It was a dark, rainy and cold night. On the top of a hill, inside a straw hut, with the company of some llamas, Marta gave birth to Pablito (little Pablo) when she was only 14 years old.

In the countryside of Bolivia, it’s normal to have your baby at home with the help of relatives or neighbors rather than going to a hospital. But being only six months pregnant, Marta wasn’t prepared. She had gone to the hut with her brothers to put her family’s animals away when she went into labor. Her two little brothers didn’t know how to help. They were scared and cried. Marta had her baby alone in a hut.

Marta, the second child in her family, lived in the countryside of the city of Potosi, Bolivia. She helped her family with the cattle and the household duties. Marta was only able to study part of the first grade because her father didn’t want her to attend school and didn’t want to buy her any materials.

“I wanted to study very much but the teacher got mad at me because I didn’t bring notebooks. I had a hen so I sold the eggs and was able to buy a notebook. However, my teacher didn’t want me to take the notebook home — he didn’t want me to lose it — so my father thought I wasn’t learning anything and he took me out.”

Marta had a difficult childhood. She had to live with the frustration of not accomplishing her dreams and work hard to help her parents and grandparents take care of their animals and other obligations.

At a community party Marta met a man, a widower who at that time was 37. Marta got pregnant and became a very young mother who didn’t receive support from her family.

Six months into her pregnancy, Marta went to get some roots to cook. She almost fell into the river and hit her stomach with her knee. Two days later, her premature baby was born.

“He was very small and thin, he didn’t have any hair. Since I didn’t have clothes for him I covered him with a plastic bag.”

At first Marta lived with her parents, but since baby Pablito was sick he cried all the time. Marta’s mom told her to leave. Marta went to live with her grandfather, who performed many strange rituals in order to heal the baby.

Rather than go to the doctor, many in rural Bolivia go to witch doctors who practice an indigenous religion. They use herbs and massages to heal, or even at times people must drink the blood of animals.

To heal Pablito, Marta’s grandfather killed a black chicken and covered Pablito with the blood. But nothing worked.

Some months after Pablito was born, Marta found out that her baby’s father was back in town, so she found him, and they moved to Cochabamba.

Andres, now 39, is a widower with two children, Noelia, 12, and Emilio, 16. However, he doesn’t live with them anymore. His family, which now includes Marta’s second child, shares a rented room on a hillside in the south part of Cochabamba.

In spite of the difference in ages, Andres seems to care for Marta and his four children very much. He encourages Marta to improve. Marta is learning how to build a better life for her family through her participation in our Child Survival Program (CSP).

“When we met Marta, she was extremely shy. She hid behind her stepdaughter. However, she agreed to be part of the program.

“Now we can see a sociable Marta, and she isn’t afraid to speak in front of people. She is very responsible and loves to attend the CSP meetings. She is also very punctual,” says Rosalia, the CSP Coordinator.

There are even greater accomplishments with Pablito. Because of the conditions he was born in, he has always been sick, and there is a great difference between him and Marta’s 3-month-old baby, Elena.

“Elena is very lively. She already has a strong and firm body, the opposite of Pablo. When he was 6 months old he couldn’t keep his head steady. Elena did that when she was only 2 months old. It was very sad to see him like that. When he was 6 months old, he started to have convulsions. He was lying down, and suddenly he had convulsions and his eyes turned white. But Elena isn’t like that,” says Marta.

Pablito was undernourished, which affected him in many ways. The left side of his body wouldn’t function properly. He had infections, diarrhea, chronic anemia and was dehydrated. He was pale, had convulsions and needed blood.

Thanks to the Child Survival Program, Pablo received a blood transfusion and treatment for his malnourishment. Strengthened by the medical interventions, Pablo learned to walk and is developing in a healthier way.

“He still needs to gain a little more weight, and that’s our challenge. Also, with Marta we are at 80 percent. We want her to learn to read, write and study a technical career. We also want her to receive Christ as her Savior. She attends church, but we want her to become a member,” says Rosalia

Marta enjoys being a part of the Child Survival Program, including everything she is learning and the benefits she is receiving. She likes to learn about the Bible and knows it is good for her. She can affirm there is a great change in her life.

“I want my children to study and not to be like me. I want them to study because I don’t want them to suffer. I want them to be better in life. I can’t even get into the bus to go somewhere because I can’t read what number it is, but now I am learning.”

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São Paulo is the capital of Brazil’s São Paulo state. It is richer than the other 25 Brazilian capitals and the most populous – more than 11 million inhabitants. The state is known as the “Brazilian economic motor” because it has the country’s largest industrial park, the most skilled labor, the best infrastructure and the greatest economic production, not to mention the biggest consumer market.

São Paulo also has the best evangelical seminaries and is the headquarters of many evangelical denomination conventions. Because of all these characteristics, it seems impossible for anyone who doesn’t know the Brazilian reality to imagine that in this same city people starve and some have never heard about God.

This is São Paulo. This is the contrast.

Unlike the grandiosity that São Paulo displays, Projeto Casa Criança Viva operates in a small, two-story house on a dirty street – dirty because of the pollution and graffiti on the walls. This child development center serves 150 children in the area.

Food is one of the needs that the center is working to supply to the children, but there is another crucial need that may come as a surprise: most children haven’t heard about God until they enroll at the center.

In a group of 12-to-14-year-olds, most of the children said they previously didn’t have any idea about the Bible or salvation in Christ. This is surprising because São Paulo’s population is about 15 percent evangelical, according to Ministry Information Support, and this number is growing each year. Yet most children who live in the neighborhood this center serves have never learned about Christian values.

Our Complementary Interventions Program for Christian Education is helping to change that.

Because of the efforts of donors, we were able purchase Christian material for 150 child development centers to use in their Christian education classes. The books were distributed among 35,000 children enrolled.

