Home.

These last two weeks were hard. I've had to say goodbye before, but this experience has changed me, and it was particularly difficult to leave it behind. I didn't want to say goodbye to those kids at the villa, the children from Barracas who go to apoyo escolar, the youth at Retiro, then the WMF staff, the people who live and serve at the church, and the three incredible females I've been living each moment with since I got here. Thought it's hard to pinpoint everything, I know for sure that I've grown.

I've grown a healthy hatred of poverty. Bit by bit, as I came to truly love those individuals living on the streets, I began to see the ugliness and injustice of their situation more clearly, and it sucks. Contrary to some of the conceptions of 'missions trips' I maybe used to have, I've found that the realities of the poor in Latin America aren't in the least bit romantic, and relationship-based service among those who live in poverty isn't something that makes you feel good. It's unfair, and sad, and I more than ever I want to see things change.

I've grown in my faith. I've been able to talk with other people about some basic questions, and I've been answered with more questions and very few answers. But through it all, my faith has come out more sincere, and I believe with all I've got that in the middle of it all, God is still good and God is still loving.

I've seen change. One of the girls who hardly spoke when we first arrived was laughing, open and talkative by the time we left. Some of the roughest kids from the streets ended up asking to sing songs about hope and justice in an environment where singing just doesn't happen, and hope and justice seem far away. People were interacting in a different way, and spending time together without drugs or alcohol. In only four months, a difference was made.

And now I'm back in the states, with a year of uncertainty up ahead of me and three years of law school after that. I know that I want to live my life loving the people around me with all I have, because I've seen that love makes a difference. (It sounds cheesy, but it's entirely true.) I don't want to leave behind the things I've learned, or forget about the people who still have to sleep outside in constant fear of getting robbed or raped. Much prayer is still needed, and so many things still need to change. But I am fully convinced that as we work towards that change in our own contexts, in big ways and small, things will change. Like a mustard seed, small but mighty.

Thank you all. For reading, for praying, for giving money, for changing lives.
Tina