Ester

As I'm writing this, the snow has just stopped falling outside and I will go shovel when I'm done. It's pretty crazy to be in a whole different world and all the good and bad things that go with that. Good thing: my family is close enough to reach out and hug. Bad thing: after-Christmas sales are pretty tempting.

I've been planning on writing this specific blog for quite awhile, but I actually wanted to wait until I was back home so I could see how it all turned out.

Ester is the only full time helper on the boys' side of Talita Cumi who isn't the "mom" of the home. She is amazing with the boys, and they have this unbelievable respect for her that I can barely believe. The mom of that home has the boys afraid of her because her punishments are more extreme than what the boys do, but Ester is so fair and so loving to all of them that they love to do what she says!

Ester also goes to my church, so we knew each other from the last time I was in Bolivia. When I learned that she was working at Talita Cumi I was very excited, and God made it evident that He had brought us both to that place at that time for His purposes.

I feel as though just as much as my ministry at Talita Cumi was to the boys, it was also to Ester. When we came she admitted to Heather and I that she was looking for other work, and as I started visiting the home, probably a quarter of my time there was spent talking with Ester. This was totally a blessing from God, because not only did she get to get off of her chest some of the things that were happening at the home, I got to practice my Spanish A LOT!

It's hard to spend a lot of time with someone in Bolivia for me, because I leave. When I hung out with her for the last time, she told me that she's never had a friend like me, and the same was true for her. She is so open and honest, and she put up with my struggling Spanish, and she just is an amazing woman. It's hard to think that I don't get to see her for at least a year, maybe never. She also told me that she's no longer looking for a new job and that she's going to hang in there at Talita Cumi, which is great, because the boys need someone like her. We're going to keep in touch through email, so yay! You can pray that she will find someone new to talk to at the home, and that I will be faithful in keeping in touch.