“Kenya reborn … Our day of pride … It’s a fresh start … The dream of a new Kenya” … These are some of the headlines from one of our mainstream newspapers.

Alice

Kenya became independent on Dec. 12, 1963, with a constitution negotiated in London with heavy input by the departing colonizers.

After many years in pursuit of a truly representative and democratic constitution, Kenyans finally ushered in the new constitution at a ceremony at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on Aug. 27, 2010.

Kenyans have high expectations for the new constitution. Some CFCA sponsored members and their families shared their reactions.

Alice, a sponsored aging member, said she voted “yes” for the constitution. She says that it will give rise to a new Kenya free from colonial restrictions.

Rachel

Alice also says she is “happy to have lived to see the day that Kenya would have a new constitution.”

Rachel, mother to sponsored child Monica, says that she voted for the constitution because it eliminates tribalism that has often caused people to rise against one another. Rachel says, “If my daughter decides to marry in another country, she will not have to give up her identity as a Kenyan. Dual citizenship is now allowed. As a woman, I feel protected by this constitution; I have a right to property.”

Truphosa, mother to sponsored child Kelvin, says she is “very excited since the new constitution promises free quality primary education. …

Truphosa

This will benefit many Kenyans as through the years the cost of education has risen steadily, and very few people can afford to pay fees for their children.”

The constitution creates an enabling environment for all Kenyans to live up to their potential in an atmosphere of freedom, liberty, human dignity and equal rights. CFCA in Kenya welcomes with open hands the new constitution, and we look forward with a lot of expectation to the hard part — the implementation phase.

We want to join other Kenyans in building our nation and giving hope to our sponsored members and their families. We are happy to participate in building a happy and prosperous democratic Kenya.

June 13, 2010

Dear Rose Anne,

Ma’am and I have just received the letter that you wrote on May 12. We are saddened that you are leaving the program, but we know that this had to happen at some point. After all, you are soon to turn 17 years of age, and you are now a young woman with all of the experiences and responsibilities that come with entry into adulthood. Then too, Ma’am and I are now both of us in our early 80s, and so the regular course of life would have ended our relationship, perhaps before very long, in any event.

For all of that fact, it is still a little sad. The two of us have felt very proud to be able to watch you, in some sense, to grow up from a very little girl to the strong and able adult that you are now. We have been very lucky to have been able to help you in some small ways, and we would wish to have been able to do even more for someone whom we have come to love and regard as a very special granddaughter.

We are enclosing one last picture for you to keep. It was taken just a month ago, and in it are two of our grandchildren who are quite your own age. Eliza and Paul are the children of our second daughter, Maureen, and again, like you are not children of our family by blood. Maureen and her husband, Bill, adopted them when it became impossible for them to have children because of their age. Nevertheless, they are our grandchildren in love, as are you yourself.

We ask you to continue to pray for the two of us as we shall continue to pray for you. We will meet again in that heaven where all human sadness is ended, and we shall then have the chance to know and love you yet even more.

As ever and ever,
Love
Sir and Ma’am

Bob Hentzen and other Walk2gether participants walk through Costa Rica.

Update: This reflection is from Rafael “Rafa” Villalobos, San Jose project coordinator, written after Walk2gether passed through Costa Rica earlier this year. The walkers have entered Ecuador and expect to be there until Sept. 14.

“Peace is passing through Costa Rica”
A Costa Rican radio station gave this title to Walk2gether. We have been waiting for it with much faith, love and hope.

Day 1

At 6 a.m., 250 families, representing all sponsored families in Costa Rica, were waiting for Walk2gether’s arrival. As we waited, songs were heard: “Come, a new day is here and amidst challenges and happiness, CFCA is growing.” “My heart, your heart, become one when we walk.” School bands, flags from Latin America, big banners with messages, all awaited the moment.

The walkers crossed into Costa Rica three hours later to cheers, applause, songs, prayers and hugs. A sublime moment came when Bob (CFCA president and co-founder Bob Hentzen) and his wife, Cristina, knelt and kissed the land. This was a symbol of deep love for our country and our CFCA families. We are stepping on holy land, the land of the poor who are the face of God. This land is blessed.

Bob gave words of gratitude and reminded us of the meaning of Walk2gether: “I want to be close to the families. We walk for the most in need.” Cristina offered her love to the families and encouraged them to continue despite daily burdens. There were 15 other walkers from Guatemala and the Philippines.

We walked five kilometers from the border, Peñas Blancas, to the Las Vueltas River. In front of us a big banner said, “CFCA, 12,500 kilometers, bringing hope.”

Day 2

We began at 4 a.m. with a prayer asking for blessings upon our route. The heat intensified, and we rested often. This was a great opportunity for teachable moments with Bob, to share our experiences, difficulties and achievements.

Brother Jorge, CFCA Hermano Pedro project coordinator in Guatemala, shared the meaning of the CFCA logo. Later, we heard the testimony of Jafet, a scholarship student. He thanked CFCA for the outreach he received from the Costa Rica team.

Day 3

We walked from the community of Santa Rosa to the community of Liberia. Bob spoke with the youth walking with us. The teens commented on their worry of drugs, violence and lack of job opportunities. Marvis, a CFCA social worker, shared about the importance of strengthening family values.

Families from the community of Liberia came to greet the pilgrims, singing and showing beautiful banners with messages of hope and gratitude for CFCA, Bob and Cristina.

Day 4

The route planned was to walk 40 kilometers from Liberia to the Bagaces community. At kilometer 10, we had breakfast at the community of Pijije. This community has donated a piece of land for a CFCA office. Bob and Cristina inaugurated the construction of a CFCA center for sponsored members and their families. A few trees were planted as signs that we are called to offer life, love and strength.

Later, we arrived at the gym of the community of Bagaces. Some 400 people welcomed the pilgrims.

We also blessed the house built for one of the CFCA families. It was built by a group of North American students from the Saint Anselmo school (St Anselm’s College from New Hampshire) and members of the CFCA team.

March 5

We rested near the Miravalles Volcano, surrounded by spectacular views and thermal waters. Bob and Cristina’s family, Jake and Cesar, their wives and grandchildren, as well as one sponsor, joined us today.

One song has tried to gather the spirit of this pilgrimage.

Walking we make borders disappear,
We all become one on earth
One voice where hunger, cold and fear unite
And your burdens become mine
And your loneliness becomes my pain

They mix like the soil and our steps
Dignity, hope become one flag for Latin America

What is the value of higher education or a university degree if you can’t find a job?

In many parts of the world, students go through extreme situations just to go to school. They struggle with monthly tuition, poor nutrition, lack of access to technology and research tools for assignments, and, in some cases, access to a nearby school.

Mauricio, a sponsored child and student in El Salvador.

But if it is this difficult to go to elementary and high school, it becomes much harder to access college education. High tuition in private universities and limited access to public universities make the dreams of many teenagers seem impossible. In spite of all these burdens, many have enough determination to obtain a college degree.

However, having a college degree does not necessarily guarantee that you will have a job. It doesn’t even mean that you will find a job. After studying for years, investing in that education and finally graduating, just to discover that there is no job available is the reality for many students worldwide.

If this is the case, why is a degree important? Because education sets you free. A developed society is based largely on the fact that its citizens are educated or are being educated. Education allows people to make thoughtful decisions, based upon their rights, their benefits and their knowledge. Education has the capacity to open a whole new world. Maybe that knowledge will not be useful at the moment, but it helps the individual to build a better future by making intelligent decisions, passing their knowledge down to future generations and reaching new horizons they never thought possible.

I remember two years ago meeting Antonio, who was 38 years old at the time. He is married to Ana Margarita, and they have three kids: Herber, Bryan and Tania. Antonio suffered from poliomyelitis (polio, the viral disease that can only be prevented by immunization) and had a leg disability. In spite of his reality and problems, he understood the need for an education and, with much effort and support from his family, he graduated as a computer and network specialist.

Even though he had not found a job for more than a year, he is a better man who can offer himself as an example for his own children and whose wife is proud of him. He can lead the family toward a better future. He is ready for that one opportunity to rise. He is now transmitting the importance of education to his children, and he and his children can make better decisions for their country in the future.

Education is the first step toward a better future for people. Education is the center where all possibilities become connected and a door to opportunities opens up. For some, those doors can be smaller, and opportunities can be much less, but still, being educated means being ready to conquer the world we want for ourselves, when that one chance comes by.

I have always aspired to work with the less privileged in society. I get a lot of inspiration from working with the beneficiaries and staff members.

I was very much excited to be coming on the walk. I always look forward to learning something new. In each and every project there are good practices, and I was able to learn so many new things to take back to Nairobi to make our project stronger.

It is so beautiful in Ecuador, and walking with these people and seeing how they live was a great experience for me. I grew up in a small village in Kenya and helped my father with our coffee plants from a very young age. We would wake up early to harvest coffee. I know the challenges that families living in the farming communities in Ecuador face.

There is so much potential in these families. It was a big lesson for me to see their energy and see how important they are in this movement. The sponsored members and their families helped us get through the miles by walking with us. It showed me how interdependent our mission is and that our community is growing even stronger each day with this walk.

On the walk, I started out well, but along the way things got very tough. I was only able to make it 20 kilometers out of the 35 kilometers my first day. It is a lesson, though, to see the families that came out to walk with us cover these distances, and we should not take their strength for granted.

It is an inspiration that these families are able to overcome so much. We just need to help them along their path. It is not easy work helping these families, and the walk is a symbol of this effort.

The walk is very challenging. We have to cover long distances. The pain in our legs and muscles can be translated to the pain these families experience. But like them, we just have to keep going and keep walking with them.

One of my favorite parts of the walk was interacting with the families. Singing and dancing is very integrated into society in Africa. Many of the youth walking with us were shy at first, but they were very eager to learn from me when I started a song or dance. And when you are having fun, the kilometers go by much faster.

Getting to spend time with Bob Hentzen (CFCA president and co-founder) on the walk was also a great experience. Bob is superhuman. Every time you are around Bob you get inspiration. When you see somebody that age (74) walking all that distance, and here I am a young energetic person who couldn’t walk the whole way for just one week. He is a great example of how we can focus our energy.

CFCA’s invitation for us to join the walk to help our brothers and sisters in South America is a good message. It was amazing to learn from one another and spend time with the people who have been on this journey.

People around the world need to know there are many people struggling and in need of help. I am proud to have been a part of this walk and to help spread the message that there is hope for these families.

Walk2gether has left Colombia and entered Ecuador, after covering a distance of 5,043 kilometers and walking through seven countries.

Judith Bautista, right, coordinator in CFCA’s Bogota project, and Bertha Duran, left, coordinator in the Cali project, both in Colombia, reflect on their experiences with Walk2gether in their country.

Judith Bautista: Walking with the flag of CFCA

After walking almost two months in the company of the sponsored members and their families, throughout all the CFCA projects and its communities, Walk2gether left Colombia to enter Ecuador. This has been a very special experience; it has represented great benefits for all of us staff members in Colombia, and it has helped to unify the teams and projects of CFCA in Colombia.

The unity that we have developed among staff members and sponsored families is stronger than before. We are called to work harder toward the empowerment of the families and mothers, which directly enhances the creation of communities of compassion in our projects.

We witness how people came out to greet us, to offer us their best wishes, to bless us, and for me, this is walking with the flag of CFCA, which is the flag of Hope for a Family.

Ending Walk2gether in Colombia is a bittersweet moment, full of mixed feelings, because we have been so happy and received so much inspiration in this walk. But we are sad because we are not going to continue physically walking.

Bertha Duran: The beginning of a new vision

This walk has been exciting and rewarding. It has made all of us involved in CFCA proud that we were able to carry such a huge and strong mission. It is a great feeling to know that we were able to comply with the sacrifice made by staff, families and sponsored members while walking in Colombia.

This walk taught us very much about teamwork, solidarity, respect and hard work, but the most important thing that we learned is that in spite of feeling tired, hungry and thirsty, we need to continue with strong steps toward the completion of our hopes of a better world.

We had many teenagers, both sponsored youth and scholarship students, walking. This experience has helped them to restructure their own goals in life, realizing that it is worthwhile to fight for opportunities and their dreams.

This walk has offered our sponsored members and their families a sense of a new beginning, where there has been a before and after in their lives, a breath of hope and the call to live in solidarity, respect and unity as a family.

This is not the end of the walk; this is the beginning of a new vision that reminds the sponsored members and their families that we believe in them, that they are worthy and that we want to see them reaching their hopes and dreams out of poverty.

Xarina

What has changed since we last heard from you?
I am now in my third year as a nursing student. Classes have just started. I am taking 26 units for this semester, and 16 of those units are solely nursing major subjects and actual field exposure, while the other 10 units are for minor subjects in school. Subjects have gotten more difficult, and the number of required patients to attend to also increases. Each of us will now be handling 15 cases. This sounds both exciting and horrible! I hope that I can make it. Last May, I was elected as president for the nursing official choir called “SYNAPSE” for the school year 2010-2011.

You were working in the community health clinic three times a week. Has this changed?
I am still doing clinical but this time I am exposed to patients with more serious illnesses, as well as helping patients in pre-op, post-op and under recovery. I still have the same routine three times a week but not in the community clinic, now it is in the hospital with seven rotations required.

At one time you mentioned you were worried about succeeding in your career. How do you feel now?
At this time, it is a mixed emotion. I discovered lots of things to love about nursing. As I am getting close to finishing this course, I encountered lots of challenges and greater responsibility in taking care of others is required. I’m still scared if I can cope with the demands of this course but, one thing I’m very sure … I will really become a NURSE.

