An American, a Brazilian, a Spaniard and 9 Moroccan women walk into a neighborhood center....it sounds like the beginning of a joke, right? God has a great sense of humor! Let me tell you how this story works out....
My church in Spain has an amazing outreach ministry in a city neighborhood highly populated by Moroccan immigrants. While immigration has increased globally, Catalunya has one of the highest percentages of immigration world-wide.
This drastic and relatively rapid change is historic and also traumatic for a Spanish system that is not prepared to receive so many immigrants. We personally have seen the burdening effects of immigration in our schools, at our hospitals and in our neighborhoods.
Many of those who come from Morocco are the poorest of the poor. They arrive looking for work and a better life. They come without having learned the language. Many, especially the women, come as illiterates, even in their own language.
While this is a challenge for our society, we believe that investing in the people that the Lord has brought to our doorstep is a way of investing in our own future. With that in mind, on Dec. 14 we hosted a workshop for moms to being thinking about their role as moms and seeking to lay a healthy foundation for effective parenting.
Above: Our first session of a "Parenting School" for moms in the neighborhood. Pictured at the left of the television is Elisangela, a Brazilian woman from our church volunteered to join us and shared during this first session about her own journey as a mom.
We collaborate with the city government and have developed a relationship with Hadija, an employee of the local government who is also from Morocco. She and her companion, Fatima, (pictured below on the right) serve as translators to assist the women who attend events like ours. In the morning, we received 9 women and addressed the first topic in our parenting school: the real needs of kids - attention, affection and training and the importance of positive reinforcement.
Because of an established collaboration, Hadija invited me to facilitate a second workshop on the same day at a local school for moms. They had requested to learn more about self-care and well-being. 10 moms shared with each other their challenges and their needs as they wrestle with immigrant life, each with 2-4 children at home.
Many feel guilty for taking time to care for themselves. Some are ridiculed and laughed at by their own children for not speaking the language in Spain. I reminded them that self-care is not an option, but it is absolutely necessary, just as putting on one's own oxygen mask first when an airplane loses air pressure before helping others with their masks.
Please pray for the many, many Moroccan women in Terrassa as well as in our hometown of Sant Vicenç de Castellet, that the Lord would break the cycle of poverty, that we could equip and develop these women who have talents and dreams of their own. Most of all, please pray that the Lord would use the relationships being built to bring many of them to Jesus.
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