Latin America ChildCare

Thank for Newbreak Church for partnering with Latin America ChildCare.  On Easter weekend, they put together school supply packs for some of our LACC schools.

This story starts in a terrible place.

A small girl — “Gloria” — was born into a world of neglect — of hellish abuse.

She was beaten, raped, never allowed to attend school. At the age of just 11, she became pregnant.

Finally, someone noticed the horrors taking place in her world, and she was rescued, sent to a home for pregnant teens. At 12 years old, she delivered her son — and the two of them were sent to a faith-based orphanage.

Here, finally, Gloria’s story takes a turn for the better. She and her son were welcomed with open arms by the founders of Jehová Jireh Orphanage. She was able to begin attending school for the first time, at a Latin America ChildCare school where the teachers are helping her make up for all those years she was kept from going to school.

She discovered the love of Jesus Christ, who is helping heal the scars of her past.

Although she still looks like a little girl playing with a big doll when she is with her son, Gloria is very mature in many ways, and helps care for other babies as well in the orphanage’s newborn room.

She is also becoming a great evangelist, preaching the Gospel to friends and neighbors whenever she gets the chance.

Hers is a true resurrection story, and it was made possible by friends like you, through LACC. Thanks for reaching out in compassion to children in need just like Gloria!

You might look at it as building a school.

We see it as building young lives!

Liceo Nueva Vida, or “New Life School,” in Cazuca, Colombia, is a great example.

Cazuca is a barrio (slum) overlooking Bogotá — half a million people are crowded into this impoverished neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar. Refugees from the nation’s violent guerrilla warfare swarmed here for safety … but the violence followed them.

Homes are made of scrap lumber or tin, there’s no running water, and up until 1992, there was no school for the children.

Today, there’s a thriving Latin America ChildCare school, but with more than 300 children crowded into a space created for 175 students, the needs are great.

That’s why it was such a blessing when friends like you donated to the matching challenge to help build an expansion for Liceo Nueva Vida.

Now, the bottom floor of the new building is complete, and this year the second floor should be completed as well!

Another school you’ve helped build — in order to shape young lives — is Harvest Hill in Jamaica. Not in an urban area like Cazuca, Harvest Hill is in a poor rural area.

The nearest school to the community is 10 miles away — which might as well be on the moon; these poor farmer and fisherman families simply cannot provide transportation for their children.

Thankfully, friends like you have helped renovate and expand Harvest Hill to include a new playground, a new kitchen for feeding the children, flushable toilets, lights, and ceiling fans.

Because of your faithfulness, children who had very little hope for the future are now receiving food, an education, and an introduction to the Savior!

Thank you for building lives in some of the world’s most impoverished areas.

You’ve probably received letters from your sponsored child from time to time, but not all the children are old enough to be as expressive as Jenny Beatriz, a high school student who recently wrote to her sponsors:

I am grateful to you and God for the help you have showered upon me. I am also thankful for my parents who always want the best for me. You are part of my life, like my family, and Jesus is our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to God for giving me good sponsors. You give me a friendship with God’s love. You are so special, giving the best of yourselves and of what God gives you.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be blessed and appreciated by you. She might not be your sponsored child, but she expresses the gratitude all LACC students feel. Thank you!

Her right eye was extremely defective: it constantly rolled up into her eyelid — the left one had the same tendency, but it was her right one that required surgical correction.

You may remember our request a couple of years ago for help for Evelyn. Thanks to friends like you, who provide the emergency funding of the “Extreme Poverty Fund,” Evelyn was able to have the corrective surgery, and her right eye is very nearly normal!

Her left eye is still in need of correction, but her doctor believes special glasses may cause the condition to correct itself. Once again, you are coming to the rescue through the Extreme Poverty Fund — and providing Evelyn’s new glasses.

Thanks for your generosity and prayers for the children we serve. What a blessing you are!

Complicated family problems drove Yelin and her family from their home in Lima, Peru, to a whole new nation and culture.

They moved into an impoverished barrio in Chile, but at least here Yelin was able to find another A/G school and continue receiving the good education she’d begun in Lima….

The school, her new friends, and teachers, all helped Yelin adapt to her new home —

And when she took the Chilean equivalent of the SAT test to prepare for college, her score on the history exam was the highest in her school — and the highest in the nation!

“I never expected that score,” Yelin said. (She had been worried about the test going in, but after taking it, she thought she’d done “okay.”)

Yelin hopes to study law after her graduation from Cristiano Emmanuel de Florida, her high school.

On January 18 of this year the Children’s Choir from our Latin America ChildCare School in Linda Vista, on the outskirts of San José, Costa Rica had an audience with Laura Chinchilla, the President of Costa Rica. One of young boys in the choir, Jonnathan, had opportunity to address President Chinchilla and to a hushed room he said – “President Chinchilla, God loves children and you have understood this. And because of that, God says to you; Look at what I have given to you. Be strong & courageous because the Lord is with you. Do not be afraid, because when you feel alone, remember that the children of our school and this country are with you.”

You never know what opportunities even the youngest will have to bring encouragement to those of great power.

In this picture you see President Chinchilla, Johnny Eaquivel, (LACC National Administrator) Corallia (Director of or School in Linda Vista) Rodolfo Saenz (President of our Board in Costa Rica) and of course Jonnathan.

Ryan Sieh has had a heart for Latin America ChildCare for a long time now.  Growing up his family sponsored children and even went on many trips to help build LACC schools and minister in churches. Now as an adult, Ryan continues to sponsor children with Latin America ChildCare and is passing his love for LACC and missions on to his children.

Ryan is the Music Pastor at Evangel Church in Kansas City. One day we received an email from Ryan with a song that he wrote for LACC.  We thought we would take this time to share the song with you and we hope you will share it with others.

We are thankful for sponsors like Ryan and for his talents.
I am Here – by Ryan Sieh

Here are some images from a recent trip to Haiti to visit a number of our LACC Schools there. What an awesome opportunity we have to change the destiny of children in this incredibly poor country and give hope for a better future. Be the Change!

We love to receive messages and notes like the one we received from Josh Houston.  Josh is the Student Ministries Pastor at New Life Community Church in Hawthorne, CA. The Student Ministries decided to start sponsoring a child about 10 months ago.

“I was looking at our account for the girl we support. In the ten months our youth ministry has raised more than $1000 for her. So on Thursday I asked our group if they wanted to pick up another kid. It was a unanimous yes. I also started a challenge this past Thursday in the group to see which guy and which girl could raise the most money for our sponsored kids through the end of the year. Just on Thursday (with only about 20 student there) they gave $96. So cool!!”

It is truly amazing the impact that the Student Ministries group at New Life Community Church is having on the child they sponsor. Every month they are helping to give Hope to a needy child.  What is also amazing is seeing the impact that it is having on the New Life Community Student Ministries.