Mirian’s Story
Mirain Valle is our Spiritual Care Facilitator and support for International Relations. Mirian guides our team and clients with grace, supporting their faith journey every step of the way. She also assists our International Relations director with teams and partnerships. This is her story, in her own words.
My name is Mirian Valle, and I am the first of four siblings. I live near hills and mountains in an area called Atahualpa. Life in the countryside is busy; there are always activities to do. There is no time to get bored, because there is always work, such as feeding the animals, caring for the plants, or participating in community work (mingas).
I belong to the Kichwa Cayambi ethnic group, a minority community that lives on the mountain slopes in northern Ecuador. I grew up between two cultures: Indigenous and Mestizo. For many years, there has been strong racial discrimination toward minority groups, which affected the way I saw myself as a valuable person. I struggled to accept where I came from, and this deeply affected my identity. I come from a family that has been strongly marked by violence; my grandparents, on both my father’s and mother’s sides, were alcoholics. However, when God stepped into my family´s story. He transformed it.
At the age of 15, I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart, not as my parents’ faith, but as my own personal decision. In my heart, I longed to know other places. I do not remember praying specifically for this, but God heard the whisper of my heart and led me outside of my country to work in my life, in my identity, and in my value as a person and as an Indigenous woman. He has treated me with kindness, patience, and love, and above all, He has taught me to recognize the value that God gives me.
I am deeply grateful to my mother, who prayed for us early every morning. She came to know the gospel of Jesus when she was 15 years old. Her life has not been easy; she grew up without a father and struggled to finish school. My grandmother is an exceptional woman, although she does not know how to read or write, the gospel entered her life because she heard it. My mother completed primary school, and I am the first woman in my family to complete my full education, and by God’s grace, to earn a master’s degree. I will always remember my mother’s words: “Study, daughter, study, that is something no one can take away from you.” She taught me the importance of education.
Life for most Indigenous people has been difficult. There are many barriers to overcome, especially violence, injustice, and inequality. Yet God gives us hope where there seems to be no hope; He is the light when darkness appears to be spreading even more. When I received the call to come to the Ecuadorian Community Advancement Foundation (FACE), I did not know the impact it would have on my life. I understood how God first worked in me so that I could now embrace children and adolescents who, throughout their lives, have experienced situations that have broken their hearts.
The service mission between Santiago Partnership and the FACE Foundation has been one of transformation. Personally, I have witnessed how the lives of children, adolescents, and their families can change. I have seen how God has opened new opportunities of hope and faith in a future that at first seemed clouded, bringing light during darkness. It is both a blessing and a calling from God to share the good news of Jesus through actions and not only through words, as stated in James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
This is what I have been able to see and live during these five years of service to the community, through the projects developed in Cayambe, Ecuador.
