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The “Tiny House” movement is sweeping America. There are shows on HGTV where hipsters choose to downsize and live in miniature rolling houses. In the Dominican Republic, however, tiny house living is not a choice.

Today, we visited the home of Lisbeth.

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She is a 27-year-old mother of 3, and her house is less than 100 sq. feet. With the bed, a small table, and some odds and ends, the actual square footage to stand in is about 16 sq. feet. The old joke, “It’s so small you have to go outside to change your mind!” feels real here. I was getting a bit stir crazy and claustrophobic after only 5 minutes.

Home visit in the D.R. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

Here is the amazing part, though, and what makes sharing these people’s stories so humbling: we asked her how we could pray for her, and her answer was to just give thanks to God for what He has given her.

For what He has given her? Was she seeing what I was seeing? Absolutely not!

She sees so much more. This is a woman who is living in a home that is smaller than most of our closets, and she’s thankful. She is thankful that Compassion fixed her roof so she no longer gets wet when it rains. She is thankful that she now has a bed for her and her daughters to share, because they all used to sleep on the hard cement floor. She is thankful that God is watching over her kids and that they are not on the streets.

Lisbeth said if she could tell the couple that sponsors her daughter one thing, she would tell them, “Thank you for loving my daughter.”

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Because of that sponsorship, Lisbeth now gets to be excited about the future and have dreams for her daughters. Hope changes lives, and hope is contagious.

Her oldest daughter Estrella wants to be a doctor, and now this mother, who dropped out of school after third grade, even has dreams for herself.

Other than praising God, there was one thing she asked us to pray for, and believe it or not, it wasn’t a bigger house. It was simply for strength. She asked us to pray that God would give her strength to continue to be a good mother for her kids so that they would grow up to become more than she was able to.

So while her house might have been tiny, her faith was big…and that was what made this tiny house a home.

Don’t wait until we get back to sponsor a Compassion child! You can do it right now:

Sponsor a Child

 

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