La Alianza: The family of Y

Hi all, and thank you for following our blog! I wanted to write to share with you a little bit about Y and her family who we have been working with. Our outreach team members Marisol and Jeanette came across Y several months ago when she was working in town as prostitute. She shared with them her strong desire to leave prostitution but her dilemma with raising her children while her husband has been away in prison. Of her six children, four of these children live with her here in Jarabacoa, and are the ages of 1, 2, 3, and 4 years old. She shared her struggle of trying to work in other professions, but how prostitution became the only means she was able to find to provide for her children and take care of her family.

When we started working with Y, she expressed her interest in cooking and considered the possibility of doing this as a business. Luckily one of our team members, Marisol, had run her own business out of her home cooking and selling pastelitos (a yummy Dominican pastry usually filled with cheese, meat, or vegetables). Marisol was able to train her in how to make pastelitos and the Alliance was able to provide her with the equipment to do this.

Now instead of prostituting, Y works in her neighborhood selling pastelitos and is able to provide for her family with dignity and integrity. The team has also been working with her to help improve her family care and a missionary friend from the states, Rachel Lanouette, with the help of her church, has provided beautiful new clothing for her children, who previously could be found playing outside naked in the mud. Y and her children live in poverty, but her situation is improving little by little.

In recent months, the four children have stayed at our safehouse so that Y could visit her husband in prison and attend his court hearings. While four children under the age of four can be quite a handful, all of our team fell in love with each of them and loved the precious time we were able to spend with them. We tried to always make their time at our house a special time by engaging them in fun games, activities, arts and crafts, and teaching them about Jesus's love for them.

After their last visit with us, Y brought a very special and unexpected person home with her - their father! Only the three older children remembered him as he had been in prison for around 10 months but it was a heartwarming family reunion to see them all together again and to see the joy in their father's eyes to be reunited with his family. Y's husband stays he is determined now to stay away from drugs, and find work to support his family.

Marisol and Jeanette have been doing discipleship with Y and her husband and they are becoming more open and excited about the opportunity to know Christ. We also helped one of the children to get on a waiting list for the preschool program at a local Christian school. None of these children have any school experience and we pray that this dream will become a reality for Y's children in the future. Our team continually prays for all of them and that their family will continue to grow in Christ in the future.

Thank you for those who support this ministry and pray for us. Your support helps women like Y to start over and build a new life for her family. Please continue to pray for this family and our team. If you would like to know more about how you help Y and women like her, please email us. Thanks so much!