Okay folks, the time has arrived. It’s time to spice up this blog!

Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll take you on a culinary journey around the world. Together with my wife, I’ll prepare, eat and describe some recipes from the countries Compassion works in. Hopefully, they’ll be enticing enough that you’ll want to try them out yourselves.

If you’d like to join us on this adventure, prepare the recipe and come back to tell us what you thought of the meal.

If you write about your meal on your blog, share a link to your post below so we have more than one perspective represented here.

So, to kick off our culinary series, I chose Moqueca de Peixe, a Brazilian fish stew recipe shared with us by Liv Almeida Nunes Ribeiro Dias, a Program Implementation Assistant with Compassion Brazil.

To tell you the truth, I chose this recipe because it didn’t seem too difficult to begin with. Despite watching hours and hours of the Food Network, I’m still cooking challenged, unless we’re talking tiramisu or my grandmother’s handmade ravioli.

To begin with, Liv’s recipe calls for us to use sole, flounder or plaice. My fishmonger didn’t have any of those fresh, so I looked at the basa, a Vietnamese catfish. It was the only fresh white fish I saw.

However, my pregnant wife isn’t fond of bottom dwellers and we had a tense exchange about what to do because when I’m cooking it’s my way or the highway.

Fortunately, a second look at the fish counter, after my wife threw up her hands and walked away, revealed some tilapia which meant I didn’t have to sleep on the couch last night. Whew!

Although the recipe calls for one clove of garlic (chopped), when it comes to garlic in my house one means three.

The same Italian-style math applies to olive oil. More is better. Olive oil runs in my veins, which means I used three tablespoons instead of two.

To compensate for the extra garlic and olive oil I reduced the amount of salt. Actually, the recipe doesn’t specify how much salt to use.

When I cook I don’t use salt at all, but in this case, because the ingredients were fresh I used some (one teaspoon). However, the dish needed more salt than I used in order to bring out the flavors; I added more at the table.

The chili peppers were supposed to be chopped and seeded, but I like spicy so I left the seeds in and just chopped, chopped, chopped it all up. I didn’t notice any heat in the meal at all, and my wife who has a lower tolerance for spice didn’t think it was spicy either.

Next time, I’ll use four of five chilis.

After prepping the vegetables, I pureed them to make the marinade, which is essentially a salsa.

Then I introduced the salsa to the tilapia, “Hello,” and let it marinate in the refrigerator for an hour.

After an hour it was cooking time. The recipe says cook for five to 10 minutes.

I split the difference and went with eight, which was perfect. Then served it up.

Although my wife and I both liked the meal and will certainly make it again, I think I’ll take a few more liberties with the recipe next time, to give it more plate appeal (color) and a more robust taste.

I suggest adding some red, green and yellow bell peppers (one each) to the mix, a can of coconut milk, a bottle of clam juice and black pepper to taste, maybe even crushed red pepper flakes.

Also, rather than using olive oil, it’s probably worthwhile to get some dende oil (a Brazilian palm oil).

I hope all of this doesn’t dissuade you from trying the dish, especially if you sponsor a child in Brazil. Give the recipe a try and let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment or by writing a post on your blog and linking to it below.

Our next stop on the Amazing Compassion Culinary Adventure will be Mexico. We’ll be making Lasagna Azteca.

Allez Cuisine!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

We began our ministry in Brazil in 1987 with the Child Sponsorship Program. In 2007, we started the Leadership Development Program.

The ministry in Brazil is beginning to expand into the northeast region of the country. This is exciting because most Brazilians aren’t aware of the extreme poverty that exists in that area.

Country Director

Susete Cardoso was invited to work in the Finance Department when our office opened in 1987. After joining the ministry, Susete studied accounting and received a Master’s in Information Technology.

Prior to this, she volunteered in an organization that partnered with our ministry. In 2003, Susete was appointed Brazil’s Country Director.

Shortly after accepting Christ at age 18, Susete decided to study theology in seminary.

She took courses that focused on evangelism to children. Through these courses, she volunteered in public schools to share Jesus with children.

Implementing Church Partners

Implementing Church Partners are local churches with whom we work to deliver our child development program and ministry in the field.

• Spiritual Climate
  The presence of evangelical Christians is growing in Brazil. In 2000, there were approximately 26.1 million evangelical Christians.

  It is projected that 25 percent of the population, or just over 48 million people, will declare themselves as evangelicals in 2011.

  However, neo-Pentecostal sects and atheism are growing as well. Some neo-Pentecostal sects are particularly challenging because they target the poor population with the idea that they should give money to God and the church so that God will be good to them.

• Unique Challenges
  Brazil is a very large country and influenced by several different cultures. We work in metropolitan areas as well as in the countryside, so the socio-cultural differences among Implementing Church Partners can be quite challenging.

