All we can say is Thank you! for your amazing response to our mission project. Your generosity has made it possible for 55 girls from Escuela 367 in Los Trigales, Chile, to participate in their very own Talita Cumi girls’ club.

Because of your gifts, each of these girls has received her own full-color workbook and travel journal as we study the ways of Christ and begin the journey to become more like him. And we have been overjoyed to see that the girls’ hearts are being changed—just when we least expected it!

The girls finished a module on love a few weeks ago. At the end of the module, each group was asked to pick a project to show God’s love to someone in need. Some visited elderly people in the community; some baked a cake for the custodians. Our group decided to put together a food basket for a family in the school who didn’t have enough to eat.

I was delighted with the idea! Los Trigales is located in the poorest, most dangerous part of Temuco—a place where almost no one gets enough to eat—so this gift would be a great help. But then I asked who should be given the basket, and an argument broke out. Each of the girls wanted her family to be the one to receive the food! We decided to table the idea for another day, and I went home discouraged.

But we seldom see what God is doing inside the people we love. The next week we came back together, and as we were doing our craft, one of the girls mentioned it was going to be her birthday. We asked her what she was going to do and she replied, “Nothing. My family doesn’t celebrate my birthday.” When we asked why, she shrugged and said, “There isn’t ever any money.” I asked the girl to run an errand for me, and while she was gone I gave the group project one more try. Even though we hold one birthday party for all of the girls at the end of the year, I suggested we throw a special party for this girl.

You need to know, this is not the most popular girl in the group. She is the one who always seems to be left out. So when I explained my idea for a birthday party just for her, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. Imagine my surprise when the girls started jumping and screaming with enthusiasm!

These little girls put on the very best birthday party they could. We had chocolate cake and potato chips, games and decorations and of course a couple of small gifts for the guest of honor. For a few hours, a girl who spends her life being overlooked was the star of the show and knew that she was loved, both by Jesus and by her friends. And that’s what the Girls’ Clubs are all about.

This is the story of just one life that you have changed because you, too, are on the journey to become like Christ. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for accompanying us on this journey.

Barbara and Dwight Bolick
IM missionaries in Chile

This project was featured in Global Gifts 2014.