Hello!
This is Vanessa writing.  I am very new to the whole "tech era" I mean I know it has been around for a while but I just couldn't make very good friends with it.  On our last trip to the U.S I realized that we have now lived here in Bolivia longer than in the U.,S.  So this is an effort to keep connected and to help you, dear prayer worrior, sponsor, friend, neighbor, grandparent, parent, brother, sister, niece, nephew, library friend, teacher, student and kid friend to see and share what our life and ministry is like here in the poorest country of South America.  I will be sharing stories of things I see as well as random facts of our life here.

As you might already know I run the Ruth and Noemi Transition House, which is basically a Christian refuge for young women and their babies.  A couple of weeks ago, right after we returned from the U.S I had  a meeting with my dear friends Dorcas and Marizabel who help me run the house, we had to go to a cafe since the house is very small and the "walls have ears" if you know what I mean, the rest of the building is not yet finished so we really had to get out of there.   As my ladies were updating me in everything that happened during my absence a little boy walked in singing a song "I have a friend who loves me and his name is Jesus"  we saw he was alone and begging, when he came to us I asked him where his mom was, he shrugged his shoulders, then he said he knew all his times tables and he would recite them for us if we wanted to hear them, we said no and Marizabel gave him half of her chocolate cake, I told him to sit while he wait, he sat but didn't eat.  I asked him why he wasn't eating and he said he was saving it for his little sister who is seven.  Then he told me he lived with his blind grandmother and he and his sister begged so they could eat.  I couldn't help but just stare at him and fight some tears, he said he had been told by grandma' that their mom had left them when they were babies.  He is ten, his name is Wilson.  I turned to Dorcas and said "how unfair this life is"  I asked him if he would like his own piece of chocolate and he nodded so we got him some and some strawberry juice.  Dorcas asked him if he didn't want us to take him to a "home" (orphanage) he said "no, I have been to one and didn't like it"  he didn't say why or what home he had been to.  I really wanted to hug him and put him in my car, buckle him up and bring him to my house. This guy from another table called him and gave him two coins.  I though "why, are you doing that?" "don't touch that kid!" I mean he is 9, walks around and takes the bus alone! my mind started racing with all the worst possible things that could happen to this little kid.  My youngest son is 10! I cannot picture him leaving our neighborhood alone.  When we left we asked Wilson again if he was sure he didn't want us to take him to a home and he said no, I mean we could have taken him anyways, but I would be writing this from jail!  I asked him if I could hug him and he let me so with an awkward hug and kiss on his cheek and desperate prayer we left him.  All the way home I felt this horrible thing in my stomach.  I thought: " he needs parents, a safe home, Jesus, a loving mom, and you gave him cake!"  I cried to God that He would hold this little kid in his arms, that He will protect him from evil, that He would provide everything he needs and that Danny(my husband) prayed with me that Wilson, with God, would grow to be a good man, a loving person.  I went back the next day to see if he was there, I asked the people in the cafe and they hadn't seen him.  I can't forget his face, there was no joy in his face but he was very cute and his hair stuck up straight without any gel.
I am telling you this story because Wilson and I need you to pray.  Pray for him, for his family, for his future, for angels to protect him and for radical change in his life.  It is very difficult to accept the fact that I can't do anything else at this point.  I don't understand!  During my time here I have seen many other children like Wilson, and I wonder if they are telling the truth but even if they are not; their circumstances are very very far from ideal.  Children here are very often seen as worthless little slaves.  I know there is pain everywhere, but here it is just something that we see everyday.  Poverty, abuse and corruption have a hold on this country.  I pray that God will pour his Spirit here, heal lives, encourage us, I pray He will find Wilson's mom and talk to her, help her take care of her children and I pray that He will come back...tomorrow.