  For example, Implementing Church Partners located in metropolitan areas are more focused on programs offering employment opportunities; while in rural areas, Implementing Church Partners focus on issues such as nutrition or security because famine and abandonment in these areas are more prevalent.

  Also, it can be difficult to preach the Gospel to the isolated people of Brazil.



• Contributions
  Implementing Church Partners provide facilities for all child development center activities as well as food and volunteers.
• Partner Development Activities
  Our ministry in Brazil develops partners through individual and group training on topics such as child protection, children’s rights and financial management. We also hold church leadership meetings, conduct Partnership Facilitator visits, and provide follow-ups with supervisors and child development center committees.

Child Sponsorship Program

Your sponsorship of a child in Brazil provides a variety of benefits.

• Meeting Times
  Children in Brazil attend school either in the morning or the evening, so they go to the child development center either before or after school. Some development centers have activities more days and hours per week, but the average meeting times are:
  • 3 to 5 year olds: 8 hours a day, 2 days a week
  • 6 to 8 year olds: 6 hours a day, 2 days a week
  • 9 to 11 year olds: 6 hours a day, 2 days a week
  • 12 to 14 year olds: 4 hours a day, 1 day a week
  • 15 to 18 year olds: 4 hours a day, 1 day a week



• Nutritional Support
  Each child receives a meal such as pasta, rice, vegetables and/or meat on the days that they attend the child development center.
• Vaccinations
  The children receive their vaccinations free of charge at government health centers. These centers offer all of the vaccinations needed for child development and any vaccines needed in the case of a pandemic, such as Influenza A. The child development centers review each child’s vaccination record often to be sure it is current.
• Extracurricular Activities or Community Service
  Child development centers encourage children to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports tournaments, camps, dance performances, job fairs and field trips to parks, museums, zoos and local companies.

  The centers also hold Health Week, which is a time where the center educates children and their parents about hygiene and disease prevention. Medical checkups are encouraged and the child development centers bring in health professionals to speak on topics such as malnutrition, prevention of disease, and self-care.

  In addition, the child development centers conduct social responsibility campaigns to raise awareness in their communities about disease prevention, such as dengue, and other social issues.



• Vocational Activities
  Child development centers are encouraged to become aware of any free courses, training and other opportunities available in their community.

  Our objective for vocational training courses is for adolescents to find employment and to be able to help support their families and/or be self-supporting after completing the Child Sponsorship Program and high school. Some students may be able to fund continued schooling with theses skills.

  Adolescents are typically involved in skills workshops, such as hairdressing, nails, information technology, and office skills.

  There are many adolescents who are now self-supporting as a result of their vocational training in the child sponsorship program.

• Child Sponsorship Program Alumni Activities
  Some Implementing Church Partners promote alumni events, but there are no country-wide events. Some alumni volunteer or work as employees at the child development centers.
• Parent Involvement
  Parenting classes are offered every three months.

  Parents are also encouraged to join in the bigger events, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Children’s Day celebrations, etc.



• Areas of Expansion for Child Sponsorship Program
  We are expanding into the northeastern area of Brazil. This area has the lowest human development index of the country and the most concentrated areas of poverty.

Leadership Development Program

• Universities Attended
  The students attend both public and private universities.
• Location of Universities
  Most of the universities are located in the capital city.
• Working Students
  Approximately 70 percent of Leadership Development Program students in Brazil work while attending university. Most are doing a part-time internship, while others must work the majority of the day and study at night.

  When a child turns 18 years old, his family expects him to work and help out with family expenses. Each student’s work situation is often dependent on the family’s socio-economic situation.

• Service Opportunities
  Many students go back to their former child development center to help the children with tutoring, music and sports. Some students serve as volunteers or interns at their local church or at local companies. Most of this volunteer work involves medical care, education and spiritual help.
• Leadership Development Program Meetings
  The larger Leadership Development Program group meets together twice a month. One meeting is to cover curriculum, enjoy activities together, listen to a motivational speaker, or receive orientation sessions from the ministry, which can include instructions on completing reports, sponsor news, etc.

  The smaller Leadership Development Program meeting occurs with small groups also called “alliance groups.” Alliance groups are led by Leadership Development Program students and exist to provide emotional, spiritual and social support. Students also meet with their mentors at this time.



• Specialty Curriculum
  We cover three primary specialty curriculum topics, motivation, cognitive ability and spiritual life. The motivation curricula helps students believe in their potential.

  The cognitive ability curricula helps to encourage the students to achieve their best academic performance. And, spiritual life curricula encourages commitment to biblical principals and holy living, which includes abstinence.

  We feel that these three topics are extremely relevant to our Leadership Development Program students. Due to poverty, many youth do not believe in their potential and underestimate themselves.

  Lastly, many students experience sexual temptation as well as temptation to compromise integrity when they attend university. For these reasons, we cover the three topics listed above.

