Rebecca: Our First Intern
Roughly 9 months ago I received an interesting email from a young lady named Rebecca from LSU who was interested in coming down to Guatemala to help out for about 7 weeks. Through a set of circumstances that can only be called a God thing, she had been doing a research paper on adoptions and as she was wrapping up her paper she googled for “the children of today are our hope for tomorrow.” Interestingly enough, our Hope For Tomorrow website popped up and, as she began to read about what we were doing, she felt God’s call to come and volunteer. So through email we began to plan and make arrangements for her arrival.
On one hand, we were somewhat nervous to have someone come down for such a long period of time. Before her, we had hosted handfuls of teams but never for more than 10 days. Where would she stay? What would she eat? How would she get around? There were tons of logistical questions and doubts. On the other hand, we were extremely excited as we thought about the possibilities of having a more permanent volunteer here with us. We new she’d be instrumental in the development of our children, especially with school work.
The months went by and we continued to plan with God constantly working behind the scenes. Before making any final decisions we wanted to meet her, but the founders live in Kentucky and she lives in Lousiana. But amazingly, one of our board members lives in Lousiana and was able to meet her. A room at a girls dorm that is right around the corner from the children’s home opened up, solving issues like where she would stay and how she would get around. Co-Founder Jennifer “just so happened” to plan her summer trip right when Rebecca had planned on coming down, giving her time to meet with Rebecca and give her some direction. Piece after piece fell into place. Finally on May 24th, Rebecca came down to Guatemala and it’s been so great to have her.
If you follow us on Facebook you’ve probably noticed that already she has been involved in many aspects of the children’s lives. She’s made a profound connection with each of the children and it’s evident that they all deeply care for her as well. Rebecca has become part of the family and I think that’s what it’s all about. She came down to do “anything”, and we’ve kept her busy, but her biggest contribution will be the unconditional love and affection that she has shown all of the children.
It’s unfortunate that her time is coming to an end. It seems like she just got here last week, but already she’s in her last week of her 7 week stay. When she leaves she will be deeply missed, but the Godly example that she put forth day after day has changed our children forever.
Rebecca has done a fabulous job of writing about her experiences with the children at Hope For Tomorrow on her blog and I encourage you to read about what them at: http://beautifulfeetforjesus.blogspot.com/ Some of my favorite posts from her are:
P.S. Rebecca also celebrated her 20th birthday while she was here with us and we took some video of her and her first experience with a piñata! You can see it below:
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Hope For Tomorrow Children's Home
135 Lackawanna Rd.
Lexington, KY 40503
T: 859-276-6249
F: 859-276-5570
[...] next year that we are really excited about is our individual long term volunteer program. After Rebecca, our first long term volunteer, came this year and did such an awesome job working with our children, we thought about how wonderful it would be [...]
[...] found out about Miguel’s enlarged tonsils back in 2010 when Rebecca’s mother, Ruth Ann, came and did dental work on our children. As she was working on Miguel she [...]