This letter is from BR-417, the project where Jadson, Gizelle, Estela and Dafyne attend! And the photos are from Compassion's Brazil Album.
Dear Eric & Hannah,
My name is Francisca G. F. V., Project Director of IB from Ceara, located in northeast Brazil, where [BR-417] is attended by your sponsored children. Thank you for sponsoring Jadson, Gizelle and Estela.
I would like to express our deep gratitude for your sponsorship. Your help and your love are fundamental to our work.
The center is located in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Fortaleza, which has a high rate of violence, prostitution, trafficking and use of drugs. But IB has at the great mission to present the Good News so that everyone knows the lordship of Christ.
We work for the holistic development of the child: spiritual, physical, cognitive and socio-emotional, through mentoring, evangelization, entrepreneurship, sports activities, art workshops, dance, and individual counseling. In our interaction with these children, adolescents and their families, we realize they show significant changes if compared with the world around them.
We have many success stories, among them a child we assisted for 8 years. He and his whole family did not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. We began to develop a follow-up work, and today, this pre-teen and his family know Christ and attend the church.
The second story is of a young man from a dysfunctional family. The father was unemployed, and the mother had depression and was also unemployed. This young man had to prospects for the future. Today, at 18, he is working and attends college studying management in public policies. He and his family know Christ, and his is a leader at his church.
We see that the relationship through correspondence between sponsor and sponsored child is of fundamental importance because it strengths their bonds. The children feel loved by a person they might not come to know personally, but through the letters that share mutual knowledge that makes the children be pleased to know about their sponsor, where they live, etc. We have children who do research about where their sponsor lives, about their culture, currency, the language spoken, among other curiosities. Unfortunately, the children who don't receive letters show sadness and discouragement to continue the activities. The fact is that exchange of letters makes this relationship even more beneficial for the development of these assisted young people. This relationship gives the child the possibility to know that someone, somewhere, even if distant physically and geographically, cares for them, and that they love them too. This love is able to change the world, and especially, their world! This contact, this exchange of information is something that makes a difference for this child!
I finish by saying your help will never be in vain. Though we are surrounded by such difficulties, the love of Christ, which is represented by your help, makes us go on! Maybe we do may like a drop in the ocean compared to what needs to be done. But even the ocean, without this drop, would be smaller! That's what inspires us to continue this journey, because through people like you, we see how great is the love of God. I want you to know that we pray for you. That daily we humbly ask God to continue to bless you more and more!
Thank you again for sponsoring Jadson, Gizelle and Estela. On behalf of our church, community and center, we send our eternal thanks for such a demonstration of love to your neighbor.
In Christ's peace,
Francisca G. F. V.
If you would like to sponsor a child from Brazil, please consider 5-year-old David who has been waiting over 280 days for a sponsor. His birthday is April 14.
David lives with his uncle and his mother. He is responsible for gardening and caring for animals. His uncle is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother maintains the home. There are 2 children in the family.
David is not presently attending school. Soccer, playing with cars and playing with marbles are his favorite activities. He also attends church activities and Vacation Bible School regularly. To sponsor David, click here.