What are your favorite subjects now? Last fall, you loved bioethics.
I’m done with bioethics and learned a lot from it but now, believe it or not, I love NCM (Nursing Care Management), which I hated before. NCM gives me a wider scope of understanding patients and what they are going through. Let me differentiate the impact of bioethics and NCM to me: Bioethics helped me understand different people that we met, while NCM taught me how to provide proper care to people we met.

Do you still work with pregnant women?
I was able to personally assist with an actual delivery in the community health center. This is really an overwhelming experience, and the school has really provided me all the knowledge to deal with this. Holding the newborn baby for the first time, wow, I can’t really explain.

I was very lucky because after my community exposure, which mostly dealt with pregnant women, my first exposure in the hospital last February was in the OB-GYN ward. Though I already had an idea how to deal with the patients, I was assigned to a serious case. My patient is suffering from DUB (Dyspertinal Uterine Bleeding). This experience gives me an actual case. I was able to apply learning gained in NCM since my patient underwent a hysterectomy.

What about your homework schedule? Do you still stay up late doing homework?
As subjects get more difficult, I have to exert more effort. It is already a normal routine for me to stay up to 2 a.m. to do my homework and report to my hospital duty or classes from 7 a.m to 3 p.m.

What about your dance and music classes? Can you still fit those into your routine? Are there any new developments?
I still sing for weddings and other special occasions if it fits my schedule, especially since I also earn money from this. I am a member of our church choir on Sundays regardless of my hectic schedule. Now that I am the president of the nursing choir, I have to find time for it since we have regular practice, in which I am also really very happy because singing will always be my passion. I was supposed to audition for the dance troupe at the university as a kulintangan* instrumentalist, which I learned in my CFCA workshop. But, my parents did not allow me as they saw my schedules and daily routine and the demand as a nursing student. They again reminded me that education should always be the priority.

Is your service project still writing letters?
I still do the same thing, assist children in their letter- and card-making that is done in our community. Though, our subproject plans to train another group of kulintangan instrumentalists since a number of sponsored children also expressed their desire to learn to play the kulintangan. This sounds exciting, I hope the practice schedule will fit mine, and that this plan will materialize this year.

Do you still plan to graduate in 2012?
I hope to graduate in April 2012 and review for two months as preparation for the nursing board examination in July.

We have enjoyed following your progress through nursing school, Xarina. Is there anything else you would like us to know about your life? How is your family?
My family and I are doing well. My elder brother, Wendell, is in his fourth year as a nursing student, so I am very well guided with what to expect in my own nursing career. I still have my very loving and supportive mother around, which make things light and manageable. I also help my father, who has been sick recently. I monitor his blood pressure and medications.

*The kulintangan is a traditional Filipino instrument.

Veron Telar

It was 2:30 a.m., Philippine time, on June 20, 2010, when I finally arrived home from my 21-hour trip from Kansas City back to my country, the Philippines. Thanks be to God for a very pleasant trip. What an absolute feeling of excitement and happiness I had during my entire journey. I was reunited with my son, my whole family and my CFCA family in the project. Yes, everyone at home had been waiting for me.

It’s been about six months since I left the Philippines and joined CFCA’s Walk2gether in Latin America, and now I am back. Honestly, it was not even easy to leave the walk, the people and the CFCA family who took care of me, inspired me and loved me while I was away from my family. I am blessed to have had this very significant and life-changing experience as a member of the Walk2gether team for five months and 12 days. With Sir Bob and Ma’am Cristina (CFCA President Bob Hentzen and his wife, Cristina), I have walked 4,004 kilometers, slept in 61 beds and taken 6.6 million footsteps.

I have truly my innermost, overwhelming feeling being with Walk2gether. Being with the people each day and listening to the words of wisdom of the CFCA president are my greatest gift. I was completely at peace and content, traveling and staying in a foreign land, just keeping in mind that I belong to CFCA. True enough, CFCA is a worldwide family and community. There was no room for uncertainties, only assurances of love, belonging and protection when there are possible dangers. Along the road, we always tell the people that we offer hope and we share love with them. In return, we are receiving more than we gave, as they helped us realize the greatest value of life with simplicity and humility in words and in deeds.

I came home very happy, at peace and ready to face the day-to-day life with my family and the Manila project. I am much honored and perpetually grateful that I represented my country during my time with Walk2gether. I have a renewed spirit of hope, love, service and commitment to the CFCA work and mission. I truly appreciate the opportunity of knowing so many sponsored families and co-workers.

As CFCA offers hope for families in this challenging time, we in the Philippines are becoming more hopeful that changes for the better will take place in this beautiful world. May the Lord bless us as we work hard for this mission.

Indeed, my participation in Walk2gether provided me a renewed life and spirit of service and mission. Walk2gether is one of the best experiences that CFCA has given me, and I thank God for this blissful homecoming to my beloved Philippines.

July 24

It is 3:30 a.m. and I’ve just arrived at the Bolivia International Airport of Santa Cruz, on my way to Cochabamba, Bolivia. The CFCA’s Hope for a Family Program continues to build options for its members into their own and individual process to self-sustainability; this is why, during this week, staff members from different countries will get together in what we call ‘Encuentro’ — encounter — where we will learn and teach each other about the many initiatives and programs being implemented at the different projects.

It is very exciting to be part of this worldwide community of compassion, and I am looking forward to this week of learning, feeling excited about the many ideas, projects and programs that will be developed from here to all the families of CFCA around the world.

July 25

After a very good night of sleep to recover the energy for travelling more than 24 hours yesterday, this morning I met Peter, CFCA coordinator in Nairobi, and Teddy, project coordinator in Uganda. We had a wonderful conversation and learned from each other about the challenges that our countries, and especially women in each of them, have to face.

Teddy is a very young smart girl who, to my surprise, had been sponsored by CFCA and now she is the project coordinator. And Peter, a 40-year-old man, has been working very hard in creating opportunities for the mothers in his project to find a path to self-sufficiency.

I am always surprised by the potential that is unlocked by CFCA in each of its staff members. God has blessed us all to be part of this community.

For Cathy and her coworkers, ringing the bell means a child is one step closer to sponsorship.

We love to hear bells ring on the parish contact team!

Bells ringing? What’s that all about?

Well, a former co-worker came up with the idea. When a pastor at a parish accepts our request and invites CFCA for a weekend visit, and then we confirm the availability of one of our CFCA presenters for the weekend, we ring a bell. It means we are one step closer to getting more children, youths and aging individuals sponsored.

Even getting a pastor on the phone to ask him if he would be open to inviting a CFCA presenter can be quite difficult. Pastors are very busy people. When we actually get the opportunity to speak with them and they accept our offer to share the work of CFCA, we are quite happy.

When a pastor accepts, and we confirm the availability of one of our presenters, we head for the bell. The bells are attached to the cubicle wall of our workspace, and we are ever so happy to get up out of our chairs and ring that bell!

That is why, “Every time a bell rings, a child gets closer to sponsorship.”

So, here on the parish contact team, if we hear bells ringing constantly, that is a very good thing!

This is the final of four entries in the parish contact series. Read more here:
Part 1: The diary of a parish contact
Part 2: Learning is an evolution
Part 3: ‘Lord, … help me do your work’

Here on the parish contact team, even when a pastor says, “No,” or “Not at this time,” we think of it as a bit of success. After all, he didn’t say, “Don’t call again!” He has heard our message, and he has heard our name.

Perhaps, too, in those few precious minutes on the phone, we have touched the heart of a receptionist or secretary with our story of sponsorships. Maybe they really heard our message, and will look at our website and be led to sponsorship. Maybe they will share it with a family member or a friend, or even talk to the pastor who might reconsider giving us a second look. The next time they open a publication and see our ad, perhaps they will look just a little bit closer.

Although it may be difficult to hear “no” so many times in a day, it’s not about me and my disappointment. It’s really about allowing me an opportunity to think about a new way to introduce CFCA. I’m getting the opportunity to work harder so that I might be successful in what I do, which translates into sponsorships of children and elderly in need.

We continually remember it might be a bad day or a bad year. It is just not the right time, and really, it’s not about me at all. So I squelch my little ego inside and say an extra prayer, “Lord, let their hearts be open and help me do your work.”

I was given an opportunity with CFCA to help provide for my family, and now it’s up to me to work hard to help empower families in poverty to provide for their loved ones. So while, “No, not at this time,” may be difficult to hear over and over again, we try to remember that, “’No,’ only means no today.”

This is the third of four entries in the parish contact series. Read more here:
Part 1: The diary of a parish contact
Part 2: Learning is an evolution
Part 4: Every time a bell rings, a child gets closer to sponsorship

The first few phone calls I made after starting to work on the parish contact team were awkward. I wished I had said something different each time I hung up. Or, I thought of something new to say. Or, I thought about a better way of saying what needed to be communicated to the person on the other end of the phone line.

Even though I had been a sponsor for more than a year when I started working for CFCA, I had a lot to learn about this beautiful movement, as CFCA President Bob Hentzen calls it.

The first time I met Bob and got a chance to speak with him personally, I told him how happy I was to be able to work at CFCA and make a difference. He looked at me with those twinkling eyes and said, “It’s a wonderful movement, isn’t it?” I couldn’t wait to get back on the phone and start using the word “movement” to describe CFCA.

My supervisor, Adrian, kept assuring me that I was doing well and that the message I wanted to convey would evolve with experience. How do you tell someone in two minutes – the average amount of time we usually have when we finally get a pastor on the phone – what CFCA has developed over the past 29 years?

There is so much to say, and there are so many stories that could be told. But, it’s hard to convey the important points and stick to the objective of getting a CFCA presenter into the parish so they can share the CFCA stories to the potential sponsors sitting in the pews.

The wonderful ladies in the Florida satellite office gave us a lot of encouragement. They told us that when a pastor says “no” to a visit, not to get discouraged. As they say, “’No’ means no today.” We will get another chance the next time we call.

We always keep in mind that we are calling for the sponsored children and elderly, who cannot call. We are speaking on behalf of the child, youth or elderly person who doesn’t have a way of asking for help.

We are speaking on behalf of our brothers and sisters who live in situations that are beyond their control but not beyond their hope. We need to help them by finding someone who will be their companion on the journey out of despair, desperation and hardships.

There are more than 18,000 Catholic parishes in the United States, and CFCA has visited many of them over the years. But, occasionally, we run across a parish that has never been visited. If we do our job well, then the pastor will learn that CFCA is a compassionate and professional organization. He will understand that we are working in solidarity by walking with the poor and the marginalized we serve.

If, in doing our job, we stay grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, that message will resonate with pastors, and they will be open to our message. And hopefully, they will open their doors to CFCA.

This is the second of four entries in the parish contact series. Read more here:
Part 1: The diary of a parish contact
Part 3: ‘Lord, … help me do your work’
Part 4: Every time a bell rings, a child gets closer to sponsorship

By Jim McConnell, parish contact representative

I spent 33 years in technical sales in the corporate world before coming to CFCA. Working as an outbound caller at CFCA has given me a different perspective on what it means to “sell someone” on an idea. Here our efforts begin and end with prayer. We meet once a week to pray as a group. We ask for God’s assistance in opening the hearts of the pastors that we contact, asking for permission to visit their parish to present the work of CFCA. These prayers are a powerful source of the energy that we need to make the calls.

The parish contact team praying for successful phone calls. From left to right: Vicki, Al, Joan, Cathy, Jim and Adrian

I am encouraged by the kind words of the people that I work with from other departments. They recognize how difficult it is to make call after call every day. That acknowledgment gives me hope. Most people would acknowledge that they wouldn’t want to do what we do, with comments like, “I could never do that” or “I admire your determination, I wouldn’t be able to keep calling if I got turned down.”

God gives us all unique charisms. The members of the call team have all been blessed with the ability to handle rejection and keep going. Each of us has a different way of motivating ourselves to make the next call. The wonderful ladies from the call team in Florida who are much more experienced at this have taught us a lot. They tell us “’No’ means no today.” And they are right: I have called pastors a year after they turned us down, and they have invited us to come to their parish.

We always keep in mind the integrity of CFCA and what it means to protect that image. As a sales person, you are always trying to find different ways to overcome objections. As one representing CFCA to the Catholic community in America, we want to do everything possible to show the priests and parishioners that, above all else, CFCA is a worldwide community of compassion and service, as our mission statement explains.

We are working for the children, youth and elderly and keeping that in mind helps us stay focused. Being human, we complain if the work area is too hot or too cold. We get discouraged and tired. But, all it takes is to look at the face of one of those waiting to be sponsored or of the sponsored individuals we have helped in the pictures around the office, and we are reminded of how important the work is.

Calling busy parish pastors to get our presenter priests invited to share the message of CFCA is not easy, but it is a labor of love. And when we are able to ring the bell indicating a priest has been invited, we celebrate with great joy knowing that we did the work, but God accomplished it.

This is the first of four entries in the parish contact series. Read more here:
Part 2: Learning is an evolution
Part 3: ‘Lord, … help me do your work’
Part 4: Every time a bell rings, a child gets closer to sponsorship

We are concerned about personal development and training for young people and teenagers, who are a vulnerable population and are in constant danger of falling into juvenile delinquency.

Through the Centro Familiar (Family Center), we prepare activities for teenagers that address personal growth, values and respect for life. As part of this program, we have given two workshops this year: career counseling and values and dating. The career counseling workshop involved a personality survey to help the participants see which profession would best suit them.