• Mentors
  Leadership Development Program Specialists help students seek a mentor from their church, child development center, Compassion Brazil or someone in their family. If they are not able to find a mentor in one of those areas, they try to find a university teacher, community leader or a professional in their area of study.

Complementary Interventions

Our core Child Sponsorship Program, while comprehensive, does not address all obstacles to a child’s healthy development. The Complementary Interventions program was created to work with our holistic child development model to provide additional services, such as our AIDS Initiative, funds for Bibles for All Children, disaster relief and water projects.

Complementary Interventions in Brazil are typically used for education, curriculum and infrastructure.

Highly Vulnerable Children
Children who are abused or exploited and attend the child development center receive trauma counseling, legal counseling and medical care.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

As a new school year begins across the nation, students will once again take up their books to learn about the shameful history of the slave trade around the world.

The problem is that the slave trade is far from history. In fact, it is very much the shame of our world today.

Currently, more slaves exist than during the time of slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. But unlike in Wilberforce’s day, 80 percent of today’s slaves are women and girls; 50 percent are children.

Earlier this summer, the U.S. State Department came out with its Trafficking in Persons Report for 2011. The report created global concern as nations reacted to their “tier placements.” Most third world countries fell under “Tier 2,” a dubious designation reserved for nations whose governments don’t “fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA’s) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

The report is no surprise to those of us who work to rid the world of extreme poverty. For instance, in the 26 developing nations where Compassion International serves, 19 were placed in the “Tier 2” category. An additional five nations where Compassion serves were on the “Tier 2 Watch List,” a group of “countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards,” according to the report. Only one of the 26 countries found itself in “Tier 1”—meaning it was fully compliant with the TVPA’s minimum standards.

Read the entire post at FoxNews.com

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Abandonment, hunger, solitude – Cristiano has been through tough situations in his life and now his experiences are the foundation of his job as a Partnership Facilitator in our Brazil office.

A Partnership Facilitator (PF) is responsible for overseeing all issues related to the partnership between our ministry and the partner church. A Facilitator works with the partner church in a very professional and respectful way in order to:

• make sure they have the same vision and goals,
• build respect and mutual trust,
• promote shared commitment, and
• establish the function, expectations and responsibilities in a very clear way.

Cristiano has been a Partnership Facilitator since 2008. His main function is to make sure that all the results we strive to achieve really happen.

Cristiano, his wife, Sheyla, and his daughter, Leticia

As a teenager, Cristiano was asked to leave home because he had abandoned his father’s dream for him to become a famous soccer player. This resulted in mistreatment from his father, so young Cristiano lived in the center of Recife and had to sleep on the street with nothing to eat.

“I used to go to the supermarket and use the deodorant and other product samples for my personal hygiene.”

He used to say to himself, over and over again,

“I’m not a thief. I’m not a thief.”

Cristiano’s life is filled with the small victories that God saves for those who remain faithful to Him. For example, Cristiano worked hard to get a job as a janitor at a midsize company. In six months, he became the local manager.

Cristiano’s father had had a plan for his son to be a soccer player. But God, Cristiano’s heavenly Father, had another plan. Now Cristiano is one of the coordinators of the Brazilian Sports League, a Christian organization that uses sports as a tool for evangelism.

Through this work, Cristiano helps churches implement evangelistic sports projects. (Brazilian people love sports!) Thousands of lives have been reached – and many of them are children.

“When I’m at a child development center, I look at the children and I know exactly what they need, because I have lived in hunger, abandonment, neglect and solitude. I know and understand why God allowed me to go through all these things.”

Cristiano’s life story is unique and inspiring. He loves his job and knows that he was chosen by God to help release children from poverty. Here is more from a conversation I had with Cristiano:

How did you hear about Jesus?

I was a teenager and crazy about soccer. My big idol was Silas. He was a World Cup player (team of ’86 and ’90) in Brazil. One day I was reading his book, and at the end of the book he invited the readers to join the team of Jesus. He was a Christian, and I didn’t know that. I was curious:

“Who is Jesus? Why is Silas talking about Him? Why is this Jesus so important that ‘the great Silas’ wants to praise Him?”

So I looked for Jesus in the Bible, and I found Him. I realized that soccer was not the reason for my existence, but the Lord Jesus was this reason.

And then you had to leave your house because your father was persecuting you?

Yes, my father had lived all his life planning my career as a professional player. After I became a Christian I lost my motivation for that because I saw that life was not just about soccer. I understood that God had another plan for me. My father was frustrated and said I should leave the house.

How did you start working for Compassion?

I heard about this job opening and I sent my resume. I participated in interviews and I was not called for the job immediately, but I was sure that I would be called one day. I knew that God had prepared me all these years to work with Compassion. I waited for a year to be called. I was sure that they would call me.

Why did you wait for so long without looking for another job?

Working for the growth of the kingdom of God was always a goal for me. When I heard about the ministry’s mission I prayed,

“Lord, this is what I want to invest my life in. Give me this privilege.”

