3 days and 3 nights gave me a tiny taste of what it’s like inside the Betel ministry. In a lot of ways it was what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t all sunshine and daisies the way I thought. It’s a hard environment. It involves hard work and long hours with little privacy or time to yourself.
Did you read up on what Betel was from the website? It’s a ministry that began many years ago in a neighborhood in Madrid known for having a high population of drug addicts. The first missionaries had a heart to minister to them. They started having bible studies with some of them. Some of them go to know Jesus! Then in an attempt to continue walking alongside each other and helping each other get over their addictions in the name of Jesus, those first few converts developed into a community where they lived together and worked together. It caught on and more and more people came to get help and it just grew from there! Now, the ministry is worldwide with Betel offices/residences in 16 countries. There are hundreds of people in the program over all of Spain alone. I got the pleasure of living in the girls’ residence for the weekend. 16 girls overcoming addictions to cocaine, heroine, nicotine, smoked, injected, living on the streets and in caves, stealing to get money to pay for the drugs. They have scars to prove it all. They were also some of the sweetest women, very welcoming and encouraging. Such hard workers!
When I first arrived on Thursday morning, they put me right to work. I helped Judy (a missionary from New Zealand) clean all the bathrooms at the Betel Church (Iglesia Betel). 6 bathrooms, including toilets, sinks, trash, sweep, mop. My arm was sore the next day from all the scrubbing! Then we ate lunch in the cafeteria. Then after lunch I was put on kitchen crew. Clean all the pots and pans, sweep and mop! I got to work alongside some of the girls and chat with them a bit. Some that have only been in the house for 2 months still have a really strong mental game they play. They want the drugs. They remember fondly their life on the street and their friends. They suffer from muscle cramps. Yet, they stay. They work because they know ultimately it’s the best option. So after we cleaned, we waited for the van to come get us. The van carried us back to the residence (about an hour drive from the church). Immediately it was shower time (every girl must take a shower every day and she must take a shower only during this allotted time). Showers were followed by dinner, then devotions, then in bed with lights out. All the girls are required to be at each item on the daily schedule and they are required to be on time.
Day two: Lights on at 7am, breakfast at 7:15am, devotions at 7:30am, in the van to go to work at 8am. If you’re late to breakfast you don’t eat! I was assigned to do publicity with a girl named Christina (she’s been in the house about 6 months I think). We walked around the community of Coslada/San Fernando for 3 hours putting a Betel flier into every mailbox within sight. Betel supports itself and employs the people they help by having these businesses all over. They have a roast chicken restaurant, a coffee bar, and second hand stores, plus groups can be hired to do maintenance or cleaning jobs. So our fliers were advertising for the stores (“We come pick up the old stuff you don’t want anymore!” And on the back it said “We sell this stuff we just picked up!) Then lunch, then back to the streets doing publicity. This time I was with Anastasia (20 yr old Russian girl with a 1 year old son who has only been in the house getting help for 2 months). I was told she wasn’t allowed to be by herself ever! So we passed out the fliers for another hour and a half. We chatted about why she came here, the decision to get clean in order to help her son more, how much she misses her mom in Russia, the other Russian guys she knows in Betel. Then we went back, got in the van, went to the Friday night church service. Then home, showers, dinner, in bed, lights out (by now it was like 11:30pm).
Day three: I was on the schedule to stay in the house for the day. Breakfast, devotions, then they packed the vans to go to work. We stayed behind and cleaned the bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, did the laundry, cooked lunch and made sure it was all ready for the girls when they came home for lunch. My favorite part of Saturday was in the afternoon when we were waiting for them all to get back, we sat in the lawn chairs out in the sunshine (it was probably about 65 degrees) and ate sunflower seeds and talked together. Me, Judy, a former addict and her daughter who are now helping out the ministry, and about 4 other girls plus one addict who just entered the house on Thursday. She was still withdrawing pretty badly so we had to keep an eye on her for medical reasons. She slept and ate for the whole time I was there. She had a really mean looking face and I’m not sure if she’ll last long in the house or not. Anyway, we just sat there in the sun and it was nice. Then the girls got there, we unloaded the vans, ate lunch, cleaned up, took a siesta, then it was kind of free time. Then showers, dinner, in bed, lights out.
Day 4 was Sunday! Church! Lights on at 8am. Breakfast whenever you’re ready. One van left at 9am, the other left at 10am. Church at 11:30. Then Steve and Coralie came to retrieve me and I was so happy to see friendly faces that I knew!! The service was good. They sing a song that says “We dance because we can’t fly”. The church is full of people who have been through the Betel program, survived, are now clean from drugs and are contributing members of society. They have families and blessings beyond measure and they come together at this church to celebrate with each other the victory they’ve had over their past life because of the change Jesus made. This includes most of the pastors and people who lead the music, etc.
So. Overall impressions: The food is horrible. The work is hard. The schedule is exhausting. However, the will is strong and the hope is high. I have a lot of respect for the girls struggling. They surely don’t have it easy overcoming their addictions, but they are learning how to make good choices. They are in the program learning how to replace their cocaine habit with a more constructive habit. Like working hard, and having responsibility, and encouraging the other girls. I think the most impressive thing about Betel is that they do zero counseling. It’s all based on peer mentoring. The girls that have been in the house for a long time take the new girls under their wings and teach them about what life is like in the house, what the schedule is, what is expected of them. How to do the chores. They pray for each other and tell each other about how having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what has given them the strength to move past their addiction. The “missionaries” and “pastors” in the houses do a small amount of that compared to what the girls do for each other. That’s amazing!!
Judy in her bedroom (most of the rooms had 3 sets of bunkbeds)
Carmen, Anna, and Maria Jose:
The living room and the new girl Maitai asleep on the couch. We had to lift up her arm to sweep under it.
Eating sunflower seeds (pipas in Spanish) in the sun.
Anastasia and her son Dani:
