Esperanza 11-12 / Part Two

Imagine for a moment what it must be like to grow up in a family that once you reach 12 or 13 your parents no longer feel that they need to take care of you or maybe they can't afford to. So you are put out on your own or forced to help support the family and earn your keep in less than desirable ways. You may find yourself alone and scared with no place to turn to. Or looking for love in all the wrong places and end up being pregnant without a caring and supportive spouse. It's a sad picture and one that can start too young.

Wednesday, Dec. 28, found us at Casa Hogar. A place of refuge and esperanza (hope) for such girls. It's located the next property back from the orphanage.

It's a home supported by a church in Canada and ran by an amazing Peruvian family, Joel and Patty and their three children. (Their other son wasn't able to be in this picture. And actually there was a third little boy running around there and I'm not sure where he belonged, so maybe he was part of this family too....?)

Not sure if this little guy belongs to them or not, but he sure is a cutie and was so shy at first!

Joel and Patty's love for each other, their children, and the girls living at the Casa Hogar just radiated!

They had little luxuries, if any, but yet were truly happy people!

They are making do with what they have and everyone works together to make the home run efficiently. We saw a few of the girls carrying HEAVY containers of water with smiles on their faces! No attitudes or complaints!

They each have their daily chores and work together to make meals and tend the flowerbeds and things like that. It's a place to call home!

This was truly a home of refuge and peace for girls who otherwise found themselves unwanted or potentially exploited for various reasons. There were six girls living there at the time we visited and all proclaimed to have accepted Jesus! They ranged from about 14 to 18 years old.

We did get a group picture, but I didn't get one on my camera, and I guess looking through them now, I don't even have pictures of all the girls. :( My camera battery died while we were there, so I missed quite a bit. Double :(

Here is Amisaday (aka Amy), Karen, and Juliana with her 8 month old baby boy, ?.

Two of them had babies of their own. Here is the other one, Rebeca and her 9 month old baby Benjamin. He was born a preemie and was definitely tiny!

We had fun loving on these girls and the babies too!

 We gave them all bags of hygiene items, an esperanza bracelet, and most importantly, a sewing machine with all the necessary supplies and patterns. A couple of them had previously had an opportunity to sew on a treadle sewing machine, but I spent the morning teaching them on the machine we brought and letting them all try it out. It was a great morning and at least four of them were very eager to have a sewing machine around!

While I was giving sewing lessons, Jeanna was having a great time playing with the little boys, and Sherry and Linda were purchasing handcrafts that some of the girls already make. Like these beautiful hammocks.

The plan was that we'd teach and equip these girls with a trade they can use now or fall back on if they need to in the future, along with their current crafts. Sherry purchased quite a few things from them and they will be available for purchase at her Freedom parties. Proceeds will be helping the girls out, supporting the orphanage, and you will have a lovely accessory from Peru! A win/win situation!

The girls made us lunch and it was another delicious authentic Peruvian meal! I could eat their food all the time! The spices and herbs they use are just yummy! As we were packing up to go another missionary couple stopped in and brought another sewing machine for the girls to use! They had had it in storage for about a year and "just happened" to drop it off the same day we were there! To add to the awesomeness of it, we'd brought two machines along to teach these girls on and one appeared to no longer be working after the long journey to South America, so we were no longer able to leave them with two machines. God's pretty awesome like that! ;)

After two days worth of traveling and a very unrestful first night in Puerto Maldonado we got to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening at our hotel taking naps, eating supper, and getting prepared for the next day. I was so grateful for this time to catch up and be fresh and ready for the next day when we went to the prison.

December 29th was an experience like no other. Words can't even adequately describe the things that took place there inside those prison walls that day. Everyone who prayed, was a part of this experience and I thank all of you for the time you committed to prayer! God definitely went before us and was with us and I pray we left Him in the hearts of those who didn't know Him!

