Robbed yet rich

Last Thursday, in the middle of a beautiful Quito afternoon, robbers broke a window in our living room, bent and broke the bars, then stole our two laptops, ransacked our bedroom and took the rent money and cash from my wallet saved in our dresser. The heavy loss is the info on the computers. Phil and I both work from our home office. It is also difficult to be without computers...I am writing from a teammate' s Kindle she lent us. Slowly. :)

My mother-in-law called today and encouraged me, "Often it is through necessity God works His plan." Yes, I am ever aware of my necessity and my inadequacy. And in my need God expresses His abundant grace. O that my eyes would be wide open to see God's expressions of grace, such as all the ways He is providing, how he blinded the eyes of the thieves when they dumped my jewelry box and left my diamond wedding ring. There is no other explanation for why I didn't feel frightened the night of the robbery or violated by the knowledge that strangers touched my clothes, looked through my drawers, looked through my wallet, saw my name, threw my undies on the floor..men rifled through my place of safety and refuge with evil intentions. Yes, I am overwhelmed with crazy, abundant grace.

My refuge lives in me and cannot be stolen. The things that make us rich cannot be stolen. Life eternal. Love unconditional experienced through friendship, family, community. Even my identity cannot be stolen. Who I am, the daughter of the King, my true identity, can never be taken. HE can never be taken from me, ever.

Casa Adalia -- Girls know how to have fun!

Recently I was appointed to teach one of our life skills classes at Casa Adalia. The topic? Personal hygiene... 

I introduced the theme by holding up a small, stained-glass vase, “I would like to show you a valuable object. What do you think makes it valuable?  Well, it is beautiful. I like to look at it. It is also valuable because it was given to me by my husband Phil. But, if I drop it, it will break. Or if I place it inside a cupboard, its beauty will be hidden. And if I want Phil to know I am thankful for it, I will take good care of it.

The same is true with our bodies. God created us in His image. He gave us marvelous bodies, much more valuable than this vase. BUT, in order for us to enjoy the bodies God gave us or to let Him know we are grateful, we need to take care of them. YOU are a beautiful creation! When we display our outward and inward beauty in the manner God designed, we are able to reveal to the world His incredible beauty.”

We then read together Psalm 139:13,14

Oh yes, You shaped me first inside, then out; You formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—You’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

Next, I handed out information on a variety of topics concerning personal hygiene. I challenged each person to create a poster to portray the main points from their handout.  When finished we each presented the information to the entire group. Everyone did a great job. We laughed, we listened, and we learned together. 

At the end of our time we made a natural face mask from oatmeal, lemon and yogurt.  We laughed some more as we blobbed on our face masks. I reveled in the sweetness of our group experiencing such joyful and educational “girl time” in a safe and healthy setting.  Gotta say...I am glad God made me a woman because girls know how to have fun! :)

Kristin, our house coordinator, displays her poster AND face mask!  

"Girls, I am here to tell you...He is alive!!"

Easter morning at El Refugio in Calacali, Ecuador -- picture taken by Sonnet Medrano

Last Friday's theme for our outreach at the safe house was the joyful news that Jesus is alive.  We decided to act out sharing a meal with the girls as though we were living in the days after Christ’s resurrection.  I was assigned to be Mary, the mother of Jesus…because I am the only one of our group old enough to actually have a son of 30 plus years.  J  Kristin would be Mary Magdalena and Desi would be Peter.  We brought a large loaf of bread, cookies, grape pop, smaller breads, a small wooden cross, large tablecloth, pens, tacks, Bible, scarves to cover our heads for the drama, and plastic, disposable glasses.  Bringing so many things is not necessarily a simple task since all of us travel from different parts of the city on trolleys and buses.  I smiled at the cross sticking out of Desi’s backpack as we hiked the final part of our destination on foot. 

We prayed outside the safe house.  Oh, Jesus, would you come and reveal Yourself through us?!

Many of the girls greeted us with huge smiles and hugs.  Several of the new girls hung back, observant and silent.  I was blessed to see “M’s” face light up.  (She is in process to come to Casa Adalia.  It has been a slow and often discouraging process due to a delay in obtaining the judge’s order.)  Rebeca (Casa Adalia's house mom) led us in a fun “driving” game where “the cop” chased “the offending driver” through “the avenues and streets” made by the rest of us standing in lines.  The sun was beating down with intensity, so after the game we moved to the entrance that was shaded.  I spread out the tablecloth on the pavement and placed the scarf over my head.  Kristin did the same.  Desi disappeared and returned displaying a beard and men’s clothing.  We all laughed.