And how did your family react?

Our financial situation was complicated, and they were putting lots of pressure on me. But I was convicted that God had chosen me to work at Compassion and that conviction was greater than the difficulties we were going through. I waited in faith. Now it’s been two years and six months that I have been serving in the ministry.

Tell us about your job and your daily life.

I usually wake up at 5:30. I prepare everything the night before — clothes, materials, plan of visits, the schedule for the day. I usually go to the child development center by bus. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the center in Recife and two hours to get to the centers in João Pessoa. I always visit one development center a day and answer emails during the intervals between the visit and when I’m working from home.

When I’m working from home I have many activities such as preparing plans for the facilitation visits of the week; answering emails; calling the centers to talk about partnership issues, disputes, and so forth; and studying facilitation module and curricular programs.

What do you most enjoy about your work?

When I’m at the child development centers and give them some individual attention. I interact with the team of the center, the children and families.

Share an experience or situation that you witnessed that really touched you.

On my first visit to the development center, Vida VI, I saw a 2-year-old child playing alone in the trash — no clothes, and completely dirty. I was touched by that. That’s where the church of Christ comes and fulfills its role in society. Such scenes are becoming increasingly rare.

What does releasing children from poverty mean to you?

It means looking at the situation of each child who lives in social risk and seeing opportunities. Releasing children is being compassionate, acting intentionally, doing the best I can to provide real opportunities for them to become responsible adults and authentic Christians who will make a difference in this world.

How can you see God’s care in your life?

God’s love overwhelms me. When I was in pain I had the best experiences with God. I could see the greatness of His love. I feel His care everywhere. In spite of the suffering and all I have been through, He was always by my side and helped me right when I needed Him.

What motivates you in your work as a Partnership Facilitator?

Knowing that I am an instrument in God’s hands to help the church of Christ rescue an entire community that may not have a perspective for the future, that is full of children and young people with no opportunities in life.

Would you like to say something to the sponsors?

Sponsors, never stop being a blessing in the lives of the children you sponsor. Keep praying for them. You are so important to them. You are instruments of God in their lives.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”    – Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

“Dear God, why me?”

I admit I’ve prayed that prayer many times in my life: on my knees, sobbing, as a 7-year-old while my father’s body lay in the next room; quietly in my new room at the orphanage where the remainder of my childhood would be spent; silently at the back of a church gathering as I struggled through the end of a career.

And I prayed it again last week, as I stood in the middle of a slum outside of Recife, Brazil.

I watched as two young boys skipped across the tremendous pile of garbage that surrounds their shanty home. I marveled as they meandered through unmentionable filth and stench. I marveled because they were smiling the whole time.

“Dear God, why me?” I whispered.

This time, my question came from a different perspective. This time it wasn’t, “Why have You allowed this tragedy to fall on me?” But rather, “Why have You allowed such blessing to fall upon me?”

“Why was I born in a country that afforded me many more opportunities than this family? Why do I get to sleep in a warm bed at night while they sleep on the cold, hard ground of their tin shack?”

“Why do I get to step out onto my lawn without fear of rusted hypodermic needles, shards of glass, and broken tin cans among other filth?”

“Why me, God? Why did You give me so much and them so little?”

Of course I know the answer. I know that I have been blessed for a reason: to be a blessing.

Yes, that may sound trite but it’s true. God entrusted me with so much so that I can help make sure no family lives in such filth. No human being should.

Question is: Have I fulfilled that calling?

If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you are one of the blessed. So I would encourage you to ask the question as well. How much could we all accomplish, if the Church in our country (and other developed countries) collectively asked the same question:

“Dear God, why me?”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Visitors to Recife, Brazil, have the opportunity to enjoy all this tropical paradise has to offer. This port city on the northeast coast of South America’s largest country has also been called the “Brazilian Venice” due to its many rivers, small islands and more than 50 bridges.

Not far, however, from the sandy white beaches is Olinda, a slum where families struggle to stay together and stay alive.

Walking through the unpaved streets of Olinda, the strong odor of raw sewage running down gutters on the side of the roads pervades the community.

Children are often seen playing in alley ways, and one may have to avoid cyclists coming down the roads as they carry empty soda bottles in large racks tied to the back of their bikes.

Many in the community are also seen standing in the doorway of their homes to escape the midday heat.

You wouldn’t know that just a few hours before, someone was shot and killed in the street. The body was dragged away hours before the police would arrive on their motorcycles. Life goes on.

In the middle of this broken community lives a 9-year-old boy named Tales. Born to a young woman who found herself caught up in the world of drugs and prostitution, Tales appears to be yet another victim of circumstance destined to be a product of his poor surroundings.

However, the boy’s grandmother won’t allow for that to happen. She, too, is a victim of the drug trade in her community, having lost one of her four children, a son, to the dangerous business.

