Originally posted December 5, 2015
By Courtney Sullivan
At the beginning of this year, our ministry was blessed in an incredible way by the addition of our new house parents, Oscar and Alba. We knew that having them on board would be beneficial, but we did not realize what an impact they would make and how essential they would become to the very core of what we do. And now we can barely remember how we survived without them!
The maternal part of our house parent couple is found in Alba. Alba is everything you could want in a mother. She is incredibly kind-hearted, patient, a good listener, and reliable in all things. She also handles conflict when she needs to and is a loving disciplinarian. The teen girls in our ministry have found a confidant in her and a role model. Most of the teens in the building and our friends on the streets don’t even refer to her by her first name, but rather as “la madre.”
Often during downtime in the evenings, you can find the teens upstairs in Oscar and Alba’s room watching TV together and chatting about the day. While seemingly unordinary, this little picture of a normal family is so beneficial to our teens who have known so much dysfunction in their lives. Alba truly cares about the physical life and the soul of each and every one of our teenagers, and they all feel the impact of that love.
This will be Alba and her family’s first Beach Christmas with us. Will you consider rewarding this hard-working madre by giving her a wonderful time of relaxation with her family?