Our Mission Is Here

Not long ago, my ten-year-old daughter was listening to some people talk about the lack of safety in the country. They were weighing the possibility of going to live somewhere else, and my daughter surprised everyone by saying: “Our mission is here.”

I was left wondering: how can a girl her age say something like that with such certainty? Then I understood. She was simply repeating what my husband and I tell everyone who says we have to leave Venezuela, above all for the sake of the children’s safety.

The truth is that living here is really HARD, but I say it is also WON- DERFUL. Even more so if you live it before God.

Just think about it: this is the best country in the world for offering God all the problems we live through minute by minute. From the moment we get up at four in the morning so we can leave the house at 5:30, before “the dreaded traffic” catches us. Then we spend the whole day praying that we won’t be laid off because the company has to close; that our few little bolívares will stretch far enough to pay for school, school supplies, uniforms, doctors, medicines and, above all, FOOD (if we can find it); that they won’t cut off our electricity and water for hours or days on end. And most importantly, we pray intensely, even in our sleep, that our children won’t be kidnapped, that we won’t be killed on the corner by our house, and so on.

So what makes us say that our mission is here? The certainty that someday we will be the best country in the world, because our people are UNIQUE. Venezuelans are good, generous, hardworking (even if some who don’t really know us say otherwise), fighters, “all-terrain” people (we can put up with anything with a smile on our faces). And above all, we are ready for whatever comes, because we have faith: faith that God and our Blessed Virgin (under whichever title we prefer: Our Lady of Coromoto, La Chinita, the Virgin of the Valley, Our Lady of Betania, the Divina Pastora, and so many more) will protect us at every moment.

Those of us who say our mission is here (and I know there are many of us) are certain that God is allowing all this to happen so that we will pray and fight harder than ever, with all the joy and perseverance that characterize us, sowing Christian and human values around us. With a great deal of work, those values are what will lead us to true development.

Yes, our mission is here, and we have more than enough consolations to keep us steady and secure: the religious celebrations in our towns and cities, which are unlike any in the world; our wonderful Venezuelan music, which lifts anyone’s spirits; the gift of seeing and enjoying the majesty of El Ávila whenever we feel like it; our beaches and mountains, unique in the world, which clear our minds, renew our strength and root us more deeply in our country every time we travel within it. And there is our unmatched social life: even when we are wrung out from so much work, we never stop celebrating a birthday, a baptism, a First Communion, a graduation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Christmas, Easter, not to mention the little weekend barbecue, where finding the food each friend or relative has been asked to bring is a full-blown adventure.

Venezuela is simply the best! What we are living through is making us stronger, more people of faith, more “all-terrain.” What we are living through is preparing us for the worst and also for the best. It is preparing us to be ready and willing to change the world once we become the best country on Earth.

Many of us Venezuelans know that our mission is here, and here we stay. And a thousand thanks to those who could leave and choose to stay, because they share this same conviction.

So take heart! God and the Blessed Virgin are with us.