These two workshops attracted 1,807 teenagers, with some attending from every subproject.

Another activity is a camp we offer every year. Its goal is to make use of the teenagers’ free time during vacation for formation activities that focus on personal development. The camps have an educational and formative theme. Various activities are offered such as crafts, visual arts, theater, writing composition, table sports, and racket sports. The camp ends in Santo Domingo with the distribution of participant awards, a medal and a trophy, to each first, second, and third place winner.

Upon reflection, this activity’s importance stood out because the teenagers participated in healthy activities during their vacation and distanced themselves from other activities that might have been detrimental to their well-being. Also, they appreciated the involvement of and interaction with teenagers from other subprojects. This interaction is just what we wanted, that CFCA become one big family. We have made an effort so that every teenager can participate in the camps, which we believe will help them in the future to become better citizens.

During the 2009 camp, we had 350 teenagers benefit from the program.

“It was just a wonderful, happy feeling!” Mary said of meeting Erick. “I have sponsored him for three years now. It feels kind of like having a second son. I feel it will be easier to write letters to him now that I’ve met him and know more about him and his family.”

After talking for some time, Mary learned that Erick’s mother, Valentina, washes clothes for a living, which brings in about $7 on a good day. But, what she really wanted to do is to cook pupusas.

If she could have the small stove required to make pupusas, she could not only bring in a more steady income, but she could also stay at home to raise her children. This was important to Mary, who stayed home to raise her children when they were small.

Mary worked with the local CFCA staff and was able to purchase the stove. Now Erick’s mother will be able to stay at home with her children and raise money to support the family.

Two years later …

Valentina says that having the stove has helped greatly with her children’s nutrition. She also cooks tortillas and pupusas, which she sells by going from house to house. She is very happy.

Since Valentina no longer has to work outside the house, she can now dedicate more time in the fields to cultivating corn and beans. She uses the harvest as ingredients for the pupusas. All of this helps cover some of the expenses of the family.

Thanks to the stove, Valentina has seen many good changes in the past two years, including spending more time with her five children, working together with her family, being more mindful of them with regards to their studies and other activities in which they participate.

She is managing to support her family without the help of her husband who had the opportunity to migrate to the United States for work. But, at this point, the family has not received any support from him. So Valentina and her children are very thankful to Erick’s sponsor for buying the stove for them. They will forever be grateful to her and will always keep her in their prayers.

Erick, who is now 13, says the family works better together, and he is happy because he can spend more time together with his mother helping her with work. He no longer has to to stay home alone, since his mother is never too far from home and is always there to help him and his brothers. He feels very secure having her near him.

View more photos of Erick and his family on our Facebook page.

My name is Flor Maria. I am 74, and I live in Costa Rica.

My father died when I was 10, and my mother took care of me after that. She made sweets, and I sold them. I have 10 children. They live in different parts of the country. Some are married, others are divorced.

It’s difficult to be an aging person in Costa Rica. Our reality is hard. I have seen other elderly women begging in the street, even sleeping there. We aging have much potential. Look at me. I am able. My hands cook rice. I can make beans. I can scrub a floor from one side to the other, but clearly I can’t do it all in one day. I have to do a little at a time: one part today, another tomorrow.

I was taking classes in handicrafts when I first met CFCA. I told the social workers about my life, and they said they could support me. They give so much help for those who need it. I suffer from many illnesses, and thanks to CFCA, I receive the medicines I need. As part of CFCA, one feels supported. One feels calmer. They even help me with my school supplies and other expenses.

Returning to school:
I left school when I was 12, but thanks be to God, I returned to school and finished sixth grade at the age of 50. The situation was difficult. Nevertheless, I always wanted to study. I always wanted a degree as a lawyer to defend others.

When I was little, my school had few seats, teachers and everything else. It was very poor. At times, they taught sewing, and they didn’t have the materials. They didn’t have notebooks. So, I decided to leave school. When I was in school, I remembered doing homework before and after class.

Now, I have returned to school; only now I am 74, and it isn’t easy. I remember on my first day of class, one of my daughters said, “Oh, no, Mother. Don’t go to school.” I simply did not pay attention to her. I want to do what I want, and I want to learn, to study; to prepare myself.

Going back to school at my age is beautiful. I feel like any other student with a desire to learn and advance. Everyone knows that I have studied, and that I don’t want to leave my studies unfinished. Some tell me to drop out of school, but I just ignore them.

School has helped me a lot. I am more alert because they say my neurons have awakened.

Many women attend my school, because they teach many subjects there—sewing, tailoring, etc. I don’t have a favorite class because I believe that, for students, all material should be their favorites. I am taking six classes: Spanish, science, English, civics, mathematics and social studies.

Before my tests, I drink a glass of chamomile tea because they say it’s good for the nerves. This calms me. I tell myself, “Don’t get nervous. Don’t get nervous. God will take care of everything else.”

Sundays, when I go to school, I get up at 5 a.m. I prepare breakfast and lunch. Later, I grab my backpack with my notebooks, and I leave early since I start at 8 a.m.

In the afternoon, around 4 p.m., I go home. I drink a cup of coffee and rest. I do homework during the week. For example, today I have some homework in Spanish. I have to answer the following questions: Who am I? What do I want to be? I am not going to answer much. What I will write is: “I am Flor de Maria. I am 74 years old. I want to be a lawyer. Granted, this isn’t up to me. This is up to God.”

Flor’s words of wisdom
I want to say to the youth to take advantage of their time in school because it will lead them to better work and higher pay. Your studies will keep you on the good path and keep you away from vices. Don’t lose your youth. Don’t lose this moment because one day, you are going to want it back like I do now.

My message for the elderly is to study to keep your neurons working, so you don’t get Alzheimers!

Sponsors always have questions about their sponsored friends and about how CFCA is helping make that connection between a good-hearted individual and a person brimming with potential but in need of help. Questions sometimes include inquiries about culture, benefits, why letters take so long, and what to write. It is a joy to see that curiosity and to pass on what information I can from the child’s point of view.

It might come as a surprise to some sponsors that the children and the elderly have the same questions. Why do letters take so long? What is their sponsor’s culture like? What kind of conditions do they live in? Why does my sponsor leave the program? And, the social workers do a great job in explaining the information they have to the children. But the best way to satisfy the curiosity of the child is through a letter.

Unfortunately, there is always a day when that relationship comes to a practical end, though in our hearts and prayers it continues for a lifetime. There are also questions about this, and it is hard to have to explain, but we can see God’s will allowing us to walk hand-in-hand with someone for a time, and then Him seeing fit to have us part ways.

It’s a tough subject to approach, but when, for some reason, a sponsor or a child leaves the program, a final letter makes the transition a little easier. Even if the sponsor has to stop because of loss of a job, loss of a loved one, or simply because they have other responsibilities, it is always so caring to write a letter letting them know.

The children, the elderly, or someone who knows them usually writes a final letter to the sponsor, and though it might not be satisfying, and it is bittersweet, there is closure. And just like the questions that the children have, a letter from their sponsor is also bittersweet, but it gives them closure.

I guess what I mean to say is that in Sponsor Services, we work so hard for you to see your sponsored friend’s point of view, but I want to make you aware that they also want to see yours. They are the reason we sponsor; you are the reason they strive for a better future.

We have approximately 270,000 sponsors, and we want to hear from you. Why do you sponsor with CFCA? What would you tell others about sponsoring through CFCA? Share your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.

Watch the following video to meet Cristina.

I had the opportunity to go on a mission awareness trip to Bogota, Colombia last week, and I met Juliana, the girl that I have sponsored for the past two and a half years, along with her family. I won’t say that the trip was life changing in an earth-shattering-kind-of way, but there was a more subtle change, soft, like the rose petals that surrounded us along the entire trip.

I spent a day with Juliana and her mother, Elizabeth, and we shared stories about our families and about challenges we had to overcome, about our likes and dislikes, about plans we have for the future. We felt that we were a part of the same family, and said as much to each other. What I told her is that I saw hope in her eyes and in her voice, and in turn, that gave me hope. Hope for a family. Hope for MY family.

Elizabeth is going to be a grandmother at 35. Her oldest daughter, Deisy, is going to have a baby in November. Deisy’s only 15. But this family doesn’t sit back and feel sorry for themselves: they are already talking about the baby, talking to the baby and planning on how to make his or her life better and brighter. Deisy and the baby’s father are both planning on continuing school, Elizabeth intends to stay home with her grandchild, and give that opportunity of education to her children.

It’s a simple story, a reality that is not uncommon in these communities, but I think that Elizabeth’s sacrifice of her personal goals and dreams to give her family a better life, is, in a way, fulfilling her goal. As a mother, I understand that, and I understand that it’s not always easy. That’s what gives ME hope as I support this family. That the love of a mother can help make the world a better place, that sponsoring Juliana and giving the family an opportunity to overcome their poverty can encourage them to stay hopeful.

Mothers like Elizabeth plant seeds of hope in their children and cultivate that hope. And the end result is as beautiful as the roses that are planted and cultivated in that region of Colombia. It’s tangible, and it’s just the most beautiful feeling.

Tensions continue to rise as the daily violence in El Salvador grows ever more dangerous.

On June 20, that violence impacted the CFCA community when two mass transit buses were attacked. One sponsored child was injured. Her sister and the father of two other sponsored children were killed.



”The critical condition of the country is creating a tremendous amount of anxiety among the people,” Henry Flores, director of the communication center in El Salvador, said. “In spite of this reality, the spirit of the sponsored families and staff stays strong.”

Please pray
Heavenly Father, we pray for the protection of the Salvadoran people and all those who live in areas of great tension and conflict. Look with compassion upon them as they face violence and injustice, and heal those who have endured harm. Help all of us to learn peaceful ways of solving our earthly problems. Teach us to work toward a more just world. Amen.


Blessings,
CFCA Prayer Team

Read more about the June attacks on our website.

As Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day, let us remember those around the world who struggle daily for another kind of freedom: economic freedom.

In CFCA communities around the world, individuals are making sacrifices every day to achieve economic freedom. They are hungry for opportunity and will make heroic efforts to improve life for their families instead of remaining imprisoned by poverty. They walk great distances, study long hours and engage in backbreaking work. They are living examples that the human spirit burns brightly, even in the bleakest of circumstances.

Please pray
Dear Lord, help us to see the blessings and freedoms we enjoy and not take them for granted. Keep ever present in our minds the pleas of our brothers and sisters struggling to break free from poverty. Send your Spirit to work through us to help others develop their talents and become self-reliant. Keep this fire of struggle alive in our hearts until all your people are free from poverty. Amen.

Blessings,

CFCA Prayer Team

Related post:
Celebrating freedom

Thank you for your hard work, Clare!

It all started when my teacher assigned our reading class to each do a service project. My family supports a little girl named Jarling through CFCA. I decided that I could help boys and girls like her. My mom and I decided I could sell flowers after church on Valentine’s Day. We earned at least $100, but that was just the beginning. Next, I worked with two seniors from Culver Academies to do a tie-dye workshop at my school. It was a huge success, and a whole lot of fun.

My overall total was at least $700. I enjoyed it a lot. I hope to continue helping others and I want to do the workshop again.

I usually get up at 6 a.m. I eat breakfast and, later in the morning, I help my mother with the house chores, especially sweeping and washing dishes.

Right now, I am in fifth grade, and my favorite subject is mathematics. I usually leave for school around noon. I walk for about 10 minutes to get to school. It is not far.

I have received some cards and letters from my sponsors, having them brings happiness and joy to my life, I am very happy to be sponsored by them and CFCA.

If my sponsors were here I would offer them my gratitude for everything that they have done and given me. They are very special.

Have you ever wondered about the letters you receive from your friend? Read Dani Pollock’s blog post about the letter-writing process in Honduras where she is serving as a CFCA volunteer.

You can also learn more about Francini’s home life by visiting walk2gether.org.

Thirteen years ago, there was a young girl in the Colombian town of Tarso with no clear goals or dreams. But one day some people came by her house asking what the needs of her family were, and suddenly a hope for her future awakened.

Thanks to the those social workers and two angels, her sponsors, the young girl, Yuli, started to feel motivated in her schooling and improving herself each day. God was granting her opportunities through the people Yuli considered her angels.

As the years went on, Yuli, the girl who previously didn’t have any aspirations, now had a defined path. She was attending high school as a result of the financial support and encouragement of her angels, and kept focused on the dream she wanted to accomplish, which was to graduate.

Yuli, with determination, kept telling herself, “I will keep on no matter what.” Her efforts were worth it as she reached that goal and after graduation started a career with CFCA’s Madre Paula project.

She experienced the love of her angels and is grateful to them for the many years of spiritual and financial help. Yuli also thanks God for allowing her journey to cross paths with her sponsors.

Yuli’s words of wisdom:

“Life has great opportunities in store for the ones who assume challenges and take risks.

Sponsorship may change the course of a person’s life entirely if that person learns to take full advantage of it, but their work does not end there. They must become like a hummingbird that is so skillful in spreading seeds from branch to branch, from flower to flower. There are not limits but definite purposes for the ones that take the opportunity.

Dream, fly, share and never forget that there will be angels on your way.”

This reflection was written by Deisy Yuliana Betancur Cardenas, former sponsored child and now a CFCA staff member in the Madre Paula project in Colombia. Yuli shared her reflection with participants on a CFCA mission awareness trip in Colombia in May.

