Every time I talk about Lydia Project, I get emotional. Maybe that’s why it took me 2 weeks to make this post.
Time and time again, we’ve met beautiful young ladies in Quechua communities, on the soccer field or at English class, and fallen in love with their unique personalities and intelligence. Then through little glimpses into their daily life, we realize how mistreated and undervalued they are. It’s infuriating. Heartbreaking. It makes me want to go to war against everything in their society that holds them back. But the issues are so complicated.
In March 2020, I came home from Ayacucho with a list of 10 names of little girls in the village where we had just spent the week, and prayed over them daily. I had no contact with them, no way to know how they were doing. But during that time, Lydia Project began to take shape in our hearts, and I think it was a result of those same prayers.
Lydia Project seeks to tell Quechua girls that their unique voices are worthy of being heard. That they deserve a chance to dream, and pursue their dreams. That they have OPTIONS, that they shouldn’t just become wives and mothers because they feel it’s their only choice, but in God’s timing and out of true joy and desire. And above all, that they have intrinsic value in the eyes of their Savior that cannot be diminished by anything they’ve ever done or could ever do, and that that same Savior wants a personal, daily relationship with them, empowering them to serve Him in a way only they can, using their individual God given gifts.
If you want more information on how that actually played out in a weekend-long workshop with 24 Quechua girls from the Ayacucho / Apurimac regions, please check out @empoweringquechuas recent posts. Most of all, THANK YOU to all those who supported this project in all sorts of ways!
God is so good. This is only the beginning.