January - February 2019

It is a New Year and I would love to share the latest going on in the Soy Mujer ministry. Adela has been in my home for seven years and six months. She was 12 years old when she first came and we enrolled her in Junior High. Since then, it has been an adventure with her. She has always excelled in her studies. Her parents separated because of domestic violence and each one took on a new partner. Adela arrived in the middle of all this happening in her family. We were able to help her development as a child and student. Now she is attending University and is preparing to become a teacher. This past semester, she was selected, along with other students, to go and practice their knowledge and teach second-grade students in certain school in the city of Durango. She was very anxious because it was the first time she was in front of a group and with such small children. In fact, she had to give them a class in ENGLISH, a class with the intention to help them prepare themselves. Nothing too difficult, but in English. She prepared herself and her materials. She told me that it was a success and they gave her a recognition for her work with the children! This gave me so much joy! I am seeing a young woman who despite everything being against her, we were able to lead her in the right way and now she will be a productive woman with a very noble profession; a teacher of children in grade school.

Brenda has been with us for 5 and a half years. She is the daughter of Pastor Emiliano Cervantes, who is in charge of the churches in the mountains. She comes from a completely different background. Her parents are Christ followers and her parents have been an example in the community of how to treat their children. So Brenda has been privileged in the way her parents treat her. Even so, she was faced with many challenges. A new culture, the Spanish language and obviously for being indigenous. She decided to study Psychology in College. I remember sitting with her with the books in front of us while I was trying to explain the concepts and words new to her and it seemed like a big mountain at the time. I felt that it was going to take us a lot of time. However, little by little, Brenda pushed forward and now it is very rare that she asks about what she is studying. She is also an excellent student. She is flying “solo.” She is doing her Social Service in the High School here in La Colonia Hidalgo and they all speak very highly of her. This next semester, she will be doing her internship either in a hospital or in an office.

I can only see how God plans the lives of these young women and what a privilege I have to be in the middle of this plan and be part of their development towards something good and beautiful.

I just want to thank you all because you have been part of this transformation in them and without you we could not see these girls change their lives one at a time. May this New Year 2019 bring blessings for you and your families