In 2003, my family and I attended a mission, which was held at our parish for three consecutive nights. A mission is when parishioners come together to enliven their spiritual life. The visiting priest during the mission was a presenter for Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. On the final night, we went to the basement of the church where we had the opportunity to sponsor a person in a developing country. The folders lining the tables contained photos and information of the children, youth and aging waiting to be sponsored. 

Our experience during the mission inspired us, and we were open to seeing what this was all about. Our youngest two girls were 10 and 8 years old, so they were all about helping us choose. We knew it would be Juan, a young boy from Colombia, the moment we saw his photo. We had no idea what had just begun.

Our sponsorship began that night – a little writing back and forth, when we could squeeze it in. We were excited about the letters we received from him, and we would occasionally read the CFCA publications that were sent to us. Later, Juan was retired when he moved out of the CFCA service area, and we were given another little boy, named Santiago, “Santi.”  The beautiful look on his face warmed us. 

I did most of the writing in the family. But I still didn’t understand that sponsorship was more than the money. I figured, well, at least we are sending the money and that’s good even if the letters did not get written. 

In August 2009, I began looking diligently for a job. My youngest daughters were now both in high school, and our family needed additional income for school and their increased activities. I really don’t remember how I ended up on CFCA’s website and looking at the employment section, but I did and that’s where I saw the posting for Parish Contact. 

This position required calling parishes in the United States to see if their pastors were open to having one of CFCA’s presenters visit the parish and talk about CFCA. I applied and got the job. The Lord has blessed me and our family with this opportunity. 

In thanksgiving for finding employment and for an answer to our prayers, we decided to begin an additional sponsorship of another little boy. This time our new friend lived in Kenya. Stanley, “Vin,” as he is fondly called, was specifically chosen to honor a former employer named Stanley, who was also from Kenya. 

I’ve worked at CFCA for almost a year now, and I’ve learned so much about what sponsorship is really all about. You might think that we are making such an impact on their lives, but really, they are the ones that fill us with joy and give us an opportunity to serve. The money provides, of course, much needed food and helps cover educational needs, but the developing friendship between two families who were perfect strangers before, is what sponsorship is truly all about.

Learning more about CFCA has enhanced my sponsorship experience and my friendship with Vin and Santi. I treasure their letters. I am like a child at Christmas when I see them in the mail. I can’t open them quickly enough. I read all the publications and check the blog and website for new stories, too. Throughout the day, I am always wondering, “What has Santi learned to do now?” or “What is Vin doing in school?” The pictures are priceless. To see them grow up right before your eyes, looking healthy and happy, is what is most important. I keep their photos framed on my desk at work and at home. I ask God to bless them and their families, and keep them safe always, along with my own children and grandchildren.  

Today, we want to honor the memory of those nine children who died in the mudslides. The short video below is a small tribute to our dear friends.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

*As is our policy, we do not release names of the deceased until the sponsors have been notified first.

I can’t tell you how many times I have started this blog post about Father’s Day, only to delete it and start over. It’s a curious thing to write about fathers. Many of the families we serve, especially in Latin America, are headed by a single mother because the father has abandoned his family. In other cases, wives and children are subjected to abuse by frustrated men who can’t provide for their family.

And, yet, I can’t help but feel guilty for making such sweeping, stereotypical statements about fathers because there are so many loving, gentle fathers who are focused on creating a better life for their family.

So, I decided that, rather than give you one story for Father’s Day to read through the weekend, I would find all the inspirational father stories and anecdotes that I could think of — from the heart-warming to the heart breaking.

Below you will find excerpts and links to stories gathered from our blog and website.

Enjoy!

“I am focused on everything I can do to bring up my children with an honest life and to help them graduate,” Daniel Ernesto said. “Once my children are grown and have graduated, I will feel satisfied. Then, I may have a chance to think about me and my life.”
From Focused on his children

Hector has a fierce love for his wife and children. He protects them and ensures that they have what they need. And, education is his first priority. “Sometimes my children help me in my plantation, but school is first, so I work alone most of the time.”
From The courage and love of a father

A man who is still searching the mud for family members said, “I am going to look for them until I find their bodies. I have lost everything.
From Mudslides devastate towns in the blink of an eye

An ERPAT father named Federico shared his experience in helping Allan, 10, overcome the trauma caused by Typhoon Ondoy.
From Opening the window

El Salvador celebrates Father’s Day. CFCA’s El Salvador Director of Communications Henry Flores shows us how CFCA supports that celebration on this special day.
Watch Celebrating fathers in El Salvador

CFCA fathers groups were instrumental in the response to the typhoons in the Philippines.
From Photos from the Philippines

For Rene, his most important role as a father is sharing the reality of life with his children. This includes “explaining the good and bad effects of drinking too much alcohol, behaving as a model in whatever I do, and encouraging my children to study until they earn the highest degree they can,” he said.
From CFCA’s website

Please pray
Our Father, we give you thanks for the men around the world who serve as protectors and guides for their families. Let your strength be their strength, let your wisdom be their wisdom, let your love shine through them. We pray for those men who struggle to fulfill their role as fathers to their children. Help them to know your grace. Bless the bonds of love that exist between all fathers and their families.
From Prayer Partners

The Chinese proverb says: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” May you walk with a song in your heart.

Since the Word of God is always the same, but ever new to us, a quote from Psalms:
“I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 116

May our Brother be your strength and protection as you walk with his brothers and sisters. Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

May you walk in hope-filled witness, embodying the spirit and faith, the joys and struggles of all who have walked and prayed these paths.

May you walk with the assurance of a daily remembrance in my Mass and prayers that you be blessed with peace and safety as you walk with and for the poor, bringing hope for families.

May you walk … with the sun on your face, with the wind at your back, with peace of mind, and with all of us in your heart.

Que abunda el frijol
Que abunda el maíz
Y que seas muy feliz
Que abunda el frijol
Que abunda el arroz
Y que te bendiga Dios.

Que Dios te Bendiga! Yo espero que yo puedo unir su viaje siguio el camino. Su amigo tambien.

May the light of God illumine the heart of your soul.
May the flame of Christ kindle you to love.
May the fire of the Spirit free you to live and keep you well on your journey.

~ With Love,
2010 CFCA Board of Directors
Scott Wasserman, Chief Governing Officer
Ed Herman, Treasurer
Rev. Allan Weinert, C.Ss.R., Secretary
Catherine Crosby
Eileen Greenlay
Louis Guillou
Rev. Vince Haselhorst
Anne Ryder
Carolyn Zimmerman

What is your name?
My name is Stanley Remberto Santillana Ortiz.

How many children are in the soccer camp?
In the soccer camp, we have approximately 25-30 children.

What is the average age of the children?
It fluctuates between the ages of 7 and 18.

Why does CFCA offer this camp?
They offer this camp to introduce some soccer basics to the children and to give them an opportunity to be together and understand the sport.

What is the value that this camp brings to the sponsorship program?
The value that it brings is to give the children a little more attention in the area of sports and, at the same time, it doesn’t distract them from their studies. Both are very important.

What part of the training do the children enjoy the most?
What the children most enjoy is perhaps after the training, they have a scrimmage – a little game. This is the thing they like the most.

How long have they been training?
We have been training and practicing for about a year and three months.

What is the idea or goal for the kids who come to soccer practice?
The fundamental idea is for the child to have fun, and that the child learns to play soccer. Our goal is to include them in a soccer tournament where they can compete with other teams and they can have healthy fun and play together.

How is the practice? What time do you start and how long do they practice?
We have practice Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Tuesdays and Thursdays, practices are in the morning from 8-10. We begin with stretching, physical movements, then we do tactical movements and techniques with the ball. Finally, we end with a game.

What satisfaction do you get from coaching soccer?
Since I was little, I have always liked soccer, and the children motivate me, because I see their satisfaction when they are playing. This encourages me to follow through with them.

What changes have you seen in the children?
Many of them used to spend their time at home doing nothing. One is capable of detecting when a child doesn’t have advanced, motivating activities. During our training, I have seen the improvement and evolution that it has given the child. I can see it there already when they run, kick the ball or whatever we are doing on the training field.

Is it difficult to coach the children?
Well, difficult, no, although sometimes there are children with a stronger temperament, and as a coach, you have to learn when to avoid or to respond to their temperaments, but it is not difficult. It is all about knowing the way children are and then getting along with them.

What do you do when a child has a strong temper?
When we have a child like that, I speak with him or her. If this does not work, I can take him or her out of the practice, and it is then when the child reflects and thinks “I am being taken out of the practice, and I want to continue playing. I better behave because I want to be in the practice,” This is a good way to mold his or her personality, and things calm down at the same time.

What are the difficulties that children face in order to come to the practice?
I would say that the difficulties I have seen are, sometimes, their own parents. Sometimes parents tell their children “Look, don’t go to practice because you need to work or need to do this and that.” For example, to pick coffee during the picking season. The child discontinues training because there is no other option, and this is the biggest difficulty I see. The child can be highly motivated, but when parents say this is it, they feel very discouraged.

What is their preparation right before a game?
Well, they all get dressed and geared up. We do some stretching, some movements with the ball, and then I talk to them and tell them what we are going to do once we are on the field and how we need to get ready.

When you have the children gathered together, what do you tell them?
My words are mostly motivational and encouraging, to play the way we have been during the week, just to pass the ball around and to kick it to the goal posts. I try to keep them motivated.

Have you won any games?
We have won games and we have also lost games. Sometimes we have won with a difference of six or seven goals, and the children feel very motivated, but when we are losing, they don’t like it too much. They don’t like losing, but it is just another way you learn.

When you win, how do you reward them? When you lose, what do you tell them?
When we win, I congratulate them all. When we lose, I encourage them to continue working hard during the training sessions.

*Thank you again to Naresly Callito for the interview and to Daniel Hernandez for the photos and video footage.

Soccer, or football, depending on where you live, is a widely popular game among children and adults alike. In El Salvador, the CFCA Santa Ana project provides a soccer training camp for sponsored children as part of the sponsorship program benefits. We sent field reporters* Daniel Hernandez and Naresly Callito to interview some of the kids about the camp and find out which team they will be supporting this year’s World Cup.

We have soccer fever. Do you?

Name: Eduardo Age: 16 World Cup team: Spain, because I believe that they have many important players. Favorite player: My favorite player is Fernando Torres because he is very good at finishing the play and feints well. What do you like the most about the CFCA soccer camp? I like the training that they give us. The thing that I like the most about the soccer camp is that we scrimmage at the end of practice. And, I like hanging out with my friends.
Name: Jonathan Age: 13 World Cup team: The team that I support for the World Cup is Brazil because they have many important players like Kaká. Favorite player: My favorite player is Messi, because when he goes to score a goal, he is very quick. He has good technique and passes well. What do you like the most about the CFCA soccer camp? The thing that I like the most about the soccer camp is coming to play soccer with my friends and kicking around the ball.
Name: Jennifer Age: 14 World Cup team: The team I support is Honduras because it is a Central American team and has many good players. Favorite player: Lionel Messi, because he is a good player. He goes head to head with the goalkeeper and is very fast. What do you like the most about the CFCA soccer camp? The thing that I like the most is sharing with my teammates. Attending the camp entertains me. I learn a little more each time from what they teach us and it is an unforgettable experience.

Check back tomorrow for a video and blog post about the soccer camp in El Salvador. In the meantime, you can view some photos of the soccer camp on our Facebook page.

*A big thanks to Daniel and Naresly, two journalism students who are interning with CFCA under the supervision of Henry Flores, director of the communications center in El Salvador.

Sunilde (left), Barquisimeto project coordinator in Venezuela at the border with Judith, Bogota, Colombia, project coordinator

With an emotional encounter between Colombian and Venezuelan colleagues in Paraguachon, Colombia, Walk2gether ended its time in Venezuela, leaving behind in each of us a process of profound reflection, inspired by shared moments and all the things we’ve seen during this long journey.

Also, this encounter between colleagues reaffirms that there are no borders when our unity comes from God. The most important thing is that with this experience, we understand a little more about the challenge set before us by CFCA to give hope to families.

Likewise, the walk allowed us to affirm our own reality in the context of strengths and weaknesses clearly evidenced on the route/trip.

Strengths

• Beautiful landscapes

• The presence of our CFCA families (parents, guardians, boys, girls, teenagers and the elderly), giving us their support and solidarity at all times.

• The support we received from people and families who aren’t a part of the sponsorship program.

• The logistical support on the part of the sponsored teenagers and scholarship students.

Weaknesses

• The large quantities of trash observed along the route of the walk.

• Dead animals, the majority of which were run over on the highways.

• Violence along the roads committed by the drivers of the vehicles.

Challenges raised by the Walk
We are called from this point forward to a series of very significant challenges in our community-level intervention and especially, in our work with CFCA families:

Social challenges

• Learn to live in community.

• Respect diversity in its different manifestations: ethnic, political, religious, cultural and others.

• Relationship with the environment of which we are a part.

• Emphasize a true culture of peace.

• Quality education for all.

Challenges to life

• Respect life. Encourage a culture of life to counter the culture of death that reveals itself to us in the form of violence and threatens individual security.

• Protection for the lives of animals.

• Respect for human rights.

Environmental challenges

• Elimination of trash, starting with the communities where we work.

• Beautifying the communities.

• Care and conservation of natural resources.

I say goodbye with sincere thanks for this experience, and for Bob and Cristina’s presence among us as symbols of peace and brotherhood among all people.

Sincerely,
Sunilde Pérez
Barquisimeto Project Coordinator, Venezuela

It was 6:15 p.m. on Saturday when a loud crack followed by tons of mud, rocks and trees wiped away 26 homes in San Antonio Palopo, taking the lives of at least 18 people, including CFCA sponsored children. It is unknown how many sponsored members have died from the storms.

