are interested in getting some bottles of prenatal vitamins here to the Dominican, or sending support to Mike and I so we can continue supplying the needs of these two classes, please contact me at amanda.braisted@go-ministries.org. Or you can click on the Give tab at the top of our blog and get more information.

Keep praying. God is opening doors!