Esther

This morning in church I got to teach Sunday School for the 14-20's girls class. We talked about Esther. Esther has been my favorite story in the Bible for a really long time, but when preparing this morning for the class I realized for the first time how much girls at New Hope have in common with Esther. She was orphaned as a child and was a poor Jew. She overcame her life and became Queen.

While speaking about Esther I could absolutely feel the Lord working in my heart and the hearts of the girls in my class. Generally when I teach or anyone teaches there is a lot of nothing going on in their faces. Today they were looking at me and nodding their heads and responding to questions. I really feel like somehow they connected with the story. It is such a great feeling to have the Holy Spirit move and to be able to see it happening in a group of girls that you love and have such great hopes for. At the end of the story I encouraged them that they can be an Esther for their home, their town, and their country. They just have to be willing to be used by God. And I think that goes for all of us.

Love Much! Love Often!

New Shoes

Great story, I hope I do it justice in telling it:

(they really are sweet girls)

Early on Tuesday morning I was half asleep and I hear the wailing tears of Sandra. Sandra is 1/2 of a set of twins, she is 9 years old, and an absolute gem! I have barely seen her upset, but this Tuesday morning she was distraught to tears over something 10 feet outside of my door. Laura and I decide to go out and see what is going on. All the other kids have already left on the bus and Sandra, sitting in her school uniform, hair in pig tails, continues to cry sitting on the arm of an overstuffed green chair. I sit next to her and ask what is going on. But in her state of despair she can't breathe let alone say words. So the other girls tell me that she doesn't like her shoes, they are boys shoes. I don't know about everyone else, but when I was a 9 year old girl having to go to school in boys shoes might as well have been going to school with a shaved head. That is basically the worst form of torture. I guess the day before the school said that the heel on her school shoes were too high and she couldn't wear them again. I kneel down next to Sandra and convince her to go to school and after school we will go into town and buy new shoes for school that are made just for girls! She begins to cry even harder, which confuses me. She says that the bus has already left, so me in my pajamas, unbrushed hair and teeth, barely awake self grab her book bags and run with, a crying Sandra, about 1/3 of a mile up a mountain to hail a taxi. On the way to school the tears cease and she appears to be ok. We pull up to the school and she freezes! Absolutely freezes, she asks if I will accompany her. So me in my pajamas, unbrushed hair and teeth, barely awake self walk into a school filled with students and teachers to take Sandra all the way to her classroom. After school I ask how school went and of course all was well. She was back to good ole all smiles Sandra. So Sandra, Carolina, and I go shoe shopping. We find delicately fabulous shoes for school for the both of the girls, have a little ice cream date, and head home. All is well in the world of the New Hope Twins.

I wanted to tell this story because this shoe shopping venture wouldn't have been possible without all the people who support me here in Peru both in prayers and with money. So thank you! Thank you for giving, praying, and loving these kids along with me for the past 9 months.

Love Much! Love Often!

Caballo vs. Cabello

To start this blog a bit of a spanish lesson: caballo is horse and cabello is hair. Don't confuse the 2 or these girls will seriously rag on you for your whole life.

On Sunday after church I got to take all the girls horseback riding in the countryside of Arequipa. We all had so much fun. We took a bus to Saga (the mall, if you can call it that) to eat in the food court and then 3 taxi's about 30 minutes out of town to the horse ranch. There were 17 of us and we had the best time! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Sandra eating her fries with mayonnaise. Yum?

All the girls eating in the food court. Most of them got KFC, but a few got chinese.

Magali and her horse, he always took her through the water as she said "oh no, oh no, ahhhh..."

Some of the girls eagerly waiting to get started.

Me and my horse whose name I couldn't remember so I called her "Chica".

Some of the girls

Carolina trying to make her horse go faster!

Sybil and Laura's horses did not like each other!

My horse.

The whole group after our ride!

Love Much! Love Often!

Win or Lose

This weekend I got to spend a lot of time with the kids outside of the home. On Saturday I got to go with the little boys and older girls to a sports complex just outside of our community of Pachacutec. There our kids got to play soccer and volleyball against other kids from other children's homes in the city. Our little boys played soccer and man were they cute. It was basically David v. Goliath though. These other kids were so big. However, our kids totally dominated in over time! Our mixed volleyball team also won, but our all girls volleyball team sorta got crushed.