A purse and a pair of boots are recovered from a home after mudslides in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala.

Many families were having dinner and with no previous notice. They lost everything in the blink of an eye. Local authorities estimate that there are another 32 homes in a high risk area and can collapse at any time. Many families are staying with relatives, some in churches, the municipality building and in the CFCA office building in San Antonio.

A lot of people cannot make a living anymore. Mothers who weave lost their weaving materials, fathers that fish lost their little canoes and day laborers cannot work because they lost their tools. Children have been left orphans. Entire families lost their lives, beds, clothes and everything they had.

A total of 15 bodies were buried Sunday morning. The people of San Antonio Palopo came together in solidarity to say goodbye in a town procession to the local cemetery. Monday, four more bodies were buried. Rescue teams continue searching for people with nothing more than their bare hands and a few hand tools. Only their faith gives them strength to persist.

CFCA staff stand at the base of a deadly mudslide in San Antonio Palopo, Guatemala.

A man who is still searching the mud for family members said, “I am going to look for them until I find their bodies. I have lost everything. I don’t have a home or money. I haven’t changed clothing until today. Neighbors gave me clothes because I have nothing left.”

Pedro lost two children and his wife, and now it is only him and his little girl that must find strength to continue.

“All of our people are sad. Our town is in tears,” said a mother of a missing sponsored boy.

Antonio Perez Diaz, a CFCA social worker in San Antonio Palopo said, “I am from San Antonio and I feel the pain of my people. Yesterday, we did not feel like eating. There is a lot of pain and tears.”

A father of a sponsored boy who died recounted the evening of the storms:

“We were all together at home. There was a lot of rain. The water always comes through here, but this time it was too much. By the time we realized our home was swept away, my boy and I ran one way and my wife and my girl ran the other way. We went to my father-in-law’s where we thought we would be safe.

“[My son] was in that home when all of a sudden there was a big crack and when I turned, my father-in-law’s home was gone, too. I searched and I found my wife and my daughter, but I could not find [my son]. He did not make it. They found his body at the door with debris on his head. He was dead. We buried him on Sunday.

“I don’t know where to start over again. My hope is to support my wife and my little girl, I need to work hard and continue life, and this is how we are now.”

Diaz said, “Your thoughts and prayers are very valuable to us. Here we feel that we are not alone through your support. We have lost loved ones, but we thank CFCA for the solidarity and for sharing our struggle, and being a source of hope at this moment.”

The people of San Antonio have stepped forward to give a helping hand to their neighbor. We have seen how this has brought the occasion to rebuild a stronger community.

Please visit the CFCA website for more information about the impact of Tropical Storm Agatha on CFCA communities, including the following news stories:

Community struggles with loss, uncertainty after deadly storm

CFCA helps families after tragic storm in Central America

Four sponsored children die in Guatemala mudslides

Today, we received word that five sponsored children from CFCA’s Atitlan project in Guatemala are confirmed dead from mudslides, with four sponsored children still missing. This is updated from our news story posted yesterday. Our policy is not to release names of the deceased until we are able to contact their sponsors. Projects in Honduras and El Salvador have not reported any deaths.

Staff members in all three countries are still assessing damages. We will update you as we receive more information from the field.

Please pray with us for the precious children who lost their lives and for the healing and comfort of their families, communities and sponsors. We also pray that the four missing children will be found, and for the recovery of all those affected by the storms.

For more details, please see the news story on our website.

Sponsors and others wishing to help may donate to CFCA’s Disaster Assistance Fund. One hundred percent of donations to this fund are sent to CFCA projects to help individuals and families affected by disasters. Funds donated are used where they are most needed, and CFCA retains discretion as to the use of the funds. In addition to emergency relief, contributions may be used for long-term assistance.

We ended up receiving 150 people last night. Some of them are from around here and have lost their homes or were evacuated, others got stuck in San Lucas when the roads were blocked, and some were from a bus that slid off the road during the rain.

This morning the rain has stopped, and the clouds briefly cleared enough to see the volcanoes behind the CFCA center. We could see at least half a dozen mudslides on the volcano closer to us. Then the clouds came back. The radio says the worst of the rain will start early tomorrow morning and run all morning. They are also reporting that already some of the rivers around here are running higher than they were during Hurricanes Stan and Mitch.

Some people who had been separated from their families left on foot this morning to find their families. Others took advantage of the break in the rain to try to get to the houses of relatives or check on their homes. Everyone is afraid of having their things stolen while they are away. We still have at least 100 here. The city said they would bring food for them this morning, but nothing has arrived yet. We made coffee for everyone, and Brother Jorge (Hermano Pedro project coordinator) is now cooking some porridge for them. Actually, some of the mothers are cooking the porridge because none of us knew how to make such large quantities, and we didn’t want to ruin the batch.

After the devastation of Hurricane Stan in 2005, the Hermano Pedro project implemented the practice of holding two quetzales (about $0.25) per child per month for disasters like this. That fund will be used for immediate response. Because this storm has hit some parts of the country where CFCA has a lot of sponsored children, it is likely many have been affected.

Unless the weather clears up considerably, we probably won’t know until at least mid-week how many sponsored families are affected or what the exact damage is. Some of the Hermano Pedro staff live in different parts of the country than where they work. The storm hit on the weekend, so some of those staff members will have difficulty just getting back to their subprojects with so many roads blocked by mudslides. We heard that the costal route from San Lucas to Guatemala City is closed indefinitely because a bridge was washed away. Other routes in and out are also blocked by mud, rocks and trees. I don’t think it’s possible to get to Guatemala City from San Lucas at this time.

Related links:
Read more about the storm.

Sponsors and others wishing to help may donate to CFCA’s Disaster Assistance Fund. One hundred percent of donations to this fund are sent to CFCA projects to help individuals and families affected by disasters. Funds donated are used where they are most needed, and CFCA retains discretion as to the use of the funds. In addition to emergency relief, contributions may be used for long-term assistance.

By Malou Navio, CFCA Antipolo project coodinator

An ERPAT father named Federico shared his experience in helping Allan, 10, overcome the trauma caused by Typhoon Ondoy. Allan and his family stayed in one of the Antipolo evacuation centers until April.

Children used artistic means to express their loss after the typhoon.

The ERPAT fathers held activities for the children on the second floor of the center. Allan was always silent and withdrawn. He glued himself to the window, staring toward the direction where his family’s home was. He refused to take the meals served at the activities.

Then, there was an artwork activity Federico facilitated that allowed the children to express their feelings. Allan, while staying at the window, was encouraged by Federico to draw what he was thinking about and talk about his feelings. Federico is a sculptor and construction worker.

When the children finished their artwork, they sat around where Allan was. They were encouraged to share their drawings and feelings. Many children expressed loneliness that their homes were destroyed and their belongings that were lost. The group influenced Allan to talk. Allan cried because he saw his pet dog struggling from the current of floodwater until the dog disappeared. After that, their home and the surrounding homes were sinking. He cried and cried.

After his sharing, Federico asked him how he was feeling, and Allan responded that he felt better. Federico deepened the value of the activity: emphasizing that life is more precious than anything else, the acceptance of the natural disaster, the letting go of the losses, and the love of nature and God.

Federico closely observed Allan in the follow-up activities. As the day went by, Allan was interactive. He played with other children and joined them in meals. Allan and his family returned to their newly repaired home assisted by the government, and Allan resumed schooling.

Read more about the ERPAT fathers on our website.

Allie Kline
My name is Allie Kline, and I’m a junior communication major at Missouri State University. In my free time, I like to hang out with my friends and family, watch St. Louis Cardinals baseball and read. I’ve been involved with CFCA since 2000. I have been sponsoring Allison in Costa Rica since 2006 and visited her and her family on a mission awareness trip in 2009.

Sami Freese
My name is Sami, and I live in Denver, Colo. I’m in between my junior and senior year of high school, and I’m 17 years old. I did speak at NCYC, so those of you who were there, hi again! Those who weren’t, hello for the first time! I’ve been sponsoring with CFCA since I was 8, and I went on a mission awareness trip two years ago. CFCA and sponsorship is a big part of who I am, and I’ve realized I can help those in need. It has been an eye-opening and deeply humbling experience, and I hope to share it with you.

I’ve been sponsoring Maria Guadalupe (Lupita) since she was four – now she’s thirteen. Eight years!! I hadn’t realized that it had been that long.

In those eight years, I fell in love, received tenure, married, became pregnant, left my job, had and lost my daughter (Dec 24-26, 2001), survived a very turbulent marriage, divorced, changed jobs twice more, and moved, let’s see – from Massachusetts to Buffalo, to the Finger Lakes (NY), back to Buffalo, to Mississippi, to Pittsburgh.

I always had a comfortable place to sleep, and whatever I wanted to eat, but emotionally, I was a mess, and I coped by burying myself in work. Throughout all these years, Lupita’s letters came, always filled with love, always with a drawing to be posted on my fridge or near my desk. I’ve saved every one of those letters and drawings. She wrote simply, beautifully, and from the heart.

There was always a little something extra in her writing – a touch of sweetness and genuine love, love for her family and for God that shone through the words to touch my heart and put a tear in my eye. Even so, it didn’t really sink in what this sponsorship, and I, really meant to Lupita. I’d come to think of myself as unimportant, in a way, and on the darkest days, perhaps even unworthy of having a daughter. It brought me a great deal of comfort knowing that my donation was helping such a sweet girl to be in school, to have better nutrition and health care, and more.

I am ashamed to admit that my letters to her were very few and far between. I didn’t realize that, while I was wrapped up in my own feelings, piling up the work to keep from thinking too much, numbed with fatigue, and subsequently postponing letters to her for months, that I was denying Lupita the warmth that she so openly shared with me. She always ended her letters with a “God bless you,” and “I love you,” but until I met her in person, I hadn’t realized just how much I mean to her, how important my letters were to her, and how full of love and gratitude our sponsored children, elderly and their families truly are.

It’s more than a donation, it’s a relationship, it’s dignity, it’s larger than words. I felt (and still feel) very humbled, and I am convinced that this is what living in God’s love is all about.

Rafa Villalobos, San Jose project coordinator, said that Jerlin means a lot to the project staff. They felt especially protective of her after her father died.

“In the midst of great difficulty, she has moved on, overcoming obstacles,” Rafa said. “When Don Roberto heard her testimony during a mission awareness trip, he said her story was a cathedral of hope.”

In the video below, Jerlin talks about how the CFCA scholarship program has helped her through many obstacles in life and how receiving a good education is allowing her to achieve her dreams.

In the present day, youth can fall prey to negative social and cultural factors. Fear, misinformation, indecisiveness and peer pressure continue to be hurdles that the youth face. Besides academics, the youth need an opportunity to engage in extra curriculum activities, youth exchange programs and forums, this helps them grow socially.

There was a call to initiate a program that would address their social and emotional needs, aside from the academic needs that the project meets with the assistance of sponsors. The youth program was the ideal way to reach out to the youth, to give them support and encouragement in their lives.

Q. How long have you been sponsored?
A. I have been in the program since 2003, almost 10 years now.

Q. Please describe your family situation.
A. My father lost his job a few years back, forcing him, my mother and two siblings to go back to our rural home. Since we do not have a farm, my parents usually cultivate the land for people on their farms at a fee. My mother sometimes does household chores for people at their homes, like washing clothes, cleaning and cooking.

Q. What are you studying?
A. I am studying at the PCEA community center in Eastleigh, taking a course in automotive engineering.

Q. When will you complete your studies?
A. I am pursuing a diploma, it will take me three years to complete the course. I am now in my second year.

Q. Please describe a challenge you have in your life.
A. The fact that I do not stay with my parents is really hard on me. Sometimes I do not have enough fare or none at all to get to school. There are times I have to walk to college. During lunch hour, I often go hungry. It makes me feel so inferior in the eyes of my college mates.

Q. What do you like about the youth program, and how has it helped you?
A. The youth program allows us to speak out our challenges. It promotes interaction amongst the youth. As an individual, the youth program has been a source of inspiration and motivation. It has helped me cultivate confidence. At the youth forums, I have gathered advice that helps me keep going, regardless of my circumstances.

Q. What is your dream?
A. My dream is to be prosperous in life, to help change my family’s way of life.

Interview was conducted by Regina Mburu of CFCA’s Kenya communication center. You can read more about the youth program on our website.

May God’s peace bless you as we remember these wonderful brothers of ours!

Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of some dear members of our CFCA family:

Jerry Tolle, co-founder of CFCA
Carlos Caballero, president of CFCA Spain and
Jesús Pérez Tapioles, vice president of CFCA/Spain.

They were killed in a car accident in Spain on May 17, 1995.

Jerry had just finished a 40-day CFCA trip to Africa, visiting all the projects on the continent, beginning in Madagascar and ending in Liberia. Carlos and Jesús were taking Jerry from the airport in Madrid to the CFCA office in Valladolid when the accident occurred.

We give thanks to God for each of them, and the way their presence continues to form, guide and energize us.

Please take some time to stop and reflect on the lives of these men whose vision and love helped us to become what we are today.

Here is a wonderful statement from Jerry:

Jerry brought many, many gifts and talents to the founding of CFCA. Yet his love for the children and the elderly and the changes that they made in his life would have to be central.

We keep Jerry, Jesús and Carlos, and their families in our prayers of gratitude.

Mark’s Gospel (9:35-37) says it well:

Jerry, Carlos and Jesús, ¡presentes!

