Benjamin, Yuli, Andrea & Elias

We’ve had lots of visitors over at our house this past week.

The first one, Elias, came over on Friday and stayed the night with us. He just turned 20 and is in high school. We spent lots of time with him talking about his hopes and dreams about the future.  He’s one of the guys that I first took care of when I started working at Casa Shalom, and it’s been fun to see him grow.  His high school specializes in computer programming classes, and it’s been fun for us to now have a new common interest.

The second visitor, Clara, came on Saturday night and spent all day Sunday with us.  She grew up at Casa Shalom, but is now living on her own trying to make ends meet working in a cafeteria.  She needs good influences in her life so badly. Yuli was her 3rd grade teacher a few years ago, and it was great for me to just watch Yuli and her talk for hours and hours. We’re hoping to continue to build a relationship with her.

Finally, a guy named Benjamin came over on Tuesday to stay with us until today.  He’s now 22 and still lives at the home where he helps out.  He’s Elias’s brother and was also one of the original guys that I took care of.  He recently got in a motorcycle accident and broke his arm, so he’s been recovering from it.  We had lots of conversations about Christianity and his faith, and he’s at the point where his faith and relationship with the Lord is changing. Kids grow up at the home learning about Christ, but now Benjamin is really asking deep questions he has about it all.

I forgot to take any pictures while they were all here. (oops!) But here’s a picture from Casa Shalom from last Saturday. Benjamin is on the far left, and Elias is on the far right. This week was really busy having guests stay with us almost everyday, but we’re excited to have our house open and available.  It seems like it’s been great for the kids to get away for a little while, and we’ve loved the depth of conversations that we’ve been having with them!