And then the celebration began.  We invited the girls to the “table” and served “wine” and laid out bread. I blessed our time and "meal" in prayer.  We passed the large loaf of bread, each breaking off a piece.  The girls joked and laughed.  It indeed felt like a party.  Then Kristin began to share her story about Jesus and how impacted she was by His tender love, acceptance and forgiveness.  Desi then shared her story as Peter.  They were both very dramatic and animated.  I felt myself entering into the story, and I prayed silently for the girls to hear and receive the message of hope and truth.  Then I began to share my story as Mary.  Even when I made a number of errors in Spanish, the girls listened intently.  I felt my eyes sting with tears as I tried to demonstrate the depths of grief and then joy that Mary must have felt.  At the end, I said, “Girls, I am here to tell you that Jesus is alive.  He is alive!”

Rebeca led us in reading and talking about Luke 24:1-12.  I so love hearing these precious girls read aloud from their Bibles! (We give every girl a personal Bible if she would like one.) We then passed out pens and paper and Desi talked about how Jesus came to die on the cross so that He might carry our burdens and take away our sins.  She encouraged us to write down a weight or a sin we are carrying and to tack it to the cross.  They would not be read or shared; they were for God’s eyes alone.  The cross was soon covered with our burdens.  As I prayed to end our time, Kris and Desi removed all the papers.  When the girls opened their eyes the cross was empty, symbolically demonstrating the incredible power of the cross. 

We finished with a simple song, “Jesus is not dead.”  Two of the new girls then quietly pulled me to the side and asked, “Could you bring us our own Bibles next week?”  What a beautiful question…of course!

YES! Jesus is alive!    

Let me go back to Egypt!

Phil and Jose Luis on a Casa G mission outreach to a jungle village. 

In September 2008 I wrote these words in my journal, “Jose Luis, age 20.  Freed!  Passionate for Jesus!”  A former street kid and drug addict, transformed, living with purpose and joy.  Over the next two years we marveled at the depths of God’s word expressed through this young man.  His energy, enthusiasm, gifted expression of music through rap and love for deep conversations impacted all of us. 

Today Jose Luis lives on the streets; his seemingly only desire is to be high. 

Often we have seen in the lives of these former street boys a word picture of what for many of us our spiritual journey looks like.  Part of the journey to freedom and enjoying “the land of promise” includes conquering the giants in the land, those entanglements of learned behavior patterns and belief in lies stemming from a myriad of wounds and bad choices.  Facing the giant is scary.  The temptation is to go back to the comfort of the known.  To our Egypt.  

For Jose Luis one poor choice led to another and another.  Consequences, words of truth, expressions of love had seemingly little effect.  We watched helplessly as he chose to go back to the slavery of his drug addiction and his world on the streets.  We lost contact with him and didn't see him for nearly two years.

A number of months ago Jose Luis suddenly appeared back into our lives. He was high and dirty, suffering from a stab wound and an oozing abscess in his leg. 

After the summer of 2012 Phil shared the following with me, “How do I communicate unconditional love to someone like Jose Luis whose actions won't allow him to continue at Casa G?  I have decided I want to find him and just sit with him.  No agenda, no expectation.  Pray I would have an opportunity to demonstrate God’s unconditional love to him.”

Phil’s prayer was answered, but the addictions and behavior didn't change.  Jose Luis started showing up several days each week outside Casa G high, asking for money, clothes, something to eat or needing further medical attention.  We heard that his family refused to let him into their house because he had robbed them.  His behavior became more and more erratic and paranoid. Yet, Phil continued to listen to him, sometimes for hours, and to demonstrate unconditional yet firm love.  He offered to take him to a drug rehab center, but Jose Luis refused.  I was amazed at Phil’s patience and continued hope for him.  I just felt uncomfortable and unsure how to respond around him.

One day Jose Luis surprised Danelle, Nate (our daughter and husband) and me when he walked into a restaurant we were in and sat down at our table.  We offered him something to drink and then after talking briefly, mostly about difficulty with his ear, he placed his head on the table and fell asleep.  Having no idea what else to do, I placed my hand over him and prayed aloud that God in His mercy would touch him, would rescue him once again. “Even when we don’t deserve it, You are merciful.” 

A week later we discovered that the pastor of our church (which is directly across from Casa G) had taken him to Teen Challenge.  Jose Luis had been “terrorizing” some of the church members by asking rather aggressively for money.  One even called the police, and he was put in jail several hours.  Yet, once again he was extended mercy. 

Three weeks later Jose left Teen Challenge.

The church leadership listened to his reasons for leaving and placed him in their drug counseling program. They gave him a place to live at the church.  He was clean and happy, a different person. 

 Yet, Egypt beckoned.  Again he bailed.  We haven’t heard from him since then.

To be honest, I have not felt merciful towards Jose Luis, but rather completely frustrated.  I mean.  He was given so many opportunities. Right?!  He blew it.  Not just once but over and over.  He threw away his chances.  If he had finished his training at Casa G he would not be on the streets seeking his next fix.  He would be the one helping others find freedom.  I believe that.  I witnessed the incredible impact he had. 

But what does God see?  He sees a man who is alone and fearful and hungry and desperately suffering.  He sees one of His own who is lost and needs help to find his way back home.  I am so thankful God is merciful.  Always.  Every time we turn to Him in repentance, we are given another chance.  His forgiveness is unending. His love is unfailing. 

