Florida church sends first all-Latino, Spanish-speaking pilgrim cohort to ‘children’s village’ in Bolivia

[Episcopal News Service] For more than 20 years, Christ Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has sent groups of parishioners on pilgrimages to Amistad Mission, an ecumenical Christian orphanage and family care nonprofit in Cochabamba, Bolivia. During these trips, the participants and children play games, make crafts and worship together.

This year’s May 11-15 pilgrimage is significant because all 10 pilgrims are native Spanish speakers from Latin American countries, including Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the Rev. Andreis Diaz, vice rector of Christ Church and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Cuba, told Episcopal News Service. 

Not only will everyone speak the same language without interpreters, but the pilgrims “are absolutely familiar with Bolivia’s culture of struggle,” he said.

“We’re not coming to ‘save’ the kids. We are coming with one clear goal, which is to spend time with the kids and to be a part of their extended family even though we are not related by blood,” Diaz said. “Given the context across Latin America … we – adults and children – understand this deep concept of family.”

Christ Church’s all-Latino pilgrimage cohort will be “extra special” and an educational opportunity for the children, Christopher King, Amistad Mission’s director of 15 years, told Episcopal News Service. 

“It’ll be a really wonderful gift for the children because most of our visitors do not speak Spanish and require interpreters,” King, who’s based in Nashville, told ENS. “It’ll be a wonderful opportunity for deeper engagement with the children and for the children to understand different Latin American cultures beyond Bolivia.”

Christ Church, an Episcopal congregation with close to 6,000 members, according to Diaz, is one of eight Episcopal churches that financially support and make yearly pilgrimages to Amistad Mission. The seven other churches, King said, are Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville, Tennessee; St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church and Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama; St. Martin’s Episcopal Church and the Church of St. John the Divine in Houston, Texas; and St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas.

In 1981, the Rev. William Wilson, a Trappist monk, founded Amistad Mission as a medical clinic based on three principles: friendship with God, friendship with the poor, and friendship with each other. The clinic later became a hospital, then an orphanage in 1990.

Amistad Mission has been expanded to include a children’s “village” and three off-campus houses for teenagers. Its ministry emphasizes family, both biological and forged. Today, 60 children live in eight “casas,” or houses, in the village. Every “casa” includes a “mama,” or mother, who is the children’s primary caregiver, and a “tía,” or aunt, who provides additional support. Two social workers, an education psychologist and a therapeutic psychologist also work full time at Amistad Mission. And the orphanage works with health and disability specialists to address individual needs.

Amistad Mission uses a “comprehensive” approach to raising the children, King said.

“We incorporate components of health, psychology, education and spiritual life,” he said. “One of the really beautiful aspects of our ministry is that it’s deeply relational.”

A major part of Amistad Mission’s approach also includes helping the children live their lives as normally as possible. This includes keeping siblings together in a “casa,” no matter the age gap or gender.

The children are also not confined to the orphanage’s property. Once a month, households go on special excursions, and some children will run weekly errands with their caregivers.” Older children and teenagers may also leave the orphanage to go to birthday parties and other events with their friends.

“When most folks think of orphanages, they think of these terrible, horrendous conditions,” King said. “It’s a bit of a misnomer that Amistad Mission’s an orphanage because it’s such a place of joy and light and hope for these children.”

King noted that many children living at Amistad Mission have biological families, some including parents, but the living conditions at home may be unsafe or unsuitable for them. In 2014, Amistad Mission formed the Amistad for Families program to prevent family disintegration and child abandonment. The program’s services include daily tutoring and meals for children, psychological evaluations, weekly parenting classes, spiritual formation, home visits to monitor living conditions, referrals to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, job and housing assistance, counseling and microloans.

Amistad Mission also values education. The children are enrolled in nearby schools, and additional tutoring is available to anyone who needs it. Most children who graduate from high school while living at Amistad Mission enroll in college or trade school. The orphanage continues to support young adult “alumni” until they’re able to live independently on their own.

Most “alumni” keep in touch with Amistad Mission and often visit their caregivers and the children who still live there. They also have dinner with Christ Church pilgrims every time they’re in town.

“We have this tradition because those who have graduated are still part of the family,” Diaz said. “They’ll share what they’re doing in their jobs, and sometimes they’ll bring their partners and their friends and their biological family. It’s something everyone always enjoys.”

Diaz also looks forward to arriving at Amistad Mission every trip.

“As soon as we get out of the van, the children run towards us. To see the expressions on their faces, and to hug them and see them again, it’s my greatest joy. It really is,” Diaz said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.