We’ll leave you with an inspirational story of a strong family, sent to us by the CFCA Quezon project.

This is about how Noemi and her family survived the wrath of “Pepeng,” the typhoon that hit Northern Luzon. It was Oct. 8, when the heavy rains and strong winds started to ravage the town where they lived. The family’s small hut was situated on the hill side. The continuous wind and rain made the family nervous and worried, keeping them all awake.

It was midnight when suddenly they heard a roaring sound coming from the mountain. The father cautioned the family to stay close together and to embrace each other, and they prayed. In a minute, they and their hut were being carried by the mudslide coming from the mountain. Even during that time, they never let go of each other. As they struggled against the falling stones and mud, Noemi’s mother seriously injured her arms with a piece of bamboo, but she just ignored it: all she cared about at that time was the safety of her children.

When they were able to come out of their hut, they rushed to their relative’s house for shelter, waiting for the morning to come.

With the project’s aid and with additional assistance from CFCA, the family was able to rebuild a new house and able to start a new life again. With the family’s strong faith and love for each other, they were able to survive the storm that nearly took their lives.

Noemi is a 4th year high school student who has been sponsored since kindergarten.

That’s a powerful statement, but one that we believe wholeheartedly. Mothers know what’s best for their families, and we are here to help support them in their determination to provide a better life for their children. One way we support them is through mothers groups.

The idea of mothers groups began in the Hyderabad, India, project. (For more information about mothers groups, watch these videos.) Mothers groups have since spread to our projects in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Africa. The women are proving themselves capable, successful and supportive. They are wonderful role models for their young children.

On today, International Mothers Day, we want to highlight the accomplishments of some of the women in the St. Anthony mothers group. Head over to our Facebook page to see photos and read more about their success.

We are resting today (Wednesday). We are doing fine here in Colombia. What a best time to rest: we are at the beach right now. So far we have walked 3,162 km since we began in Guatemala. I am looking forward to walking another 1,000 km until June.*

Normally we get up between 2:30 — 3:00 a.m., depending on the distance that we have to travel to get to the place where we ended the previous day. We basically end at 5 p.m., but the other day, we started at 3 a.m. and finished at 6:45 p.m.

The temperature here is getting hotter each day, as we are walking close to the ocean. We are now here in Magdalena leading to Cartagena. The last week we walked in La Guajira, and the heat was terrible. It seems that we walked in the desert — about 100 degrees F. But, we survived.

Tomorrow we will be on the road again. I am refueling myself with the fresh fish and rice that we are having these days. Sir Bob, Ma’am Cristina and the team are absolutely doing fine.

*Editor’s note: Veron will return to the Philippines in June.

How was the experience of Walk2gether entering Colombia?
It was very exciting. It was Saturday, and I was in company of Isabel, another CFCA-Colombia staff member. We did not expect the walk to arrive until the next day. We were at the border, reviewing some plans and, suddenly, we turned toward the Venezuelan side of the border and saw a group of people with traffic vests and flags, and Bob was leading them. I got really excited, they were singing and we started singing back. It was incredible, emotional. All of us from the CFCA team in Colombia, about 60 people, walked to meet them. We laughed, hugged each other. There was joy, smiles and tears, this was an unbelievable moment for me.

Did the Walk2gether group have any problem crossing the border?
They did not have any problem entering Colombia. One thing we were told by the border authorities is that they needed us to keep informing them of the location of the walk every other week so they could be alert.

How was it for you to work with the CFCA Venezuela team to organize the walk?
It has been great! They are a great team: hard-working women and very close to their communities. The project coordinator in Venezuela, Sunilde, and I have an excellent relationship, when we saw each other at the border we both cried, and it was hard to say goodbye.

Sunilde and I have a lot in common. We both share the same spirit for CFCA, the same values, and we both enjoy working with the sponsored members of CFCA. Our dream of finding options for our communities is something that unites us. She is a woman who has done much for the communities in Venezuela.

Sunilde shared with me the rough moments they experienced in Venezuela while walking. In some places, people, in general, understood about the walk, but some who didn’t understand were rude to them.

So, working with the Venezuelan team gives me a sense of admiration because in spite of all their challenges, they are doing so much good for the students, families, communities, etc. Their sponsored children and elderly are people with brave hearts.

What is the feeling of the CFCA Colombian team of welcoming the walk?
Looking at the walkers crossing into Colombia is something that we were dreaming about for a long time. In Colombia, we are excited and happy, hearing our voices united in song with the voices of the Venezuelan team was beautiful.

Ending one section of the walk and beginning a new phase is admirable. The feeling is something hard to describe, it is something that you feel in your heart and soul.

Seeing both flags, Colombian and Venezuelan, waving in the middle of the border between both countries, was like being in limbo, where nothing else mattered. I remembered that borders can be drawn by the men but, in spite of them, CFCA reaches across, like a big family, and words are inadequate to describe this feeling.

The flag of unity of CFCA tells us that something very special is happening in the world and in all of the countries where Walk2gether visits.

My name is Francisco Amilcar, and I live in the community of Cinquera. I am 23 years old and I have been in CFCA since 1995. My mother is Rubenia Marina, 56, and my dad is Juan Francisco, 59.

My dad has always worked in agriculture, and my mother has always taken care of the house. I have 11 siblings: six brothers and five sisters. The youngest one is 13 and is also sponsored by CFCA. My brother Jaime and I are the only ones who made it into university. The rest of my siblings have moved on with their lives. Some work in agriculture, some are housewives and some work in construction.

Raising so many children was difficult for my parents and us. We had to sleep in pairs in one bed. Siblings don’t always get along: I remember getting in pretty good fights with them, but at the same time, it is great growing up with many siblings. The older siblings help the little ones and many times you are more confident with them than with your own parents.

I remember I was in third grade when the local priest and the local catechist came into the classroom and called up all of the children. We were few because, at that moment, few families had returned to resettle the town after the civil war (read about the history of Cinquera ). We were told about the possibility of this sponsorship program. They took our pictures. One year later, we were called to the first meeting and started to receive our first benefits.

One of the most difficult things for me was when I finished junior high. We had no high school in the area so I had to travel to the closest town. My parents could not pay the whole cost, but it was then when the CFCA staff determined that we could use our benefits to cover as much as possible the costs of our education.

I was 14 when I finished ninth grade. For high school, I had to travel 11 kilometers on a dirt and rock road to Tejutepeque, probably about two hours on foot. Transportation service is very limited. Back in those days, we only had three buses the whole day. We had no problem early in the morning because we used to leave town around 6 a.m. But getting back to Cinquera was always a challenge. Many times we could not catch the bus. We had to walk, despite rain and hunger — all we had to eat during the day was some fruit or bread.

In twelfth grade, we had to bring a typewriter to class. I did not have one. There was a handcraft and painting shop at which I became an artisan. We used to sell those products to tourists or vendors. I made some money and bought my typewriter. The machine is in very good condition because I took such a good care of it. I didn’t even want to lay it on the floor. I took care of it because I paid for it.

I finished high school in 2003. The idea for most of the young people at that time was to find a job. Most go to the U.S. to work to help their families. I decided to study computer engineering. But the costs became more expensive. The municipality helped us by providing transportation. They transported us in the city trash truck, but we were happy for the opportunity.

There were times when classmates tried to humiliate me because I was poor and came from a small town and for wearing the same clothes over and over. Of course, we did not have enough to buy new clothes so we always used the same ones.

The teachers started to pay attention to me because I always tried to be good in class, especially in math. My grades were high, too. They selected me to be a math instructor for some classes. They eliminated my monthly tuition, and I had full access to the libraries, computers, Internet. Last year, I graduated as a computer engineer from the National University.

I am currently working at the Reconstruction and Rural Development Association. I am a computer teacher at the small computer lab they have created where local residents come and learn. I get a small salary for this.

My dreams for the future are to give back to my community; to work for the development of Cinquera. I have received a scholarship for a master’s degree in engineering, and I am planning on doing it. Just like the community helped me, I want to help it. Mine is not a dream in which I make money. It is a dream in which my community is well. I also want to form a family, work hard and provide for them.

The story of my sponsors and me is one that can’t be forgotten. Their sponsorship is like a family relationship. They have seen me grow. We have exchanged letters almost every month, and they have always been caring to me.

They are Mary and Bob Adloff, and their daughters, Kara and Dayna. They have been able to know me through letters, and I have been able to know them. I know about their daughters’ education, as well as Bob’s and Mary’s occupations. They always kept me informed in their letters. They sent me photos. I know my sponsors are a very united family. They will always be in my heart.

I remember them telling me how much they enjoyed the drawings I used to make in my letters, and later they told me that my drawings were framed. They sent me pictures showing that.

Their help was invaluable. The benefits I have received from them have been very good: food, celebrations, shoes. As a matter of fact, the shoes I received from CFCA have been the ones I have used all the time. I don’t recall ever buying new shoes. The ones I am wearing right now I received from CFCA. We have used the benefits very well. They have been of great help for me and my family.

If I had my sponsors Bob and Mary in front of me, I would tell them, “Thank you.” I would hug them because I feel we have been giving each other hugs in our letters. I would tell them as much about me as I could, and I would tell them that God will bless them just as much as they have been blessing me.

You can learn more about Francisco and his sponsors on our website.

CFCA President Bob Hentzen is now in Colombia, the sixth of 12 countries on his 8,000-mile trek through Latin America called Walk2gether. Besides building community and strengthening the bonds of unity between CFCA sponsored members, sponsors and staff, Walk2gether is promoting care of the environment.

To counter the serious problem of deforestation, and to motivate people to plant trees, sponsored members and scholarship students planted maya nut trees about every six miles along the Walk2gether route in Guatemala, said Luis CoCon of CFCA’s Hermano Pedro project.

The maya nut tree adapts easily to different weather conditions, requires little maintenance, and its fruit is rich in nutrients.

“A lot of our people use the forest for firewood,” said CoCon. “But I think the main problem is that the big plantation owners clear hundreds or thousands of trees every day to make room for sugarcane or corn fields.”

The Hermano Pedro project planted 100,000 trees in 2009 and hopes to plant 1 million between 2009 and 2011, CoCon said.

Photo courtesy of www.theequilibriumfund.org. These adaptable trees produce a highly nutritious fruit and can grow to 150 feet.	Brother Jorge Armas, Hermano Pedro project coordinator, plants a maya nut tree along the Walk2gether route in Guatemala.

Thanks to his God-given talents and the encouragement and support of CFCA, Bhaskar is in his third year of engineering studies.

He persevered with his studies in the government school he attended, in spite of the substandard education provided there. In India, government schools provide impoverished children with access to education, but the schools lack basic infrastructure and skilled faculty.

Most students drop out, as did Bhaskar’s sister and brother. He was about to end his studies because his family could not afford to pay for his higher education. The income Bhaskar’s father earns from his neighborhood shop is just enough for the food and clothing needs of Bhaskar and his two siblings.

A CFCA social worker encouraged Bhaskar to stay in school, and he was admitted to the Swami Vivekanada Institute of Technology in Hyderabad.

“My dream is to complete my technology degree with good marks and work as a software engineer,” Bhaskar said. “It’s because of CFCA that I am able to dream of this new goal in life.”

Bhaskar is eager to repay the help he received from CFCA. In the evenings, he conducts a study hour for the neighborhood children and helps them with their homework. Mothers from the neighborhood have witnessed how Bhaskar’s involvement is boosting their children’s self-esteem.

“He hails from our own slum,” said Nagamani, a member of a CFCA mothers group. “He is not only able to help the children, but has such a positive influence on them.”

Bhaskar is proud to be a role model.

“I know for most of my companions, life was a missed opportunity, but I want to see these kids reach their higher goals,” he said. “What makes me happy is that so many children in my slum now receive formal education, and that I am able to support and guide them.”

This was the feature story from the 2010 spring issue of The Scholar. You can read more stories like this one on our website.

Today, something very exciting happened on the Colombia/Venezuela border. The Cartagena project and I met together, finalizing details to receive Bob and the walk team from Venezuela tomorrow (Sunday), when suddenly I saw a multitude of reflective jackets, everyone was holding hands and in the front walked Bob. It was very exciting, beautiful, encouraging, emotional, totally inspiring … It was one of those moments. There were hugs and much emotion but above all, happiness of meeting and a celebration of life …

Today we are excited, we await the passing hours in order to meet each other again and begin walking together.

To all, a strong hug in Christ

The murals, each about 2 meters by 4 meters, were designed by a sponsored scholar and a CFCA volunteer from Spain. The majority of the work was completed by sponsored youth and scholar students, with some help from parents and CFCA staff.

It took one full weekend and nearly 40 gallons of paint to complete the murals. The mural team split into five groups and spent a Saturday sketching the murals and began painting (the surface was prepped the weekend before). They completed the painting the next day.

The murals symbolize scenes from the walk with a focus on nature and the importance of preserving our environment.

Sunilde Pérez, Barquisimeto project coordinator, said of the environmental theme in the murals, “We are all united as one community.”

The central theme of the walk is to remind families that they are not alone. The CFCA family—made up of sponsors, staff, volunteers and other sponsored members—is with them every step of the way.

“We are all in this together,” Sunilde said. “Everything that we do has an effect. When the walk passes through, it affects all of us, as well as our environment.”

We translated her poem to English for you but included the Spanish version, too. Happy Earth Day!