Projeto Casa Criança Viva uses these books not only in its Christian education classes, but also as a compass to direct the other activities of the center. Christian education is offered one hour a week, and all center activities are planned to serve this class.

The teacher prepares the children’s hearts to receive the message during the week, according to the theme that the book gives. If the Christian education theme of the week is “obedience,” the center incorporates that theme in the other subjects taught to the children.

For example, in the physical area, children are taught to obey the game rules; in the cognitive area, children are taught what “obeying” means in language and how to apply it in their vocabulary; and in the socio-emotional area, children are taught the importance of obeying authority, such as parents, teachers and governments.

Many children enrolled at the child development center got their first contact with the Word of God at the center. They had never heard about God, Christ or stories such as the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark or Joseph in Egypt.

Transformation is the best word to define what happens with the children during the class. Parents recognize the difference in the way their children behave.

“It’s very good for Karla to have this class,” says Marta, mother of 11-year-old Karla. “She used to be a rebel and use bad language!”

Before enrolling in the project, Karla didn’t help her mother at home and when she did, Karla became angry. Because of it, Marta had several problems with the rebellion of her daughter.

“Karla’s temper got better after learning about God’s values!” Marta says. Karla now helps her mother washing dishes and taking care of her little brother, Mateus.

Center staff have witnessed the transformation, not just of children, but also of entire families.

Izael is 7 years old and lives with his parents in a small house. Izael’s family life used to be very hard until the conversion of his parents. They weren’t married and Izael’s father drank too much. The parents used to dance forró, a kind of sensual dance very famous in the northeast of Brazil.

The center staff provided Izael with biblical counseling about it. One day, in the Christian education class, Izael received Jesus. A few days later, his parents and his little sister decided to follow Jesus, so the whole family stopped with the forró.

“Our family relationship improved. Antonio and I decided to get married officially and he stopped drinking,” says Izael’s mother with happiness.

Izael’s mother believes the Christian education lessons were decisive for Izael’s conversion. This transformation was so strong in Izael’s life that he has a plan for his future:

“I’d like to be a pastor and teach people about God!”

São Paulo’s most impoverished children live in a reality that only Jesus can save them from, giving them dreams and hope for a better future. The Christian education materials equip our church partners to share God’s Word, often for the first time, with children in need of hope.

“They come here without knowing God and the main difference God makes in their little lives is to put hope in their hearts. They believe God can open doors. They believe in victory.” – Luciana, the director of Projeto Casa Criança Viva

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If poverty had a face, in Brazil it would be the face of a child. According to UNICEF, in 2004 more than 50 million Brazilians were living in poverty — without access to basic needs such as potable water, health care, good nutrition, education — and facing high rates of unemployment and violence.

Nearly 30 million of that number were children and adolescents.

In that same year, 800,000 children from 7 to 14 years old living in these conditions were not attending school, most of them from illiterate families who have no way to help their children in their education. Without encouragement, it is easy for them to just abandon school and start working in order to help their families.

It is an endless cycle as these same children one day will grow up and have their own children.

But there is hope, and your sponsored child knows exactly where to find it. Your sponsored child goes to her or his room, gets an old box full of photos and letters from under the bed, and as this child starts reading a new breath of life fills the heart.

“The letters from the sponsors are very important on children’s social and cognitive development,” says Maura, director of Lar Batista de Crianças child development center.

“Through the letters they have access to another culture and language, learn how to communicate well by speaking or writing, and moreover, they learn about affection and respect. To love and be loved.”

For that reason the correspondence monitor at the child development center also talks with the children about geography and history from their sponsor’s countries.

Luiz is 12 years old and loves getting letters from his sponsors, a couple from Australia.

“I feel that I am a very important person when I say at school that I have friends from another country and we send letters to each other. I also like to know that I pray for them, they for me and God listens to us.”

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One of Luiz’s classmates at Lar Batista de Crianças is also sponsored, but the 11-year-old boy has only received one letter in the two years he has been sponsored.

“I feel sad and sometimes frustrated. I’d really like to know about my sponsor’s life, such as: Where does she work? Is she married with kids? What are her hobbies? Does she have a pet? Things that my teachers cannot answer for me.”

According to Maura, children get excited when they receive their letters. “They gather together and tell to one another what their sponsors wrote to them. It is a joyful moment for each one of them.” And such a moment is special not only for the children, but for all the people who make this relationship happen.

Marta has been working as the correspondence monitor at Projeto Vilamar child development center since 2000. She says that her job is full of challenges, but she understands she is playing the role of a bridge between two people who love and care about each other.

“There was a specific letter that touched my heart. A sponsor whose wife had passed away wrote to his child telling about his pain. I started crying and also the child … at that moment I understood that even living so far from one another we can feel and share feelings with a friend we love.”

To most of our child development centers’ staff in Brazil, the improvement children show in their behavior is visible from the moment they get sponsored.

“They have to concentrate to write well, which makes them think about what they are writing. They are automatically compelled to learn how to write and read correctly. Also, the fact that they have somebody concerned about their lives also makes most of them avoid bad company, drugs and youth delinquency. They cannot accept disappointing their sponsors.”

In the spiritual area, children recognize that the same Lord they worship in Brazil is worshiped overseas.

Very shy, 12-year-old Maria loves to talk about Jesus with her sponsors, a couple from the United States.

“We used to write about our dreams and day to day. But what I like most is when they teach me new things about God’s word.”

Vitória thanks God for her sponsor’s life –- an 80-year-old lady who loves the 11-year-old girl as her own granddaughter.

“She asked me to call her grandma, and that is exactly how I feel about her. She is part of my life and family, even though we never spoke personally. I care about her letters so much that I have a special place for them, inside a drawer … for me, love has no borders.”

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