Being at this event really opened up my eyes on the amount of children in Peru who live in homes. Just at this one event for this one part of the city there were hundreds and hundreds of kids. In a city of 1,000,000 people the percent of street kids and dislocated kids is somewhere around 40%. Peru, Arequipa, Pachacutec, and New Hope need our prayers and support in efforts to lower this percentage. If you are interested in supporting a child or learning more about New Hope please visit www.peruhope.org. Or you can contact me through e-mail and I would be happy to give you any information you need at amsemore@gmail.com

Love Much! Love Often!

Humble Me

Lately I have read verse after verse after verse on being humbled. It could be that maybe I am just seeing all the humbles because the Lord is working in me on being humble. But here are a few of the verses I have been given:

Isaiah - - the whole book is basically the Lord humbling town after town after town. I sure as heck do not want to be humbled like the people of Isaiah, I would much rather just get humble from the get go.

Luke 1:52 - -He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.

Luke 14:11 - - "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:14 - -"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I am not sure how to go about becoming humble, but I am absolutely working on it and praying about it constantly! I never want to lift my self up or anything I do for the Lord. Anything I do is only by the grace of God allowing me to do it.

Love Much! Love Often!

Weekend of Blessings

This weekend has basically been non stop, and bonus I haven't been sick ALL weekend!

Yesterday Sybil and Fernando took me to all the sights in Arequipa that I haven't seen yet. I got to climb a tower in Sachaca and see the whole city without interruption. Apparently the French really like to give giant monuments to all countries because at this tower that I got to climb was a white statue of Jesus gifted from the French. After the tower we headed to a "lake" called Tingo. It was more like a pond, but it is the closest thing to a lake I have seen since the States. We tried to ride one of the boats, but apparently you have to be child size so instead we ate my favorite Peruvian food, Brunillos(insert a squiggly over the 'n'). It is this fried dough with a syrupy sauce over it! Incredible! The next Arequipa destination we ventured to I cannot remember the name of for the life of me, but it was a park that had caged animals. Like a zoo, but horrible and cruel! PETA would totally freak out and free all the little monkey and bird creatures. Again there was a "lake" with boats, but this time we couldn't get anyone to help us, so once again no boat time. However, there was this slide that looked super fun so I decided to give it a go. Big mistake!! It is the fastest slide EVER! It was made of concrete and I guess got real slick and shiny by all the peoples booties who went down it. I think there was a reason no one was going on it. I flew, literally flew down this slide so fast that I thought that I was going to fly into the water, and almost did! Ridiculous, and totally fun! Doing it again soon! Saturday night we went to see 2 of our girls, Judith and Iris, sing at a concert in town. They did so great! I am so proud of them and the amazing women they are developing into! I also moved into New Hope with all the girls for my last 2 weeks. Should be a good time...I hope!

So all that was Saturday. On to Sunday. Church was incredible. I can't totally understand everything that is being preached so a lot of times I just pray and read scripture. And God absolutely speaks to me through His word every time. Today I read a bunch in Luke and Hebrews, good stuff there. Such a huge blessing! After church my Peru family called me their prodigal daughter because I moved out to be with the girls, but invited me to lunch anyway! Then a parade, Peruvian style, which means it was 7 hours long...literally! We only stayed for a couple hours and I got an amazing sun burn, but it was still a fun time. And then church again tonight!

Love Much! Love Often!

Gavin James

So this has nothing to do with Peru. I just think the world (aka the 5 people who read this) should know that I am a godmother!!! This hansom little fella is Gavin James! And I cannot wait to meet him! I know that Jeff and Daina will be wonderful parents and my job as a godmother will be so great!

"...You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (ESV)

Oh and P.S. how cute is he in this hat? I am not even a Broncos fan and I am loving it!

Purple Paint Party

I have been so blessed since I returned back to Peru from the States and have been able to spend so much more time with the kids, specifically the girls. They are absolutely incredible young ladies. I grow more and more fond of them each day. One day I was hanging out, enjoying a little quality time, with four of the girls in their room and noticed the ugly walls and lack of girlie..ness. It was very obvious that a guy chose the boring beige color on the walls and the two sets of windows in the room had two different fabrics/prints of curtains. No fun for sure! So we decided to have a little paint party. The girls decided they wanted pink and purple. So one Friday night we bought some paint and supplies and started painting! Seriously one of the greatest nights of my life. We had so much fun painting and cleaning and organizing the room. After all the hard work we had a bit of a paint fight that I am pretty sure Laura (another gringa) and I lost horribly! Good times for the record books!

Love Much! Love Often!