Even though the boy’s grandfather sent his mother away due to the drugs, his grandmother looks after him. Tales, however, is scared of his grandfather, a man who manages to pull out a meager existence as well as support an alcohol habit selling inexpensive toys over the weekend.

Because the boy is afraid of his grandfather, he lives with his father, now divorced from his mother, who lives just a few blocks away. Although Tales has little stability in his life, he has more than others, but he needs more.

About two years ago, Tales was introduced to Criancas do Reino (Children of the Kingdom), a local church program that partners with Compassion.

At the child development center, a transformation began to take place in the life of this young, shy boy. The boy who used to cut himself and suck on his own blood was now learning Bible stories. He began opening up more, and started playing soccer with the other children, a sport he enjoys immensely.

He also discovered he’s good at math and enjoys it.

At the child development center, Tales also participates in workshops designed to teach him skills he needs to be self-supporting or to help support his family after high school.

While in attendance, he also receives a meal. But Compassion’s child development center gives Tales something else that many of the other children in the community don’t have – hope.

Hope is crucial in Tales’ neighborhood. In a world where drugs and violence are the standard, there’s not much else to cling to.

In place of a strong parental figure to look up to, Tales has the police as his constant source of order and control. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he gives an answer that is all too familiar coming from the lips of the other children living in Tales’ world.

“I want to be a policeman,” Tales says, with little enthusiasm.

Law enforcement – while a noble profession – is not what Tales wants to do when he grows up. It’s math he loves, but the police are all he knows.

Maybe someone will show him how much potential he truly has. Maybe he will become an engineer or a doctor.

As for Tales’ mother, she’s no longer involved with drugs or prostitution. Her son’s attendance at the child development center has encouraged her to start turning her life around. She now lives with her mother again and is able to take a more active role in her son’s life.

Certainly Tales has already achieved more than most in his little corner of the world. He’s been a role model to his mother. Maybe this same strength his mother saw will be enough to propel him out of the vicious cycle of life he’s currently living in.

Maybe.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

I took a trip to the Atlantic Ocean the other night. It was just across the street from my hotel in Recife, Brazil – a beautiful resort town known for powdery beaches and turquoise water.

It will also be the site of World Cup soccer in 2014. The people here are excited about it and the government, no doubt, is thrilled. Construction is everywhere as the best of Brazil will be on display – but upon closer examination, there may be some flaws in the diamond that no one is aware of. And it’s better this way.

I went to church at a place, invariably named, God’s Island. Here, the stench of sewage greets you as you make your way over a bridge and into a dark slum.

At first glance, some brightly colored row houses are visible, and immediately the warnings given about this area seem to dissipate as the trek over the bridge continues.

Once on the island, the stench is stronger and so is the fear, poverty and hopelessness.

Beyond the church, which sits at the end of the bridge, abandonment and oppression sets in. We must leave by 4, but it feels more like flee or evacuate. That’s when the gangs take over.

While at the child development center, I went to the home of Bruna, or Brunahita (little Bruna), as she is affectionately called.

Bruna was different. Her home life is different. She did not reflect her surroundings and seemed an anomaly in an area of grave similarities.

Bruna is 16 and part of our sponsorship program. Her parents have been married for 18 years, which is highly uncommon in this environment, and were both there when she was interviewed. They even took part in the conversation.

Bruna was very open about her fears, especially her fear of being shot during the gang wars in the community or being raped on her way home from school like other girls. It happens often.

The false teenage invincibility we’ve come to know well in the United States does not exist on God’s Island. Bruna talked openly, period, and that was a refreshing difference from what I’ve come to experience so far in the Recife favelas.

She has a goal of becoming a flight attendant and traveling the world, meeting different people and experiencing different cultures. She knows the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of America and wants to visit. She also wants to see Germany and Italy. The more we talked, the more I understood that Bruna knew of a world beyond her imagination, a way of escaping the horrors of her environment.

So did her mom and dad, who said they would do anything to support her dreams.

Her home was one of the nicer ones in the area, guarded by a pit bull. Yet her bedroom window was wide open to the community, giving at least another appearance of protection – a troublesome thought upon further reflection. She hears gunshots in the night, outside her open window, and the drug lord is part of the neighborhood leadership.

I met Bruna’s 14-year old sister, whose arrival prompted her mother to cry.

Bruna’s sister ran away for eight months with her boyfriend. Only four days before, her dad finally rescued her after the boyfriend had given her a black eye.

I was prompted to interrupt and tell Bruna’s dad that he was a great father. Yet, on the other hand, it was obvious that Bruna’s mom was deeply troubled by what seemed to be a normal occurrence in the community. People are violent here. All the men and boys are involved in drugs. That’s life. So, her tears troubled me.

It’s hard to imagine a church existing in such a dark and oppressive place, much less a child development center. No other organizations exist here. The area has been abandoned. And Bruna’s mom says that with Compassion, Bruna now has the hope of a life.

