But for the Grace of God

Interpreting is nothing new to me, I've done it on a weekly basis for years. Of course the dynamic of this trip is very different than the sterile environment I'm used to in medical interpreting.  The three most impactful moments of this trip for me all came when interpreting people's grace stories. 


Our first morning in La Cuenca, I had the opportunity to interpret for Hugo, the director of Sonrisas con Esperanza (Smiles with Hope). He began his story with the rape of an almost 13 year old girl by an older man who had been married multiple times. He went on to say the girl was his mother and the man was his father. He grew up in his father's house and had little to no interaction with his mother who worked as a prostitute. When he was 5 yrs old, his mother committed suicide  and his father died shortly thereafter of age and alcohol related complications. Hugo ended up on the streets and tried to take his own life 4 times, throwing himself in front of a car and breaking all his teeth the last time. 


As an adult he ran into a drug addict he had known from the streets and the man was radically changed. His friend invited him to his home to get cleaned up and fed on the condition Hugo would go to church with him. Hugo wasn't interested in church but a shower and food sounded good. Through this friend and the church Hugo experienced the love of God for the first time. He returned to his studies and he began to pray that God would give him opportunities to minister to those who had yet to know the Father's love. Through a series of events God gave Hugo a ministry to the sick, orphaned, elderly, imprisoned and homeless as a clown. God later blessed Hugo with a wife and they have been ministering in La Cuenca together for 12 yrs. They were blessed with their own baby clown, 8 yrs ago.


Later that day I had the chance to interpret for two of our students as they shared their testimonies with the youth group in Guarari. The first student shared how a change in family dynamics led her on a downward spiral of looking within herself for the solution to all her problems. Her perfectionism shifted into a struggle with food, depression and identity.  It wasn't until she looked outside of herself and turned to God that she could see the solution to her problem would never be found on her own.


The second student told his story of profound loss. It seemed like things in his life were always going from bad to worst. While he was still reeling from one loss another would strike. Thankfully he had three really good friends who stood by him and pointed him to Christ. In the last year he's learned to give it all up to God, an ongoing battle for sure, but an incredibly valuable lesson to learn.


Storytelling is such a powerful thing and God stories are the most powerful of all. Pain and suffering are indiscriminate regardless of where you are born. But God.


Lyndsay Collins