Newest update letter

May 12, 2010

Dear friends and family,

I hope this letter finds you well as you finish up the school year and start your summer activities. I pray that God will bless you all this summer and give you good fellowship with family and friends as well as that much needed rest! Summer is far from our minds here in Peru as the kids have been in school for the past two months and the cool fall weather is creeping upon us.

God has blessed me so much here at Hogar de Esperanza. I have been through many job changes, which has given me different perspectives of all sides of this ministry. I am currently a "casita assistant." I help clean two houses as well as help out in the afternoons when the kids are home from school. This job has been one of my favorites. I have had the chance to become much closer to the kids in my two houses. Our relationships have grown and gotten deeper and more real. I have gone from the fun volunteer who only plays with the kids to the volunteer who fills in when the house mother is out for the day. We have shared many hard but also many exciting times together.

I want to share with you a little bit about Mother's Day here. Unlike at home, Mother's Day here is very extravagant, filled with lots of special events at schools, here at the orphanage and also in churches. A lot of our kids have mothers who are not active in their lives, some have mothers who have died, and a few have mothers they get to see on a weekly basis. The two weeks before Mother's Day were filled with crafts and preparation of skits for the "big" day. Along with those activities came stories and lots of questions. Most of the stories were sad ones. I heard little girls telling one another why they got left here, a little boy in class saying "no mama, no mama," and a little orphaned girl crying longingly for her mother. It was very emotional for all of us here--the kids looking back on their old lives with their mothers or focusing on their current lives without their mothers, and of course we volunteers who have mothers and don’t know at all how these children were feeling.

Sunday during the church program one of the classes did a singing/thanking moms act, and the main speaker was one of our girls whose mother had died a little over a year ago. I thought I was going to lose it right there in church. Later that day I talked to my own mother, and we cried and prayed as I told her that I have started to see how much God has blessed me--more than I will probably ever realize. I only pray that God will bless these little ones much, much more than He has me.

So as my time here quickly comes to an end, please be in prayer for these relationships and all the emotions that are involved. Pray that God will continue to use and change my life in a way that will bless others that I come in contact with. And lastly, pray for these little children, God's children, that they will be comforted, loved, and hopefully adopted!

Thank you so much for supporting me and praying for me on this journey! It means so much. I cannot wait to see you all when I get back in July, Lord willing!

God bless,
Susanna Davenport

-if you or someone you know are interested in adopting a Peruvian orphan, check out our website at http://www.perukids.com