As I prayed for Natalia yesterday and reflected on our relationship, it dawned on me that when we talk about our success stories it may seem the transformation is immediate. But in reality, it is a generational ministry. Just like with biological children, it takes years and years of...
We arrived together. New to the Hope family. I was Philip's new girlfriend, soon to be fiancée. Natalha, 12, had just been sent to our program from another state. For some reason, we connected. She understood my communication. Exaggerated hand gestures accompanied by infantile "Spanglish." Thus, she became...
As valedictorian of her graduating class, Estefania made a speech which summarized her past life, her future aspirations, and her very real anxiety about leaving. "I never thought I would be able to overcome the things that happened in my life: the grief of being separated...
Every non-profit dreams of being fully funded. To be relieved of the pressure of the (gulp) "ask." Our offices were on a main road in a good part of town, and we often received donations we could not use. Why not open a thrift shop? It seemed to...
Today's prayer is for the children as they arrive. Philip's memory of one recent arrival, Janaina, summarizes it well. Janaina, eight years old, had been with us only two months. Not only did she not talk, but she seemed incapable of smiling. Her mother had abandoned...
Where Roger came from is not nearly as important as where he is going. He has a plan. He's smart, cute, compassionate, and willing to put out the effort. That doesn't mean he was always cooperative about chores, or didn't tease his housemates. He's a teenage boy. ...
Fernando, the House Parents Coordinator we prayed for yesterday, recently spoke at a staff meeting of particularly discouraged house parents. It happens. I wasn't in the meeting, but what I can say is the same slump-shouldered house parents left the meeting with their heads high,...
Fernando was a legendary House Parent Coordinator in Campinas. After many years, he left to head up his family’s trucking business in Rio de Janeiro. That was a decade ago, but my heart never really released him from service. He was a kid whisperer. ...
You know that feeling when someone listens to you so intently you feel their stare will bore holes in you? Even as a teenager, that's the way Alex was in church. His tattered and well-highlighted Bible first caught my attention. Then I observed how earnestly he wanted to...
It's pretty flattering when someone offers to take a significant pay cut to work for you. But that's the dedication of Marcos. He ran our auto body repair course until 2006, when economic woes forced us to cut back. He went on to get a...
