Preface: My team and I have spent the last month working at an orphanage called Casa de Esparanza. We did not have wifi and so this is the first blog in a month. Thanks so much for ya’lls patience!
You know that beautiful, big journal I spent a whole blog talking about? Well, I am down to the last few pages. This past month put a major dent in it, not melancholy thoughts because of how difficult or unpleasant it was, but rather the pages are filled with the sheer wonder of this time. The white, blank spaces have been filled with thoughts on the beauty of motherhood as well as the terror of it as well as a rant or two about the scars from an abusive father covering the body of one of the little boys in my house. There are rainbow colored marker drawings of flowers cascading down the side of the mountain that the orphanage sits on. Each page contains a little story, a three week long glimpse into the lives of some beautiful people in a home where the Lord comes first. For the month of May, I was privileged enough to get to step into the lives of 65 children who have walked from abuse and abandonment into the huge family of Casa de Esparanza. The beautiful thing about interacting with them, is that you know that they now know they are loved, not just by man, but by a Perfect Heavenly Father. I love that the heart behind this home is that children will grow up having a relationship with the Lord. What better gift, what else is more lasting than that?!
Just because I am coming out of a month of no blogging, I feel that it would be best for me to finish this blog off with some highlights followed by later blogs with more details and deeper stories:
-Having a really meaningful conversation with one of the older girls about how having a soft heart means that you receive feelings of pain AND joy and whether having to deal with the pain was worth it. This whole conversation took place while she was teaching me how to use a machete and I was attempting to help her with her chores.
-Reading the Bi-lingual Jesus Storybook Bible again and again with the kids in my house. Did you know that in Spanish, Goliath laughs like, “Ja, Ja, Ja, Ja!” instead of the, “Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!”. Messed that pronunciation up a couple of times.
-Hearing the toddlers shout my name (Prounouncing it “Leela”) and invite me to their house EVERY time I walked past.
-Watching baptisms in the river
-Playing Futbol at Concha (3 nights a week the lights at the soccer field are kept on late and the kids get to stay up a little later and play)
-Learning how to make the bread rolls for our daily bread ration from one of the older girls in our house and getting to the opportunity to talk about following Jesus over your community.
-rocking babies to sleep in the afternoon sun
-Sunday afternoon prayer and worship with my team
-Having the freedom to see the world from a child’s perspective and being reminded about how much I can miss with my adult tunnel vision.
-Learning more Spanish from the children in my house. “Tarrea” is homework?
-blue butterflies, pink hibiscus flowers and glorious mountain sunsets with a rainbow or two thrown in
As you can read, lots happened! Casa de Esparanza is one of the only Christ centered orphanages in Bolivia, a country where child abandonment is quite a problem. They are following the Lord passionately and having a huge impact on each child there. Recently, the church that provided much of their funding cut back their contributions dramatically and Casa de Esparanza is still in need of 50% of their funding for the kids. If you would be interested in contributing to sponsoring one of the kids for $25 dollars a month and making an eternal impact in the Kingdom, go to www.boliviamissionsfoundation.org/needs#fi
Thanks so much for reading and always supporting me in prayer!