The LORD is merciful!  He is kind and patient, and his love never fails.  Psalm 143:8

Stone with a broken heart

Do you know that lovely fact about the opal?  That, in the first place, it is made only of desert dust, sand, silica, and owes its beauty and preciousness to a defect.  It is a stone with a broken heart.  It is full of minute fissures which admit air, and the air refracts the light.  Hence its lovely hues, and that sweet lamp of fire that ever burns at its heart, for the breath of the Lord God is in it.

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You are only conscious of the cracks and desert dust, but so He makes His precious opal.  We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of his light, and the lamp in the temple can burn in us and never go out. – Ellice Hopkins (Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael)

Mary wasn't perfect either.

Friday morning, December 20, 2013, Desi and I took the trolley to the safe house.  My bag was filled with scissors, construction paper, pens... and baby Jesus.  This baby Jesus is one we have had in our home since our kids were tiny.  The plastic doll with movable arms and legs smells like baby powder and has chocolate colored skin.  Every year it is wrapped and placed under the tree.  Every year the youngest of our kids opens this "first present" and we then pass baby Jesus in his swaddling cloth around our family circle.  Each person reflects on the past year and God's faithfulness through His Son Jesus.

Desi, dressed in a shawl and skirt and holding baby Jesus, shared the story of His birth in first person.  All of us chuckled at parts of her animated story.  The girls became serious however, when Desi explained how Mary, who is often thought of as perfect and sinless, was a teen girl just like them, with fears and worries and pain and imperfections.  She became the mother of Jesus because she chose to believe God and obey Him, even knowing she might be misunderstood or rejected or even divorced.  She simply said, "Do to me as you will."

Many times I think I know what is the best for me or for others.  I tell God what this "best" is and feel frustrated when He doesn't listen to my ideas.  How much more might God be reflected in my life if I would respond like Mary, "Do to me as you will..."

Next we made paper chains from colored paper for the girls to hang in their rooms or on the security bars on the windows.  None had made them before, and they became absorbed in a simple task, something that seemed so Sunday "schoolish", but for them, it broke up what was another boring day.

Several of the girls asked if we would come back next week to celebrate Christmas with them.  Although I was unable to tell them that day at the request of the director, some of the Casa Adalia team and Douce family arrived the morning of the 24th to bring presents, games, worship and another pancake fest.  I cannot describe the depth of joy I felt when they saw us and shouted, "You came!!  You came!"


A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy.  I came so that everyone would have life, and have it to the fullest.  John 10:10

Oh might they know the ONE who came to bring them life!

Hugs from heaven!!

Oh no, You never let go through the calm and through the storm, through the high and through the low, You never let go.

Today I found myself singing worship songs at the top of my lungs because my heart is so full of thankfulness…and because I am the only one in the house.  Last night Phil, our daughter Danelle and her husband Nate (they are here for two months!), our newest Casa G team member Sonnet, most of the Casa G boys and team, and friends from a local church left at midnight on an old school bus to go and minister to the village of Chuwitayo.  Phil’s cell phone had been ringing over the past week from several members of the village who are super excited about their expected arrival.  I stayed back because I am… well, I am just pretty much worn out.  I also wanted to finish writing Christmas thank you letters, actually now New Year’s letters to send with someone heading back to the U.S.  One little Christmas letter hardly begins to express our gratefulness for God’s provision for us and for the ministries of Casa Gabriel and Casa Adalia through His people.  I am so humbled by the goodness of God!!

I was also singing because of the joy of hanging out with our daughter Chelsea this morning via Skype.  If you haven’t heard the exciting news, Jonathan DiLallo proposed to our Chelsea on December 29^th while they were visiting us in Ecuador.  If you are interested, check out our facebook phil-debbie douce “Chelsea says, “Yes!” on top of the world”  to see pictures.  

Today Chelsea told me that God was hugging her from heaven.  Her friend Lydia talked her into going to a bridal shop this morning that was going out of business.  It was a cold and gloomy winter morning, and she was trying to get over being sick.  Chelsea came out of the shop with a dress and wedding veil that are more "perfect" than she imagined possible, to the sun shining, and to the certainty that God was smiling down on her. Isn't it fun to know that Our Father cares about details like wedding dresses?!  Her Jon said, "Jesus really is your best friend!"

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Well, I won’t lie that I also grieved a bit in the midst of such elation.  To not be there in person for your daughter when she is trying on wedding dresses stinks.  Lydia wanted to surprise Chelsea by having me (and her sister Danelle) on Skype once they reached the bridal shop, but when she tried calling, our stateside phone had gone out, and she couldn’t reach me.  Thankfully, I was able to see her in her dress later when she reached home and after we got Skype working. It was kind of blurry, but maybe that was because of the tears in my eyes at the joy of being blessed by such a beautiful, sweet daughter who has such an incredibly grateful heart.