Who Am I?

My name is Alisha Tomsen, and this is PovertyBecomesYou. I started this blog mainly for my mother, who has an obscene interest in my life, and for some reason more people keep reading it...so, here's a little more about myself. Mom, you probably don't need to read this. 

For the unitiated, a little about myself:

I like hot tea with far too much sugar, coffee shops with ambient lighting, and books. I'm passionate about listening to music and know a ridiculous amount of song lyrics. I dabble in learning languages, and one of my favorite possessions is my dino mug, where the dinosaurs turn to fossils when the mug is hot. It's pretty much amazing. I sketch (poorly), write (obsessively) and bake (deliciously) and have a taste for green tea ice cream and the elusive idea of someday. I'll be your friend if you want. 

This is what I look like. I'm the one with the glasses...

'Bout the Call
In February 2013, I left my job, car, cat, assorted family members and 3/4ths of my book collection to move to Puebla, Mexico. I am currently a missionary with Living Hope International, an organization who's main goal is rescuing kids and training leaders. For more information about LHI, click here.

Long term, for those of you who would like to dream with me, I want to work with impoverished children, giving them homes, an education, a livelihood and a future in Jesus Christ. This is a big dream, one that comes from the depths of my soul and reaches across the whole world, one that I'll probably spend my life making  into a reality. Well, that's the idea, anyways. 

So, what do you do, anyways?

For all of you people who think I've got the relaxed beach life here in Mexico, think again, my friends (and also, consult a map. I'm like, 3 hours away from any kind of beach). Here are some of my job titles:

Supervisor (a.k.a. 'Mom')
As a supervisor, I am in charge of a dorm of 0-12 year old girls. Sometimes there's a lot of them, and sometimes not as many, but they're mine. These girls are children that have been taken out of their homes for various reasons, but the bottom line is, none of them are here because they're coming out of a happy situation. Along with my co-supervisors, Eli, Anayeli, Ale, and Ada, we give the girls all of the love, attention, discipline, and fun that they may have missed out on during the first few years of their lives. We wipe tears, play with Barbies, and make sure homework gets done, all the while teaching the kids about the God that created them and who loves them more than they could ever imagine. 

Sponsorship Department
Gift of Hope Sponsorship is our child sponsorship program-you know, since we can't take care of all these kids by ourselves! (For more info on how you can sponsor a child, click here) I oversee the various areas of the department, such as making sure the children receive and reply to letters/emails from their sponsors, contacting new sponsors, organizing the 5+ week marathons that are our quarterly mailings (when every single kid at both EV-Puebla and EV-Matamoros sends every single one of their sponsors a letter), handing out birthday presents and dispensing candy, among other things. I could give you the comprehensive list, but let's just go with Alisha's really busy and leave it at that.

Other Office Stuff
Along with Sponsorship, I also head the revision team in English and help with Spanish revision, as well. I assist with Data and Legal and translate when needed. I also do a lot of the professional writing in English. 

And I'm a teacher, too!
I also teach English at the on-site school to the kids. In my first year of teaching I taught every single grade except for Kindergarten, and learned more teaching than I was ever taught. This year I'm giving English classes to K-3, as well as teaching a class of students that are behind on their school work. We work, we play, we watch YouTube videos-a good time is had by all!

So there you go. Now you know lots of stuff about me!