My First Day at MEFI

Today's post is written by our oldest daughter, Tayler, about her experience visiting the drop-in-center for homeless street youth, MEFI. The 11th and 12th grade classes go once a month and spend the day ministering to the "chavos" there. Here, in her own words, is what happened on her first visit to MEFI.



Since I am a junior this year, I get to go with the juniors and seniors once a month to MEFI—the drop-in center for homeless youth my mom partners with. So today was the day we went to MEFI.

After a couple prayers, we set off in a large twelve passenger van. We went to a store to get some supplies we would need to make brunch. Then we went to MEFI.

We were greeted by a couple of the chavos, as they are called in MEFI. Then for the next hour and a half, we helped with various tasks and talked to some of the chavos. There were ten in total that came today, one girl and nine guys.

Brunch came, and after first serving the youth, we got plates and ate with them. Today we had scrambled eggs with pieces of hotdog, fruit, juice, corn tortillas, and some bread. Some of the chavos had coffee.

After brunch, we went upstairs for devotions. My Math teacher went with us and he did the devotions. He talked about Joshua and that we have to choose today whom we will serve, God or not God.

After the prayer, we walked to a park. Most of the guys—chavos and my classmates alike— played soccer. The remaining guys played basketball with all of us girls. Then after that we played some simple games for children, but as the chavos really loved playing those kind of games, we kept on playing.

Finally, it was time for us to leave. We went in the van and drove back to the missionary school we came from. All in all it was a good day and very humbling.

At first I was nervous because it was my first time going to MEFI. I vaguely knew what to expect, and I didn’t know the chavos. But as the day wore on, I felt more at ease. As the day continued, I began to treat them like they were one of us. I didn’t treat them like they were bad people, cause they aren’t, they are just kids about my age or a little older, who have gone through far different things than I have.

While my Spanish is not the best, I tried to have conversations, doing my best to talk to them. I played games like tic tac toe with the chavos, ate a meal with them, and had conversation around the table. We laughed together and had fun.

Even though they’ve had bad experiences, we still have one thing in common: we’re just young people who want to have fun, to feel at home, and to feel like we belong.

I am glad of my experience with MEFI and I eagerly await for the next time I get to see and have fun with the chavos again.