Esperanza thought she’d always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico–she’d always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn’t ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances–Mama’s life, and her own, depend on it.
In this episode, Cara and I chat about, "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan.
I feel like Sanda Sherdin, a listener said in the hangout sums up everything we loved about the book:
I really loved the perspective on the era, immigration, the struggle of migrant workers, and prejudices. Stories like this are huge at developing empathy for people in positions we otherwise wouldn't even know how to imagine. More than anything though, I loved the identity story. Esperanza first found her identity in her father, her status, and her pretty things. When those were sadly and undeservedly stripped away, she began to learn and reveal who she really was all along: a beautiful girl, inside and out, full of fight and hope! She discovered and revealed that her richness had nothing to do with her circumstances after all.
We both loved the change of pace with choosing a middle grade book and we found so many parallels between Esperanza's story and many people in our country who are either undocumented or navigating an immigration system that's full of gaps. We both felt so energized to learn and explore the ways we can seek shalom for the foreigner. So next week, I've invited my friend, Sarah Quezada, the author of A Life with Subtitles to share tell her story of falling in love with a man who is an undocumented worker.
We also give an announcement that we're changing our summer books. We're still reading, "Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God" by Lauren Winner, but we're changing the July and August books.
We hope you pop over to the hangout and share your thoughts on Shalom Sista Hangout and to get the skinny on the new books we've chosen for July and August.
Grab your copy of, "Wearing God" and join us next month.
Also, have you downloaded your FREE #SummerofShalom Guide yet? No? Well you can do that here.
Shalom My Sistas,
Osheta
Hey Sistas,
Toady's episode is all about celebrating the ways you're practicing Shalom in your everyday lives. I'm joined by my friend, Abby Perry and we share the ways we've seen Shalom in the media this past month, we cheer on our listeners who shared their stories of Shalom, and we introduce our really fun #SummerofShalom Instagram Challenge!
Abby is the writer behind the blog, "Joy Woven Deep". She's a mom of two in College Station, Texas who loves Jesus, personality types, books, television, and movies! She kicks off the episode by sharing her primary practices of Shalom, is caring for her boys, supporting the foster care community by offering them date night childcare through the "childcare pantry", and leading a local cohort of "Be The Bridge to Racial Unity", a community of people with a common goal to see healthy dialogue around the topic of race.
Abby told us about, Runway of Dreams:
Today's episode is short and sweet. An Annoucement and answer to a listener named Heidi about Kristin Schell's perfect day in Austin...what happened to it? It wasn't in her episode. Well I explain what happened and then play it for you in this episode.
I also give a fun announcement.
Check the link to Kristin's episode for the recipe for the Chicken Marbella
http://shalominthecity.com/2016/03/30/podcast-episode-o5-meet-shalom-sista-kristin-schell/
See ya next week with our Celebrate Shalom episode with Abby Perry!
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My guest on the podcast this week is Jessica Kelley. Jess is a dear friend of mine who share with us her story of loss. When her son, Henry was five years old, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Within the year, he passed away. Jess share with us that her primary practice of shalom, seeking wholeness where there is brokenness in to share a picture of God in the midst of our suffering that’s altogether lovely, beautiful, and good. Jess and I laugh, we’re vulnerable about our own losses and we cry. It’s just like if we were sitting on my couch talking about being Mamas in a broken world and I really hope you take a listen.
Jessica Kelley is a writer, speaker, and survivor of child loss. She has a B.S. in Psychology, a M.S. in Counseling & Human Development, and experience as a School Counselor. Born and raised in the South, Jessica now lives with her husband and five-year-old daughter in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She survives the absurdly long winters by going to the gym, dreaming about the beach, and eating copious amounts of chocolate. You can find her processing her faith journey at JessicaKelley.com.
We talk about our own grief, yes, but we also talk about how to be a faithful comforter to those around us in grief, and Jess gives us these fantastic “Shalom Steps”
I want to give away a copy of this book. It’s a powerful testimony of God’s love for us when we’re in pain and it’s beautifully written
You can follow Jess:
JessicaKelley.com
LordWillingBook.com
@JessInProcess
https://www.facebook.com/jessicalkelley
https://www.instagram.com/jessicalkelley
To win your copy of “Lord Willing”, pop over to Instagram, follow me, and on Mother’s Day, I’ll give one copy away.
Shalom my Sweet Sistas,
Osheta