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any cameras in, so all we can show you is the cold prison walls, but inside are 26 grieving, broken women. Many have children and don't know who is taking care of them or if they are even being taken care of at all. A few were from Columbia and Brazil and other surrounding areas. One of the older ladies had been there 7 years and was missing seeing her grandchildren grow. Another had only been there four days and could barely get the words out for the sobs in her throat and tears streaming down her cheeks. They were heartbroken and aching inside. Longing for deliverance.

You see, in Peru once your sentence is up, you aren't free to go until you've paid your fine, an amount that could take a lifetime to pay. You can pay in payments throughout your sentence, but you have to try and get your money to someone you trust on the outside to take it to where your fine can be paid on. Often times guards will help themselves to those funds passing through their hands and even if it makes it outside those walls, family and friends can't always be trusted. It's a heartbreaking thing!

I've never been inside an American prison, but for some reason I imagine hardened women with a chip on their shoulder and an attitude of "don't mess with me". I hope I'm wrong, but that is the vision I have in my head. (I'm sure they aren't all like that, but I wonder if it isn't the majority.) These women were not like that at all! Even their "leader" didn't walk around with an attitude of you better do as I say or else! They were kind and loving and approachable. Not one instant did any of us feel in danger. I don't know why any of them were in there, but I can't imagine any of them doing anything horrible, that's how soft they were. They loved us and we loved them.

First off, it was a surprise visit! The guards knew we were coming, but I guess none of the prisoners knew it. We sat in a big circle and introduced ourselves and then they did the same, with Rebecca as our translator. One mother even had her young baby in the prison with her. They can have them up to 3 years old with them. Another was 7 months pregnant. Almost all had at least one child somewhere on the other side of those walls. Sherry then gave her testimony and Linda shared some scriptures. The ladies wanted to sing and so we stood and held hands and sang praise songs in Spanish or some of us just hummed along. There wasn't a dry face in our circle of women!

Together we cried and together we laughed!

I wish I could go visit them everyday, the experience was that powerful! I had never expected to be moved to tears, to a place where I was sobbing for all the broken lives and hurt around me.

Later those who made handcrafts brought them out for Sherry and Linda to shop for Accessories for Hope, while Jeanna and I painted their fingernails. When we were done we sat around visiting with them and as we got ready to go, we formed a line and each one passed by us with a hug and some precious words in our ears. We had brought a message of hope with us and they were grateful! We had also taken along hygiene bags for them and inside each one was a Spanish New Testament. The girl who had been there only four days took it out and had it clutched in her hand like a lifeline. That picture is etched on my heart! The prison was definitely the highlight of our trip and none of us were truly ready to leave them!

After our time at the prison we went to eat with Italo, Rebecca, and David.

Then we went to meet Anthony and Marian, soon to be the orphanage's first two children! There mother has died and their father is in prison and their grandma can't afford to keep them any longer. We picked them up and one of their cousins and went for ice cream! A special treat! (Sorry, guess I didn't get any pictures of them either!)

After that Italo dropped us ladies off at the fabric "store", definitely not your everyday JoAnn Fabrics! Ha! We found what Sherry was looking for at the first one! So we walked down the row of stores to see what we could see.

It got late and we were rather drained so Rebecca put Sherry, Jeanna, and I in a motorcar taxi and we went back to our hotel for a late night snack and swim to cool off, while Linda and her spent some precious time together. The perfect ending to a wonderful day! I fell into bed that night thinking how blessed I'd been that day and I couldn't imagine it getting any better! How is it that we went to give and yet we all felt like we were receiving so much?!

***Stop by Jeanna's fb page if you'd like to see additional pictures from our trip. This first album has pictures from our trip, but also some from another trip she took so you kind have to figure it out. A second album has many more from just our trip. (I'm hoping that she has these albums set so that everyone can see them. If not, I'm so sorry I sent you over there!) And don't forget to check out Sherry's Accessories for Hope fb page for information about her freedom parties and how you can help support the abolition of modern day slavery!***