Jewelry Galore!

Though a jewelry picture has been painted for Dove over the past several months, Monday officially began its kick-off! Several older girls who've shown particular interest in creating necklaces each selected a design offered by business operator, Jamie. The materials are natural beads and seeds from the earth, forming five combinations for the girls to work with. Along with their families, the girls will be responsible for selling the necklaces they create, giving part of their earnings to Dove, which contributes to the microloan program as well as provides the girls with new materials. These precious ladies are seeing the stirrings of starting their own business! We hope that not only this equips them for future job opportunities, but that it presently reaffirms that they are intelligent, beautiful girls with a future of exquisite potential. As we circled around in the Barrio, huddled in the heat of this budding talent, passing out beads and seeds, I was the one who felt blessed. God doesn't need little me to help these girls behold their value and loveliness; He doesn't require Dove to call out their dreams and intelligence. He's perfectly capable of doing that on His own. And yet He beckons us to share in the giving of His love, walking the yellow-brick road alongside each girl. The destination of that road is Christ. And every act we do is an overflow of His love- a golden stepping stone that leads these beautiful ladies closer to His heart. What a miracle.


On another happy note, we currently have two volunteers who have huge hearts for communicating Jesus to the kids! On Tuesday, they presented the Creation and the Fall story to two giant groups of young ones, and followed up the stories with a craft. The kids created their own animals with craft supplies and loved every second of it! We loved seeing their creative spirits!

Beauty Floods

Ten older girls are each handed a bottle of nail polish, quickly choosing their favorite color as they find seats alongside joyful "chiquitas," anxious to have their fingers and toes glistening with pink and purple. Such a picture as this is ordinary for a room bustling with girlieness; it's familiar to me, striking chords from sleepovers and summer camps, birthday parties and New Years' resolutions that "This year will be the year I stop biting my nails."

I watch carefully as little girl after little girl skips about the room, flashing her new nails sprinkled with glittering patterns. Nearly two hours pass, and not one finger appears sloppy. It's art for the older girls, who are undoubtedly becoming women faster than I can blink. Perhaps this is why I feel myself tearing up. Or maybe it has something to do with the beaming faces of the little ones as simple loveliness is added to their day, matching their radiant personalities. But even more so, I think it's this:



The hand that is holding the other has no inkling of the role it's playing- the tender way it's loving and ministering and granting hope. But this hand is the hand of a shepherd, of a girl quickly fostering into a woman, contributing beauty to a child. She showers pink into her little life, and as she does I feel the Lord smiling over this room. This room of laughing chiquitas and diligent ladies who hunch over to offer color and beauty to those younger than themselves. The more they squint their eyes to master their colors and designs, the more they exude tenderness for the hand they're holding. And the lower they bend, the more I see their gleaming hearts, dazzled for serving. Truly, they've never been more beautiful to me.

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:18

-Betsy Coughlin
Summer Volunteer for Dove Missions