The Rain Forest
by Maria Alejandra Villalobos

There is not a sound nor is life visible,
Only a symphony of rain drops with a plic plac sound …

Many colors can’t be seen, only a deep natural green but, once in a while,
A little colorful flower gives life to the landscape …

There are different shades of leaves, large, small and coiled
Trees, with their chests held high, show their beauty …

The flora is striking in its natural green
And the moss offers a beautiful coat to the proud trees …

Far ahead a calf is grazing up in the mountain
A very straight pine tree firmly holds its acorns …

It is then when a soft wind can be felt,
The leaves wave from side to side …

The monkeys and squirrels are sleeping in the trees
Waiting for their reward in the form of a beautiful rainbow.

El Bosque Lluvioso
por Maria Alejandra Villalobos

No hay ruido ni tampoco se ve vida
Solo se oye la sinfonía de las gotas de lluvia que caen suavemente haciendo plic plac …

No se ven muchos colores, solo un verde natural, aunque, de vez en cuando,
Una florecilla colorada le da vida al lugar…

Hay distintas formas de hojas, grandes, cortas y enrolladas
Hay árboles que con su pecho en alto muestran su belleza …

La flora se resalta en su verde natural
Y los musgos verdes le dan un hermoso abrigo a los árboles grandes …

A lo lejos se ve una vaquita pastando en la montaña
Un pinito parado bien derechito mantiene con firmeza sus bellotas …

Cuando se viene una ráfaga de viento las hojas, amarradas de sus raíces,
Se ondulan de lado a lado

Los monos y las ardillas duermen en lo árboles
Esperando de recompensa un lindo arcoíris.

So we set up a page on our blog where everyone can leave messages of support and encouragement to Bob, the Walk2gether team and their sponsored friends. Many people have done just that. Some messages are in Spanish, some in English, some are from sponsors and some are from project staff members. The messages are personal, caring and inspirational, but this one left by Ted Dauphin especially caught our attention:

Talk about inspiring! Thanks for sharing, Ted.

Head on over to the Walk2gether tab, read what others have to say and leave your own message. We can’t wait to hear from you.

We, at the Barquisimeto project, welcomed with special affection our dear friends, Bob and Cristina Hentzen. Their presence among the Venezuelan sponsored members is a solid witness of faith and hope. This movement is being called Walk2gether: together in our joys, together in our sorrows, together in good times, together in bad times.

Therefore, to us, Walk2gether means:

Creating links of unity and brotherhood.

Walk2gether encourages us to see with kind eyes the needs of our people.

Walk2gether is an activity that holds up humanity at all times, above all else. It gives special meaning to CFCA’s statement that “to be more” is more important than “to have more.”

Fraternally,
Sunilde Pérez
Project Coordinator
Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Rafa Villalobos, San Jose project director and close friend of Carolyn and Pedro, wrote a touching tribute to our friend Carolyn.

Thank you, Carolyn.
For letting yourself be molded by the poor, just like clay in the hands of the potter
For experiencing mercy and then sharing it
For bringing happiness and hope to the faces of so many children and families
For bringing light into many homes
For instilling in yourself a path of love, radiating a goodness without limits
For teaching us through example that we are created for great things, to love and to be loved
For being so persistent in saying that we must go to the roots of CFCA for the tree of this foundation to give real fruits
For living such a painful illness with profound peace and trust in the Good Father
For continuing, from heaven, to encourage and strengthen those of us here on Earth.

As we mourn for Carolyn, we also want to remember those who have lost their battle against this disease, and offer comfort to their loved ones still remaining on Earth.

No matter where one travels, mothers have the same concerns, cares, thoughts, worries and desires for their children. While on my recent Walk2gether adventure in Costa Rica, I met Zaida, an extraordinary and simple mother. She resides in Bagaces, a town northwest of San Jose, Costa Rica.

She is a supporter of CFCA, which was evident by her 3:30 a.m. arrival time to the small and quaint town center for a long, tiring walk. Many are dedicated to CFCA in this town! Everyone proudly wore their blue CFCA T-shirts and baseball caps. The streets were filled with excitement, including the echoing of music from large speakers attached to the back of a car. Little did I know that this first day of walking would end up including some of the most memorable moments of my week!

I was more than ready for the walk, mentally, physically and spiritually. After completing my first 10K and enjoying a traditional Costa Rican breakfast, we began the second 10K of the day. The sun was up as we continued along the rocky, gravel-covered path through the extremely rural and poor areas of Bagaces. Out of nowhere, an arm was put around me, and I was swept into a conversation with Zaida that would last for hours.

At first there was a lot of small talk. The words that one would share when meeting a fellow mother for the first time, be it in small town U.S.A. or Bagaces, Costa Rica. What else would two moms start a conversation with besides, “How many children do you have?” and, “How old are they?”

We continued discovering more about our children. Isn’t this so typical of mothers? The common bond of our children allowed us to talk for an extended period of time. I was honored to meet her youngest child, and I could see that Zaida was proud to introduce her to me, just as I would have been proud to introduce my own daughters to my new friend. As time went on, we talked about other topics, but somehow the conversation always led back to our children.

Each day on our journey, Don Roberto (Bob Hentzen) would stop and compassionately and respectfully listen to the CFCA parents tell their personal stories and their perspectives on how CFCA is helping and can better help in each community. Each community is unique and Bob knows this. He knows that one of his biggest allies is the CFCA mothers.

Zaida respectfully and confidently sat down next to Don Roberto and shared her story, her desires, her concerns and her ideas regarding her own children and the children of Bagaces supported through CFCA. Zaida is like so many mothers. We do whatever we can to make a better life for the ones we love the most.

Our day continued, and we were extremely comfortable with each other. Our energy was never-ending, even though the songs blasting from the oversized speakers were the same ones we began listening to at 3:30 in the morning. We put our arms around each other and shouted the now so familiar words, “Mi corazon, tu Corazon.” — my heart, your heart — became our battle cry. Arm in arm, we knew we had forged a friendship, a friendship based on the love for one thing all mothers around the world have in common: the love for their children.

There are many reasons people walk. Some walk out of choice, others, out of necessity. Along the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15-35), we meet two people who walked simply to get away. The one in whom they had placed their hopes had just been executed as a criminal, and now his friends – and theirs – were hiding in fear. Believing that nothing was left for them in Jerusalem but danger and disappointment, they decided to leave.

On the road, they met a stranger. The temptation to wrap themselves in fear and reject the stranger must have been strong, but instead they invited him along. And, as they continued walking, an amazing thing began to happen. Step by step and mile by mile, these two wounded travelers found restored hope in their encounter with this remarkable new companion.

The stranger was really the resurrected Jesus – a fact that the two disciples only discovered at the end of the day when they shared a meal. But once they did, they couldn’t get back to Jerusalem fast enough, for such was their desire to share the good news.

In life, sometimes we feel as if we are walking toward something, and sometimes we feel as if we are walking away. But when the dust settles, the reasons we walk aren’t nearly as important as the fact that we do, indeed, keep walking. For, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it is only in the journey that we continue to encounter Christ in traveling companions.

For the next two years, hundreds of sponsors will join CFCA President Bob Hentzen at points along the Walk2gether route from Guatemala to Chile. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they, too, are discovering a new and glorified face of Christ in the faces of the poor. And, again, like those disciples, they can’t wait to take that good news home with them.

As we enter into this beautiful season of Easter, may each of us be blessed with fresh legs and renewed spirits. May we walk as happy wanderers, intent on savoring the blessings of the journey. Whatever sorrows we may be leaving behind, and whatever dreams we may be moving toward, may we always hold onto the joy that comes from knowing that the one who defeated death is our constant traveling companion.

Today, CFCA sponsors 500 children, youth and aging in Cinquera, and the town is a model of community cooperation and pride. Sponsored members and their families, organized by CFCA Coordinator Blanca Aminta, participate in a monthly cleanup, a reflection of their unity and love of the place they call home.

More about Cinquera, El Salvador:
Read more about the cleaning campaign in Cinquera.
View before and after photos of Cinquera during cleanup day.
Read a history of Cinquera.
See some photos of Cinquera that help explain its history.

Today, CFCA sponsors 500 children, youth and aging members in Cinquera. Pablo recently recounted the town’s history and CFCA’s role in its rebirth, for Henry Flores, director of the El Salvador communications center.

My name is Pablo Alvarenga Escobar, and I am native to the community of Cinquera. I work with Christian communities in Cinquera. My main focus is to strengthen the work of the small Christian communities, trying to bring them the Gospel of Jesus and the spirit that he wanted us to have.

My work as a catechist started in 1960, and I worked until 1979. On May 9, 1983, a huge attack by the armed forces against the rebel forces forced everybody to abandon their homes, belongings and Cinquera. To save their lives, many left for the mountains, leaving everything behind.

After the attack, this town stayed empty. We say it was a ghost town. A few days later, armed forces started to bomb the area and ground forces broke into the town and finished the destruction.

After Cinquera was destroyed and abandoned, nature started to cover the ruins of the houses. When we returned, Cinquera did not look like a town. You could not see anything. It was like looking at the forest.

The new Cinquera church with the original bell tower

The church was destroyed, except for the front walls and the bell tower. There were big trees inside the church property. We all agreed that we had to keep the remaining walls and bell tower. We knew that we were going to rebuild the church in the same place, and these ruins would be a sign of hope and a reminder of our history.

When we began rebuilding our lives here, we needed a way to call people for community gatherings. That is what church bells are for: to call the people to gather. But we did not have any bells.

Our people are creative, and some members of the community said that they had seen a 750-pound bomb that did not explode. They said, “Don´t worry. The rebel forces deactivated the bomb and made a new bomb that they used against the army, so it is inactive now.”

Many of us walked far to get to the place where the bomb was. Children, youth, men and women helped bring the heavy bomb. We carried it, we rolled it, we pushed it and we pulled it until we got it into town. We placed it in front of the church, standing it up for the sound to be better, and it worked. It sounded so loud!

The church bells are actually old, diffused bombs. The third bell does not sit by these two.

Sometime after that, we found another bomb and later, one more. So this is why we now have three of them in front of the church.

At the end of the war, we had absolutely nothing. It was then when the solidarity of a man named Bob (CFCA President and Co-founder Bob Hentzen) came here. He used to walk around the town. He played the guitar and told us about CFCA. We all got excited. This was like a boat in the middle of the ocean for us.

The impact of the sponsored members and their families in the community is great, and this is because of the leadership behind CFCA here in town. CFCA has local staff working for the community—people who have a heart for the town, a love for others and a great sense of solidarity.

One of them is the CFCA social worker Blanca. She has been leading the families in different groups to clean the town.

This is why our town looks very nice.

More about Cinquera, El Salvador:
Read more about the cleaning campaign in Cinquera.
View before and after photos of Cinquera during cleanup day.
Meet the Blanca and the CFCA families who clean Cinquera in this video.
See some photos of Cinquera that help explain its history.

Some creative staff made a sign …

… decorated appropriately:

And, of course, in true CFCA style, there was music and singing:

Happy birthday, Bob!

~From the CFCA Kansas staff

We think Juan Antonio is cool, too. But don’t take our word for it. Watch on to meet this charming man.

Read more about the dance program.

At CFCA, we often say, “We don’t see poverty, we see potential.” It is important to emphasize the hope and possibilities that sponsorship brings to a person and to a family.

However, we, of course, do see poverty. We are walking with the most vulnerable people in the world. To say we do not see the poverty would be to deny their reality, their daily struggles. Doing so would mean glossing over the heroism they show us in overcoming those hardships.

One of the gifts of sponsorship is that it gives us a fuller understanding of that reality. Instead of being apart from the dirt, sweat, smells, hunger and indignities that those living in poverty experience on a daily basis, they let us into their lives so that we can more fully understand their reality. We can see Jesus and the poor walking together and witness their suffering.

As Christians, we cannot have Easter without Good Friday. We cannot truly celebrate the light without honestly, boldly facing the darkness. We cannot celebrate potential without seeing the reality of poverty.

As we enter Holy Week beginning this week on Palm Sunday, let us hold close to our hearts those who live every day the dynamic interplay of Good Friday and Easter. Death, life, doubt, hope, loneliness and community: poverty and potential.

The lesson that I share with my class is, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Success is everyone’s dream in life, and this is what everybody wants; however, only few achieve it.

I come from a family of six. My mother is a housewife, while my father works in school maintenance. I am the eldest among four siblings – two brothers and one sister. When I was a child, I thought I couldn’t attend school because of financial constraints, but upon my sponsorship with CFCA, everything became possible. I was born with a handicap, but this has not stopped me, rather, it has pushed me to fulfill my dreams.

I am presently working as a private-school teacher. I teach fourth graders mathematics and computers. I finished business education at one of the state universities in the Philippines.

I was able to get through college with the assistance of the CFCA Scholarship Program. The scholarship helped me pay for my school expenses, such as tuition, books and uniforms. Aside from financial aid, the services* I rendered to the community and CFCA developed my skills, talents and knowledge to be a better person – the person that I am now. I owe my success to God. I may not be successful in awards or money, but I am successful because I followed the ideals of CFCA: help children fulfill their dreams and touch their lives.

I decided to be a teacher because I believe I have something to contribute to a child’s development. Despite my disability, I can be a role model. I think is a powerful way of teaching, always being the person your students may want to be.

Interacting with students with a variety of personalities is what I considered most challenging. They each have different backgrounds, orientations, attitudes and behaviors. It would depend on the teacher how to blend and complement these mixtures of individualities. This is the challenge that I face everyday.

Being a good teacher means being faithful to the memory of all the good teachers who have motivated me and pushed my life boat within the oceans of life, through its waves and storms, even when it occasionally got stuck in the sand of a shore.

