MANANTIAL MINISTRIES
Chaplaincy at Casa de Fe
​
I was the Chaplain at Casa de Fe from November of 2013 until August of 2017
When I was first approached about coming to Casa de Fe, I was asked to start a chaplain program for the foundation. Although I had never been in that position before, I had taken several training courses to be a chaplain; apart from the seminary and pastoral experience. It was still a very new process for us, and even to this day we experience and learn many new things. there are times when we don't know all the answers, but we rest in the fact that we serve a God who makes all things beautiful in his time.
Being a chaplain has lot of different parts to the job...but the main focus is to be there for the kids, listen, counsel and share God's word with them in every part of their life. As this comes right in line with what we feel that God has called us here to do, we are doing our best to be the spiritual mentors that these children need. Our desire is not just to minister to them, but to teach them so that they can go and minister to others. We want to teach the older girls what a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father is, how to be young ladies that can inspire their generation with their walk with their Lord. We desire that the younger children can, early on, learn about Jesus as their friend, the one who is always faithful, always there for them, who will never leave them or forsake them; that he is the one who can break the cycles of sin and pain in their lives.
The chaplain program at Casa de Fe is changing and continuing to grow over the time that we have been here, and has reached many different areas of the daily activities here. Not all of these may be done at once, but we have by the grace of God been able to minister in each of these areas; among which are teaching Christian Education and values at the Casa de Fe school, devotionals and prayer time with the caretakers and the profesional staff in each of their areas, talking and counseling with the families and visiting relatives of the children, devotionals and sharing with the teams and volunteers that spend time at the foundation, coordinating and assisting with events such as VBS, bible retreats, etc for the children here at Casa de Fe, as well as counseling on decisions needed to be made in the daily functioning of the foundation.
​
That being said, the main reason why we are here is for the children, and that is where our main focus will always be. There are many different ways in which we go about doing this...here are just a few:
​
-
Teaching Bible lessons at the school.
-
Helping them with their household chores.
-
Sitting out on the swings and listening to their hopes and fears.
-
Playing in the first with the little ones.
-
Counseling the older children as to their walk with God and their future.
-
Bible studies and question and answer times.
-
Prayer times either in group or praying for specific individual needs, and
-
Last but definitely not least, Sunday School. (More below)
​
In short, being a part of their everyday lives in such a way that they can see through us the love of God. Many of them have had no stability in their lives, and for them to know that there is someone their that they can count on, someone to whom they can tell their 'secret stuff', regardless of how big and bad it may be, someone that will not judge them but rather help them through their faults and failures on to victory, this is the goal and the purpose of our time with these children.
Sunday School:
​
By far the biggest and most important part of our ministry in these children lives are the Sunday School services that we do with them. We were finally able to start Sunday services at Casa de Fe in September of 2015, and since then every Sunday we have been able to teach God's word to all of the children here.
The normal Sunday afternoon looks more or less like this: The younger children wake up from their nap times at three o'clock, while the older boys set up the chairs in the big upstairs room. We set up the computer and projector, as well as the sound equipment, and make sure that everything is all set for worship. Sometimes, with the older children we gather upstairs a couple of hours early and put some worship music and and just sing karaoke, and other times because of internet problems we just sing a cappella in the worship service! It is also a special treat when someone joins us that is able to play the guitar or keyboard, and we can worship independent of the music videos that we play for the service.
​
At three thirty we start the service, playing some worship music and then some fun Sunday school songs with the children. Afterwards, the children eight and under go downstairs for their bible story with Cinthia or another of the volunteer teachers, and the children nine and up stay upstairs for the bible lesson dedicated for their age group. At the beginning, there were a lot more teenagers in this group, but as the children have grown and left the orphanage, it is more of a pre-teen group. We always try to include some game or fun activity that supports the lesson being taught for that day.
There are times when the schedule may change, whether it be for lack of a teacher, or if we have a visiting team, but this is what you will generally find if you were to visit us any given Sunday afternoon. Afterwards, we usually stay for some time and chat, play some games, and just spend time with the kids.
​
​
Volunteers and Needs:
​
We are so blessed to have several young ladies who take turns giving their Sunday afternoons to teach God's word to the children. There have been a few others who have come and gone, but Alisson and Rosalva have been helping us almost since the beginning. They juggle their own Sunday schools and singing on the worship team in the morning at their church, and then give up a couple of Sunday afternoons a month to pour their love into these children lives. This allows Cinthia and I a little more freedom to rotate teaching and leading worship as well as caring for our two boys during the roughly 2 hours of Sunday school.
​
-
Most of the materials, books and snacks are given by Manantial Ministries, through your partnership with us. At times, the Sunday school teachers also bring materials and/or snacks out of their own pockets.
-
We have been able to purchase a sound system and microphone specifically for the services, as well as a number of wonderful teaching series that come complete with visual pictures and workbooks for the children. We hope to soon be able to buy a flannel story board set to keep the children even more involved and live out the stories.
-
Thank you for your support to our ministry so that God's word can be planted in the hearts of these children!
Teaching Christian Education and Values at FUNCAFE primary school
​
Another part of our ministry with the children here at Casa de Fe has been teaching at the school that the orphanage runs. I teach bible and christian values to the different grades that they have here, which changes from year to year. In 2014-2015 school year they had from kindergarten all the way to sixth grade, whereas in 2016-2017 school year they only had up to third grade. Every year it changes with the new children coming into the orphanage and the children that are there being reinserted with family.
​
It is a great opportunity to teach the children that the bible is a part of our every day lives, as well as a great learning experience to teach in a classroom setting.
We look forward to the opportunity to continue teaching the children in a school setting, as well as the bible studies in the afternoons for the ones in the public school.
A play we did with the children from the Casa de Fe school for Easter the first year that I taught there. It was an amazing way for the children to live out the crucifixion and resurrection, and see what it means for them.