A woman with kind eyes and a round face greeted me by name on my second day with Word Made Flesh Bolivia. I later learned that this woman was Doris Monasterios Quispe, the Coordinator of Administration. She stands at just barely 5 feet, but her confidence and warmth make her larger than life.
Doris has lived in El Alto, Bolivia for almost all her 31 years of life. Growing up, she experienced the cycle of violence that affects so many firsthand in this chilly, sprawling city. They were a family of 8, and money was often tight.
When Doris was 14, her little brother Gustavo was diagnosed with a type of tuberculosis that attacks the brain. The doctors performed a life-saving surgery, but more treatments were necessary. Doris’ father began working as a cab driver to make ends meet, but during this season her family lost their house and car. They were able to find a small house but took on a heavy mortgage. “That whole year we hardly had anything to eat, but it didn’t matter, because we understood it was for Gustavo,” Doris recalls. Her brother recovered and is known for his resilient personality, but has special needs to this day.
During this time, her mother passed on a sense of fierce determination. “I am who I am because of her,” Doris asserts. Her mother expected the children to study hard, and heeded her own advice, learning to read and write in addition to household chores and handling the family’s finances. Doris graduated from high school and earned a generous scholarship to study medicine in Cuba, but her parents could not cover the remaining expense. She stayed in Bolivia and studied to become a secretary while working simultaneously.
She completed her program and went on to study accounting, but during her final year her “whole world just fell apart.” Her father suddenly fell ill one Tuesday, and was hospitalized. He was set for surgery later that week, but the hospital failed to perform the surgery till hours later than scheduled, and her father’s appendix burst while he waited. After the surgery, the hospital informed the family that they didn’t have an intensive care unit. Doris’ family reacted quickly to have him transferred, but it was too late: Doris’ father passed away shortly after arriving at the second hospital. “My father died of medical negligence,” Doris says, through tears. “That’s a reality for people who live in El Alto.”
“We couldn’t even pay to get his body out of the hospital,” she says. They went to ask for a loan from a church her father had pastored, but received less than $10 US. In a moving show of generosity, her father’s friends and coworkers from the transportation union gave Doris’ family more than enough to cover their expenses for the following days. Doris’ family started selling used stuffed animals from a stand in the street, facing enormous pressure from overhanging debts related the house.
In 2003, her family began hosting missionaries from the USA in their home, including Andy and Andrea Baker, who were just beginning WMF’s work with women in the red-light district. Doris treasured these friendships, especially as she felt like she lost her family when she lost her father. For the next seven years, Doris worked in other nonprofits, but endured flagrant sexual harassment in one and then pressure to cooperate in corrupt practices in another. During this time, she met her husband and gave birth to her daughter, Adri. Her marriage was dysfunctional however. In 2009, she resigned from her job, and a few months later, two other missionaries from Word Made Flesh came to visit her family. “They said to me, ‘You should come work with us – there’s a new project called SutiSana. We don’t have anything yet, but we have lots of ideas and lots of heart!’” In July 2009, she joined WMF Bolivia administrative team.
“I was also hearing a lot about the Lord. In 2012, I came to a defining moment. I told God, ‘Look, if you’re really in control I need you to take over my life, I need you to fix my marriage, and I need you to make me a new creation. If you do that, I’m going to follow you.’”
Doris began therapy, and God clearly responded to her prayer. Her husband started coming to church, and their relationship improved significantly. “I started to find my identity in God,” she says Doris, and God confirmed his calling in her life. “The past is still there, but God healed everything,” she says “This community has been my biggest support.”
Doris says, “I can see God’s hand across every part of my life. He cared for me, he protected me, and he showed me his love in a really intimate way. There are things that are never going to change, like my brother’s health. That my father is no longer here, that a man sexually harassed me for years, but now I see everything that God wants to give me and everything that God has put in my path to demonstrate his love: many doctors that helped my brother and Alicia Bunch (a former WMF missionary) who continues to support him, the transportation union that paid for everything for my dad. Andy and Andrea Baker, good friends, this entire ministry that God has gifted me. I trust in God, I believe in God. I am his daughter. And he has so many incredible things for me. With all of my heart, with all of my passion, I want to serve God and be faithful to him.”
At the end of our interview, after we had depleted the packet of tissues, Doris smiled at me and said gently, “So you see, this ministry does not only just help women in prostitution.” I nodded and reflected on how true this was as she wrapped me in an embrace of friendship.
Written By: Jacinda Thomas