Odd word choice – “a life.” With gang curfews and drug trafficking, I suppose she is right. Life does not exist here. It is merely survival. Desperate, savage survival at all costs. A place worthy of reference in Dante’s Inferno – “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Thankfully, the center’s social workers are keenly aware of the environment, of the struggles and, as we found out, of Bruna’s personal story – another façade, like the colorful housing, that was eventually destroyed, to my great sadness and horror.

According to the social workers, Bruna’s sister ran away because her dad is a violent man; violent enough to sit in a two-hour interview, not out of protection and support, but out of control; violent enough to have killed her mom’s first husband over 18 years ago; and violent enough to cause the tears of regret and fear flowing from a mother who wanted more for her daughters than the life they are inheriting.

Talking openly was a cover. As long as they stuck to the story, the façade would not be discovered.

After my embarrassing and ego destroying manipulation by dad, I was hoping that the words I left with her will stick and that the pictures she desperately wanted of the two of us will serve as a reminder of what I said to her.

I told her to make sure that her value does not come from others, especially boys. And to never allow anyone to raise a hand to her in anger and violence. And to always respect herself, and to value herself, so that others will do the same. And to use the difficulties in a positive way – to make her stronger and more driven.

Now, I am led to ask myself,

“What does a child do when her greatest earthly protector turns out to be a predator? What does she think about her heavenly Father when her earthly father is her abuser?”

I couldn’t ask her this, I couldn’t talk her through this, and it haunts me now.

I left the island not with relief, but with heaviness and defeat. While walking back, we found out that the government is planning to build more colorful row houses on God’s Island, aesthetically placed to overshadow the sewage-filled, gang-ridden shanty-town of nearly imprisoned inhabitants.

The houses are yet another erected façade created to hide an embarrassing reality from the eyes of a world. A world that is too surface to notice, or care about, what lies beneath.

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Every morning when the sun rises in Brazil, thousands of children don’t have any breakfast. To stave off hunger, they usually drink weak coffee mixed with toasted cassava flour – this mixture without nutrition fills the stomach for some hours. It isn’t rare that this breakfast is the only meal they have during the day.

“If you ask them at night if they have eaten during the day, they will say certainly they have. For them, the coffee was a meal,” says Acilâine, director of Bom Samaritano (Good Samaritan) Child Development Center. “They are used to starving. Unfortunately, it is normal here.”

“Here” is Codó, a city located in the northeast of Brazi that most Brazilians have never heard of. According to official data from IBGE (Brazilian Statistic and Geographic Institute), 74.5 percent of the families make a living out of less than $1.50 per day.

Despite its 100,000 inhabitants, there is no public transportation or pavement in most of the city. According to IBGE, 70 percent of the residents have no access to basic sanitation, and 25 percent have no access to garbage collection.

To reach the city from São Paulo, you must fly for three hours and arrive in Teresina, capital of the neighboring state, where the closest airport is located. From there you must get a bus to Codó, and this travel also takes three hours at least.

It is another country inside the biggest country in South America.

It is a forgotten poverty-ridden place, where many children walk naked on the streets because they don’t have clothes or, if they have clothing, it is only old underwear or a donated T-shirt. Most people live on rice and “cuxa,” a food rich in iron, but not sufficient for all of their nutritional needs.

Acilâine and her husband, Edivaldo, are the pastors of the Evangelical Christian Church in Codó. They’ve partnered with us since April 2010.

Before the partnership, they worked with children on Mondays teaching Bible stories, but didn’t have enough money to buy materials or snacks for the hungry children of the neighborhood.

With the partnership, the church bought a computer, a printer, tables, chairs, plates, glasses, a stove, a water filter, some pots, gas cooking equipment, a kitchen cabinet and school materials. With the child development center equipped, the missionary couple was ready to help children with their main issue, malnutrition.

Mateus is only 6 years old and has attended the center since its beginning. He lives with his mother, two siblings and his stepfather. His mother is unemployed, and his stepfather is an informal worker.

The family’s house is a typical house in Codó: the walls made of clay and the roof made of straw. The dwelling is composed of a single large room where they sleep, eat and meet. A hammock separates the bedroom from the living room, and the kitchen – an earthen jar of water and a table and a stove made of clay – are on the right side of the room.

On the kitchen table, there are pots containing a weak herb broth, dirty plates with leftover rice, and spoons. Because of the hot weather and the leftovers, there are many flies.

The toilet and the shower are outside. For toilets, they simply have a hole dug in the ground. To take a bath, they improvise a shower box with straw. The water is kept in a bucket and they bathe using a small mug to pour water over themselves.

This poverty is a cruel weapon Satan uses against children — to make them believe that they are nothing and that nobody cares for them.

But Jesus cares.

At noon the sound of pots boiling an onion sauce or rice on a stove made of mud fills the empty streets. The strong sunlight forces people to stay home. But inside the Compassion center, there is another sound: the sound of silverware hitting the plates and children eating.

