Door to our village base, and the entrance to the Marked store.
The headline should read, a little empty brick house, with no door on the edge of the largest lake in Mexico, and one of the most contaminated lakes in all of Latin America became the birthplace of something great.
You see this little store, that started from a conversation about a need in the town has turned into a place where people gather, lives are transformed and families get to stay together. This little store has empowered mamas to work, meals to be provided throughout the community and the doors of the schools to stay open.
What may have looked like a little “project” has turned into one of the most important parts of our week. You see it is because of projects like these that children can stay in school, and parents aren’t ‘forced’ to sell their children.
The store isn’t their hand out, but rather it is their answer to prayer.
The store isn’t their hand out, but rather it is their answer to prayer.
The Marked store has become a place where the community gathers, and not just to purchase clothing and necessary items, but it is the place where conversations are had, respite is provided and hearts are encouraged. It is the place where these mamas can hear that they are doing an amazing job and that they can do this thing called “parenting”. That they were made for it. Its a place where they are learning how to connect and be connected.
This store has become a place that is safe from abuse, a place where they are given tools and hope. This store is part of their redemption story.
This store has become a place that is safe from abuse, a place where they are given tools and hope. This store is part of their redemption story.
And not just redemption for those who “receive” from it, but also for those who give to it. This store is connecting the rich with the poor. It is teaching of the importance of giving back, and loving those who don’t look or live the way they do.
This store is teaching people about Jesus.
But more than all these things, this store is reducing the numbers of children who will be on the streets, orphaned, trafficked, in prison or in gangs. This store is empowering lives, and preventing the number of orphaned children to rise.
This store is one of the ways we at Marked empty orphanages.
