Bienvenida, Angelita

Another baby girl!  Welcome, Angelita!  Thank You Father for providing this place - Casa de Paz - a House of Peace, a place for Your precious little ones to call home. Thank You Father for the great plans that You have for Angelita's life!

Creating Hope

Exciting new things are happening at Casa de Paz. With Avis' book on the verge of being published, we are seeing a new light of hope for Go Ye ministries. Up until now Go Ye Ministries has been supported by Avis and her family, and donations. It is nothing short of a miracle that we are still here; God has been faithful to provide all these years. But since the original supporters of Go Ye, which is mostly Avis' family, are all getting older and may not be here for much longer, it was now time to move forward and find new ways to keep this ministry going. As Avis says "We don't always want to be holding our hand out" It would be so great if we could make a bit of our own income to help with costs, and Avis' book will help do that as all the proceeds will go to Go Ye. Our prayer is that as Avis shares her story with the world, God will touch hearts and inspire a desire for more willing hearts to support and be a part of His ministry here in Pacasmayo, Peru. I really have no doubt that it will; Avis is one of the most inspiring women I know, and I am blessed to work alongside her and learn from her. She is an amazing example of what it looks like to walk by faith and live life on fire for God.

Avis Goodhart - founder of Go Ye Min

Another exciting thing happening, one of Avis' long time dreams for Casa de Paz is finally becoming a reality. Years ago Avis had invested in high quality sewing machines in hopes of starting a business to help make a bit of an income for Casa de Paz, but only now is it finally happening.  Ysabel, a self taught seamstress, was hired about a year ago to sew and make things to sell, and also teach the Casa girls how to sew and crochet. Just recently, Avis gave her sewing business a name. Creating Hope. Everyone agreed that this name suits well as that is exactly what the goal is for this business; to create hope. Hope for a better future for Casa de Paz, and for our kids to learn good life skills. And hope for the people in the community; we can provide jobs for women to help them make an income to provide for their own families. 

Tammy, one of the full-time volunteers at Casa de Paz, is working on making a web page for Creating Hope, where people will be able to shop online and have the products shipped by mail. Ysabel has been teaching me how to sew and crochet, and I am excited to learn, and be a part of this new adventure. Ysabel is naturally talented and gifted; she makes most of her own designs and creates beautiful work, but she is not familiar with some of the bigger sewing machines. We are still looking for an experienced seamstress who could help teach us how to use the serger machine for better quality sewing.

The dresses in the picture below were all made by Ysabel. She also makes beautiful handbags, blouses, tablecloths and place mats, decorative pillow covers, slippers, and crocheted scrubbies for washing dishes. And more!

The girls modeling a few of Ysabels beautiful dresses.

Crocheting with Ysabel

Mom & Dad visit

I always say that blood does not make family, God makes family. But how wonderful when your God family just happens to be blood family as well. I can't pit to words the great week we had with my parents and nephew here. My kids got to see their grandparents, my dad got to eat ceviche,(lime cooked fish) on the street. We went for walks on the beach. But more than all that they got to see a little of what our life here looks like, our water tank broke while they were here so we started out our search for a new one and ended up spending an entire day looking for a tank we liked and in the end still just ended up with a small one that at first we paid no attention to. By the way thank you dad for paying for it. Our van needed some repair, so my dad got to see what it means to find a mechanic here that you can trust that he knows what he's doing and won't rip you off. Also we needed a new headlight ( o did you think the mechanic took care of that!¿ nope it doesn't work that way here) and of course we ended up at the store just after two, silly me forgot that all stores are closed from 1:30 to 4:00. Than we went to the Trujillo market, my dad bought a bunch of belts to take back, and after paying we got escorted to a safe spot by the guard because he feared we may get robed. But more even than all that we talked and shared our lives with one another, life is really good don't get me wrong but it isn't perfect and there is always something to complain about, and how great when you can share those things with your own dad. Reminds me that we have another dad that beats even the best of dads here on earth, and we may forget how awesome it it that we can share everything with him, he's never to busy or losses interest in what we have to say. Praise God. Bless you in Jesus name amen.

Genesis

It's not often that we have a newborn at Casa de Paz, but last month a new baby girl was brought to us at just 10 days old right out of the hospital. Casa de Paz orphanage is her first home. In a way, that is sad, but on the other hand it far outweighs being in an abusive home with people who don't want her.  The mother is a young 16 year old who was said to be mentally unstable and not able to care for a baby, and as in so many cases, no one really knows who the father is.  The baby girl was left nameless until she came to Casa de Paz where our orphanage director, Gina gave her the name Genesis.  Everyone agreed that the name suited her well.

Baby Genesis is a blessing to everyone here at Casa de Paz. She is in the great care of our wonderful house moms, and also has many older brothers and sisters to love on her. We are all cherishing the time we have with Genesis, especially knowing her time at Casa de Paz will be short, as babies are usually quick to be adopted.  

A day or two after Genesis' arrival, we got a visit from a lovely couple from San Pedro, (a nearby town). We recognized them right away, they had visited the orphanage the previous year.  She is American and he is Peruvian, and they are also missionaries to Peru. It turns out that they have been following all our Facebook and blog updates, and came as soon as they heard about baby Genesis. This couple had been wanting to adopt for several years already, but had been waiting for God's confirmation. Well the moment they saw Genesis, they both knew without a doubt that they needed to adopt her. She was worth the wait. The adoption process was started almost immediately. We are praying for a quick and smooth adoption process, and if all goes well, Genesis will go home with her new parents in about 5 - 6 months. In the meantime the new parents are visiting daily to spend time with Genesis and help care for her needs, including buying diapers and formula, and we are enjoying the remaining time with Genesis at Casa de Paz. :)