Acilâine remembers the early days serving lunch. She asked the children to stay in line, but they were desperate, thinking that the food would be gone before their turn. She vividly remembers one time a little girl took the food with hands and began rubbing it on her face.

“Now they know that when they come here, we will have enough food for everyone.”

The only nutritional meal that Mateus has is at the center. His school performance is below average and one of the causes is his malnutrition. Mateus also never had a Bible or heard the gospel before he enrolled at the center.

Voodoo culture is strong in Codó. This city is known in Brazil as “the capital of Voodoo.” According to the pastors, many people don’t accept the gospel because they are afraid of the witches.

To encourage people to read the Bible is difficult because almost half of the population is illiterate and 61 percent have less than two years of education. Therefore the Bible must to be spoken to the hearts of the people through attitudes, help and love, showing them the Jesus who cares about their life and wants to change their reality.

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The “City of God” community in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is famous for its daily realities: violence, drug trafficking and prostitution. Felipe was a skinny little boy from the City of God who used to sit in front of his development center, waiting for his father.

Sometimes Felipe was the only boy left waiting to be picked up. His teacher would take his hand and tell him he could stay the night.

Felipe lived with his parents in an unfinished home. His mother worked as a manicurist and his father as a guard, but their work wasn’t steady.

Sometimes Felipe’s father wouldn’t come home to bring money for food. Felipe and his mother would drink water with sugar so they would not to starve.

Felipe’s mother decided to separate from his father and the family’s life got worse because of her low income. She had to work hard to guarantee they could eat.

Thankfully, Felipe was enrolled at the center by that time, and there he received a good education and nurturing relationships with the teachers. He learned that he could dream, and work hard to reach his dreams.

Seeing his mother’s hard life and the sacrifices she made to put the bread on the table, Felipe decided to study and seize every opportunity that God put in front of him. When he was a little older, Felipe learned of an English course. The fee was only about $10 per month, but his mother said they didn’t have the money.

“I don’t like English, but I knew the importance of this language to get a good job. When I realized that my mom hasn’t the view of the importance of study, I became upset.”

Ana Cristina has been working as monitor of INPAR Student Center for 17 years. She knows exactly what disappointed Felipe: the parents’ shortsighted view of the future.

“Here we teach children to see the future; to see beyond the current difficulties and limitations. The worst poverty is the soul’s poverty.”

When Compassion offered a vocational course, Felipe jumped at the opportunity and chose informatics (similar to Information Technology). During the classes, he devoted himself fully, and at the end of school, he received a job offer.

“It was my first job and my first salary as well — then I could afford my English class.”

His job was to get more students to attend that school through visits and by giving out pamphlets on the street.

In a few months, Felipe was promoted and started to teach classes about everything that he had learned when he was a student. After a time as a teacher, he was invited to work with educational coordination.

Felipe with Ana Cristina

Ana Cristina is very proud of Felipe. Smiling, she says that he taught her how to use the computer. “I’m not of this generation!” she laughs.

Felipe graduated, and the center invited him to teach informatics to the children. He considers it an honor, and since then he has given his best.

Felipe is informatics monitor of INPAR and Projeto Social Acao Querer Bem, another center in  the City of God. As he was taught, he teaches children to see beyond their current circumstances.

Thanks to everything Felipe learned about “seeing beyond” and setting goals for the future, he saved money from the time he got his first job, and finally he grabbed hold of one of his dreams: to study English abroad. Felipe chose to study English in South Africa because it was the cheaper option.

“My cash was counted, and neither I nor my mom had money to afford a U.S. or Canadian Visa.”

Felipe spent two months studying English in South Africa. His classmates there called him “Obama” because he was emphatic when defending his points of view.

Currently Felipe is in his first year studying law at a university in Rio de Janeiro. Felipe looks back and says, “What I’ve gotten and who I am is because of this center.”

Felipe’s income isn’t high; monthly, he earns around $600, but he knows how to manage and balance the needs and priorities.

His college costs around $250, without counting materials, food and transportation. With the remainder of the money, Felipe helps his mother maintain the house and also saves money for his future.

Just as artists on the stage have people working behind the scenes to make them shine, Felipe has a grateful heart toward one person who helped him shine: his sponsor, Barry.

“If it wasn’t for him, his love, his letters, and his sponsorship maintaining me in the center, I’m sure that I would not be who I am today.”

Barry was Felipe’s sponsor from the time he was 4 years old. In early 2010, Felipe received a great surprise: Although Felipe had already completed the Compassion program, Barry came to Rio de Janeiro to meet the boy whom he had supported for so many years.

“I became thrilled! Barry cried when he saw me – I was really thrilled. He helps me my whole life! It was fantastic to see that lovely and kind man in person!”

