We went to Casa Esperanza today. Gosh, we love that place. Noah and Jacob, Willie and Patti's son, were digging up rocks and moving them. Greg helped Willie "sand the ceiling," or something like that!
We spent a lot of time today talking to Daniel about what God has done in our life, like Griff being healed of hearing loss, Wil being healed of stroke and Dylan being healed of autism and mental retardation (and still healing!). He shared a lot of things with us about Hogar and Casa Esperanza. Daniel said that it has been hard for them to go into Hogar, where the younger girls are, because it is run by the government. The government doesn't want people talking to the girls about Jesus, even though most churches mostly want to go in and just play with and love the girls. The fact that we've been able to go in there at all sounded kind of amazing to me. No wonder "kids' church" has been cancelled there twice. Still, Daniel thinks we'll be able to do that next week.
He also talked about Casa Esperanza. The girls living at Casa Esperanza come out of Hogar - so basically they were removed from their homes, and have that to deal with, but also don't have the finances to pay for college. Casa Esperanza provides a safe place for these girls to live, and also provides the college education. Casa Esperanza needs 100 families to keep the services going for the girls over time, and today they have 24 families. We spent some time today praying for more sponsorship for Casa. We continue to learn from Daniel, Willie and Patti every day. Their love and devotion to Jesus and these girls is simply amazing.
Our travel home from Casa Esperanza was especially fun today. Copa America is "the world cup of South America." Tonight Chile is playing Uruguay. Chile loves its soccer team. Daniel described it to us this way: "Chile's soccer team is only average, but it's fans LOVE the team." A man was selling Chilean soccer fan hats at the bus stop, so we got some for the boys. Cars honked at us the whole way home, with fans yelling out their window and saying "Viva Chile!" Noah, Griff and Wil said, "Mom, so far this is our favorite moment of being in Chile!" Quite the party mood. Chile is tied with Uruguay as I write this blog. Outside, it sounds like there is a stadium full of people when there are shots and goal and exciting things happening on the field. In reality it's parties at the apartment buildings near ours. Lots of people in a small apartment, with people standing out on small patios and cheering loudly anytime anything interesting happens.
Back to the peanut butter! We walked in the front door of our apartment building and the kind man at the entry (kind of like a guard) saw us and started speaking very excitedly in words we didn't understand. He lifted up a huge box onto the counter. I went to go pick it up and he said, "No! El hombre!!" It was a heavy box! 
I'm sure the whole apartment building heard us. The boys were jumping up and down saying, "What is it, what is it??!!" "Who is it from?" "Can we open it up right here?" We got up to the 16th floor and had a hard time getting in the door - the boys were pulling at the box and saying, "Open it up, Dad!" And Greg is saying, "We need to get it in the door first, out of my way everyone!" The Morris family sent us a big care package. It was full of maze books, puzzle books, doodle books and...peanut butter! What a treat. Thanks so much Bill, Marissa, Zachary and Joshua!Our prayer request for the day is that we would be able to go to Hogar to play tomorrow.
Thanks for your prayers and support everyone - love to you all!
You are MOST welcome!!! We (the little boys and I) love the pictures. I am so happy that the boys got to experience the bigger "world" love for soccer! I can just imagine their joy at the cheering crowds.
ReplyDeleteCasa Esperanza sounds amazing. I have to admit that I'm missing my friends and thinking of the orphans in Guinea today. It is sometimes overwhelming to think of the needs of the young and starving. My friends from Guinea sent a letter today reading, "He grimaced and twisted on his chair, which is not what you want to see after feeding a person a meal. His discomfort was obvious. I asked when he had last eaten and he replied that it had been 24 hours. He often eats with us, averaging about 3 meals a week. If it has been too long it hurts when he first eats. As a university student he does not have much money and his family does not often save him portions of food for when he gets home. A few weeks ago many university students went on strike as they have not received their monthly stipends in almost 3 months. University students get about $15 a month and are expected to find rent, school supplies, and most of their food on those funds."
I thank God for our many blessings and that we are able to bless others!!! I hope you all know what an impact and long-lasting blessing you will be to those in Chile.
Love from here,
Marissa Morris
@Marissa, thanks for sharing the story about your friends from Guinea. It breaks my heart to hear about people that don't even have enough food to eat - especially when I probably throw away more food in a day than they eat in a week. You are right, we are so blessed to be able to go out and love and serve. What we've found here in Chile is that WE are really the ones being blessed by going out to serve!! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
ReplyDeleteLove,
K