Ana Cristina remembers when Felipe was a little child, skinny, weak, excitedly asking if letters from his sponsor had arrived and sometimes sleeping at the center because his father didn’t come to pick him up. Her eyes fill with tears looking at this 19-year-old young man who has a brilliant future in front of him, without any trace of anger or bitterness due to his past.

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“The church cannot be trapped between four walls,” says Josué, pastor of our partner church, Baptist Missionary Church in New Conquest, which does holistic development work in the poor community Nova Conquista (New Conquest).

Nova Conquista has many problems: dysfunctional families, alcoholism, drugs, fear, gun violence, etc. The goal of the church is not only to reach out to children, but also to their families, through love and assistance.

Most of the community’s inhabitants are unemployed or have part-time jobs, earning just enough to survive. Nova Conquista is an urban slum located in Diadema, a city located in the São Paulo, Brazil, metropolitan area.

Approximately 15,000 people live in Diadema, in houses made of plywood, unfinished brick or both. The streets are narrow and dirty, and people steal electricity. Conditions in Nova Conquista are worse. It suffers from very poor infrastructure, poor houses made of unfinished brick, shanties, and a lack of basic sanitation and hygiene.

The Baptist Missionary Church in New Conquest was established 11 years ago when another church realized that there weren’t any evangelical churches or any evangelism work with children in the area. So they opened a missionary front to serve that community and the child development center callled Benevolent Association New Conquest was founded.

“We were the first Christian social work in this community,” says Pastor Josué.

The church and child development center walk side by side as they serve the community. In addition to the center’s daily activities, such as devotionals, Bible studies, home visitations and school support, they also host events to help the community.

Because of their work, the church and the center are recognized and respected by the community.

For many years, the center was the only place where Gessykleyton found peace. His house was a battlefield for his parents. His mother, Albenita, was an alcoholic and she used to spend what little money her husband earned on drinks and parties. Angry, her husband used to hit her. This was their lives, day after day.

“Because of my behavior, we never had enough money for our basic needs. My family was destroyed,” says Albenita, who also said that she even had to become a prostitute in order to get food for her two children.

The story of Gessykleyton’s family is a common story in Brazil: families from the northeast of the country move to São Paulo trying to get a better life. But instead, they again find poverty and still have to fight against it, but now they do so far from their families and their homes.

Gessykleyton’s family discovered this harsh reality when they moved to São Paulo 12 years ago.

Gilberto, Albenita’s husband, had gone to São Paulo to find a job and when he found work, Albenita decided to move too.

In São Paulo, Albenita faced a hard reality. Waiting for her husband at the bus station when she first arrived, she was frightened by the number of people around her. And, different from her expectations, they couldn’t buy their own house. No warm place was waiting for them. No great job. They had to live with relatives until they could get their own home.

They made sacrifices and saved money to buy a small house inside the dangerous community of Nova Conquista. By that time, Albenita had been drinking increasingly and realized she had become an alcoholic.

“The devil always gives some reason to drink. If I was sad, it was a reason to drink; if I was happy, it also was a reason to drink. I even drank rubbing alcohol.”

The family was dysfunctional. Scenes of domestic violence were common in front of the kids. Albenita’s out-of-control behavior left the family poorer than they used to be.

Albenita never had the courage to ask for help, but the children talked about their problems at the Compassion child development center, which always sent help.

But the main help – and what made the difference in their lives – wasn’t food and clothes. Romans 8:1 was what opened Albenita’s eyes.

Despite her problems, Albenita was an active mother in the daily life of her children and at the child development center. She always went to the parents’ and teachers’ meetings. It was in one of those meetings that Pastor Josué spoke about truth: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

After this meeting, alone in her house, Albenita felt depressed.

“I was thinking about what I was doing with my life when this verse came into my heart. I was doomed and I wanted to be free.”

She decided to join the church to know more about Jesus. In three months, she gave up drinking and smoking. Through her testimony, Gilberto also decided to follow Jesus and since then, they’ve started a new story in their lives.

Nowadays, the whole family is Christian and, unlike the past, they work together to build a better life – a dream that is becoming true because of the freedom and hope that the gospel brings.

Gessykleyton working in his father's shop.

Gilberto opened his own little woodwork shop and the family works there, helping him to earn the daily bread.

Three years ago, the family adopted an adolescent, Michele. They met her through an evangelism work of the church in another city. Michele’s family was troubled and her mother gave provisional custody to Albenita’s family to take care of her.

Albenita’s house is small, a shanty made of unfinished brick and pieces of plywood. But God’s grace and love overflow in the house.

Talking to Albenita, it is difficult to imagine this woman drunk and uncontrolled. Serene, devoted to family, she smiles and says: “God truly becomes the character.”

The Baptist Missionary Church in New Conquest works quietly but with great dedication, taking care of lives battered by poverty. Witnessing the effect hope in Christ has had on these families reinforces the importance of the local church’s action to release children and families from poverty in Jesus’ name.

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