Today, thinking and remembering all of them makes me feel the great responsibility I shoulder to be like them and to become better, because I want my students to see me as a role model in the future.

I am the committee chair on education of the Scholars Alumni Association in the CFCA Quezon project. I have committed myself to creating a worldwide community of compassion. I will do my share in the voluntary work through tutorial sessions, teaching and talent development; become a role model to the younger generations; protect the rights of children, youth and elderly; help generate jobs for future CFCA graduates; share my expertise; and advocate for the mission and vision of CFCA. This is my expression of gratitude to the CFCA movement that changed my life.

To those who aspire to follow the path that many like me have walked, each has to have the heart of a child – kind, loving and joyful. This, perhaps, would lead you in your destined profession and vocation – TEACHING!

*Editor’s note: as part of the scholarship requirements, scholars perform service projects that benefit CFCA families, or their local community.

“Remember not the events of the past, 
… the things of long ago consider not; 
… see, I am doing something new! 
… Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? 
… In the desert I make a way, 
… in the wasteland, rivers.” (Isa. 43:16-20)

This section of Isaiah is where words of comfort and encouragement are given to God’s people. They will be in exile for their sins, but they are not to lose faith. God will restore them. That is the beauty of this passage.

It isn’t that we are to forget completely what God has done. But all of those miracles in the past — Abraham and his sons, the freeing of the Israelites, parting of the Red Sea — all of that is nothing compared to what God is going to do! He says things will be bad, terrible, in fact, but, be prepared to watch him work and create and restore the likes of which you have never seen!

That is what makes the work of CFCA so exciting on a daily basis. We get to witness every single day God’s movement forward. Growing, creating, surprising and expanding His kingdom through the work of our sponsors and our sponsored friends. Look at the faces of the sponsored children and think, “I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

When you hear the word, prodigal, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The answer is probably the parable we hear this week (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32), commonly known as “The Prodigal Son.” In fact, the word is so well-associated with that story that you might have a hard time coming up with another context in which it is used.

For the record, prodigal means wasteful, excessive or lavish. In reference to the Gospel story, it describes an ungrateful child who leaves home, squanders his inheritance on extravagant living and learns the hard way that life back home wasn’t so bad after all.

The story, as we all know, ends with the son repenting and being welcomed back into the family by his joyful father. But there is irony in this ending, for the father celebrates his son’s homecoming with some extravagance of his own. He kills the fatted calf and throws one heck of a homecoming party.

So, is the sin of prodigality (yes, it is a word) really the point here? After all, in the scriptures, extravagance is a quality often associated with God himself. Perhaps the real failure of the prodigal son wasn’t so much his lifestyle as his lack of appreciation. He didn’t appreciate his good fortune because he hadn’t earned it, and that is why he made such poor choices in how he spent it.

When sponsors visit CFCA projects, they often comment upon the deep gratitude of sponsored persons. Although these hard-working families have little in terms of material possessions – or, perhaps, because of that fact – they are filled with genuine appreciation for what sponsors contribute to their lives. As a result they, like the prodigal son’s father, have the wisdom to recognize a true occasion for joy when they see it.

May this season of Lent bring each of us to a sacred place where we can truly enjoy the abundant life of Easter – that life which our extravagant God is just aching to share with us.

Veron is the CFCA project coordinator in Manila, Philippines. Her son was born with cerebral palsy. She said that on the day of his birth she became a working mother, a nurse, a therapist and a dietician. Three years ago, Veron’s husband left her and their son. Fortunately, her family is a source of support as she raises him alone.

“In this most challenging and difficult life, I keep my faith to the Lord, and I keep my son in my heart to cover my pain and distress,” Veron said. “At age 6, my son is not walking and talking yet, but he is absolutely giving joy and inspiration to me, to my family and, hopefully, to everyone who knows him well.”

Veron’s family is caring for her son while she walks with Bob and Walk2gether through Central America. Her reason for wanting to participate is simple: “I am walking for my son, and for every child and person who cannot walk yet.”

Please pray:
Lord, bless women everywhere. We pray especially for all those mothers, grandmothers and sisters who work to care for family members in need while forging their own paths in life. May their loving hearts and nurturing spirits be blessed with strength and joy. We ask this in your holy name. Amen.

CFCA Prayer Team

This is from our weekly ePrayer. Sign up to receive Prayer Partners in your inbox.

On a sunny day in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, the Vision Mothers group members file into a small courtyard in front of one of their member’s homes for their monthly meeting. The 30 women and one man, all wearing the same cloth wrapped around their waists, heads or shoulders, find seats on benches in the shady areas of the courtyard and open the meeting.

About two years ago, the Nairobi project team introduced the idea of mothers groups to the mothers of the Kibera subproject and asked them to begin forming groups and register with the local government. The project staff intentionally left these responsibilities in the hands of the mothers, insisting that they choose for themselves which group they would join, raise the funds for registration (around $20), and complete the registration process before asking the project for further support.

At the Nairobi project, the mothers group model operates from the basic belief that mothers are capable, resourceful people.

“We realized that whenever we called a parent meeting, it was the mothers who showed up,” Peter Ndungo, Nairobi project coordinator, said. “In our culture, the mothers are the ones [who are] most concerned with the well-being of children, so it made the most sense to work with them.”

At today’s meeting, the topic for discussion was finding a space to rent for their shoemaking business. Earlier this year, the group started learning to make and sell shoes as a way to add to their group loan fund.

The Vision Mothers came up with the unique idea for the shoemaking business through trial and error. Their original idea was to start a trash removal service in their community, but they soon realized that there were already many other groups doing this.

“We didn’t want conflict with the other groups, so we decided to change our business idea,” the group chairperson explains.

Shoemaking, a craft that is typically dominated by men in Kenya, is a nontraditional endeavor for the women. Nonetheless, the Vision Mothers saw shoemaking as an opportunity to make good profits and provide a much needed commodity for their community, but CFCA families are only some of the many customers they hope to serve in Kibera.

Some tools of the shoemaking trade

With the sale of their first batch of shoes, the group made a profit of about $130, and in the future, they hope to use the profits to start a resource and training center that would include a meeting hall and computer training for the members and the community.

Today is International Women’s Day! Read (and watch!) more inspiring stories about the women of CFCA:

Strength and power
An opportunity for women(Part 1)
Support in a time of need (Part 2)
Mothers share their talents to improve their community (Part 3)
Creating role models close to home (Part 4)

The fact that she was coming to the well in the noonday sun was a tipoff. The “respectable” women of the village all came out in the cool of the morning to draw their water and gossip. So, being one of the more popular subjects of their gossip, this Samaritan woman preferred to come at noon when nobody else was supposed to be around.

Except that day, somebody else was around – Jesus. He was sitting right there by the well where she couldn’t avoid him. And just when she had decided to quickly get her water and get out of there before anybody saw her alone with this Jewish man (the last thing she needed with her reputation), he had the nerve to ask her for a drink of water!

She could have ignored him. She could have waited for him to leave. She could have turned around and gone home. But there was something about this stranger that compelled her to engage with him in conversation. That choice made all the difference.

What follows in this marvelous story from John’s Gospel (John 4:5-42) is a tale of living water, of death to the mistakes of the past, and a community transformed through the leadership of its least likely member. And all because one man asked one woman for a drink – and because that woman had the courage to push her comfort zone and make a graced connection.

At CFCA, we like to say we see potential instead of poverty. We learned that from Jesus, who always managed to see through the trappings and the labels into the true heart of a person. It really doesn’t take any special ability to do that, but it does take faith.

So, who’s asking you for a drink of water today?

The report also said that a day center where aging members ate breakfast and lunch and took handicraft and art workshops is uninhabitable. As a result, the sponsored elderly will receive their nutritional benefits at another location and all workshops have been postponed until a new location is identified.

And finally, Sara Leiva, the Valparaiso project coordinator, said that sponsors with friends in Chile should keep in mind that letters both in and out of the country will be delayed. Some letters may arrive late or coated with earthquake dust. For now, the staff’s top priority is to assess and respond to the current needs of the families.

For more information, read the full news story on our website.

Dear Henry,

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for sharing the worries and concerns of the CFCA community. We have power in some areas of Valparaiso, Chile, and I was able to send this email from my sister’s house.

It was 3:35 a.m., when the earthquake started. We are kind of used to this because Chile is an area with high possibilities of earthquakes; however, this earthquake kept going longer than usual. It was then when my husband, Luis, our son and I tried to secure ourselves in the safest section of our apartment.

The noise was terrible. In spite of having the lights off, they began turning on and off by themselves. Shortly after that, the power went off. From my home, you can usually see all of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, but when I looked outside, everything was dark. The water was off, too. Everything was full of dust, and phones lines had collapsed.

Some time later, some of my CFCA colleagues started to phone me, because we could not call out. Praise God, they were fine. At this moment, I can say that my family is well, too. Praise God, the construction in Chile is strong and can withstand the full force of the earthquakes.

As soon as we had daylight, I went to the CFCA office. On my way to there, I saw some areas of Valparaiso. They are very affected because they are historical constructions and not as strong as present-day buildings. I saw houses collapsed and many destroyed walls. The CFCA office looks OK. When I entered, I saw everything on the floor, the walls have cracks and the place is full of dust.

One of the walls on the first floor have collapsed, and there was water coming out from somewhere. I contacted some firemen who were working in the area, and they helped me close it. The firemen told me that I needed to report the damages because some of the walls are loose and dangerous. They suggested that we evacuate the office building.

We immediately took the files and other important things to the houses of some of the staff members to keep them safe. We knew that in situations like this there is always a high risk of robbery. After that, I visited the house of some of the staff members: Luis Olivares, Olga and Mauricio. We need to contact a friend of ours who is an engineer to have him assess the damages we have in the office.

The most affected area is located south from Valparaiso, and at this moment, we are in alert of tsunamis. The islands in front of Valparaiso are being affected by the high waves.

Henry, we strongly believe that our CFCA families are very scared, without running water, power or communications, but we are hopeful that they are well. As soon as we receive more news, we will notify you. We hope to have a steadier channel of communication, because we won’t be able to go back to our office for some time.

Thank you for your concern. I will be in touch.

Sara

Read the news story

I called down to Nicaragua and spoke with Adolfo, who is with the walkers. He’s driving one of the vehicles and is the technical expert. The tsunami warning covers an extensive area including Central America. Aldolfo said that they had heard the news earlier this morning when they started walking. They are only 15 or 20 kilometers from the coast so they are keeping an ear to the news stations. They aren’t overly concerned for their safety, but are aware of the warning. I let him know that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shows that a tsunami has been generated but doesn’t specify where in the Pacific. He sends greetings to all.

The Valparaiso project, the only CFCA project in Chile, is approximately 220 miles north of the epicenter. CFCA serves more than 5,000 sponsored children, youth and aging members through this project.

We ask that you join us in keeping all those affected by the earthquake in your prayers.

For more information about the earthquake in Chile, read this article from NPR.

On Aug. 30, I went on a mission awareness trip to Bolivia to meet my sponsored child, Kevin, and to visit the different CFCA projects. The mission awareness trip coincided with my birthday, Sept. 1, and this trip was the best gift that I have ever received.

I couldn’t wait to meet my godson, Kevin, who will be 8 years old next month. Kevin and I have been writing to each other regularly for nearly three years now, and have become close through our letters. Meeting Kevin personally for the first time was truly a moving experience. As we hugged, I was in tears — tears of joy and gratitude for the gift of sponsorship of this beautiful child. Kevin is delightful: he loves to play football, loves to draw, was the best student in his class last year, is an excellent reader and is very precious to me. Kevin and I were able to spend three days together visiting homes and projects with our group

As I am writing this, I am filling up with tears, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy as I remember the outpouring of love by our Bolivian friends. We visited homes and projects each day. In every project and in every home, we were received with such warmth and love as one could not imagine. During these visits, we, the group of sponsors, experienced a whole range of emotions — love, joy, kindness, heartbreak, laughter, friendship, faith, goodness, generosity, sadness, elation, the love of God, solidarity and the oneness of us all.

It was obvious that our Bolivian friends had spent months preparing for our visit. Everything was perfect. No detail was overlooked. Everywhere we visited, we were met with welcoming banners, with music and dances, delicious home-cooked meals, handmade gifts, necklaces, flowers and their wonderful warmth and love. And we danced!!!!! Joyfully!!!

The sponsors that I met in this group are loving, caring people who filled my heart with happiness and appreciation to have the pleasure of sharing this visit with them. I think that we really didn’t know what to expect on our visit. We knew that we would see poverty, but what we found was a deep and abiding love — a love showered on us at every step of our journey. Yes, we saw poverty, heart-wrenching poverty, but through and overall was the ever-present love and hope and faith of our beautiful Bolivian friends — men, women and children, old and young. They thanked us for our help and called us God’s angels. But they are God’s angels. We could never give these wonderful, kind and generous friends what they have given to us.

We were honored to walk with them, honored to stand in solidarity with them, honored to be united with them and honored to be family.

By Kelly Demo, CFCA preacher

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This may be a simplistic and even Pollyannaish way of looking at hardships. But the fact , I think, is that God may have inspired that saying because of all of the wonderful, miraculous things that he does.

Making lemonade out of the lemons we call our lives is what God does best. No matter how badly we mess things up, or try to, in the end, God can turn our hardships into something positive.

We see it time and again in scripture. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt. Did God really want that to happen? I doubt it. But, God used that chain of events to save his people from starvation, to bring them into Egypt, and ultimately, to claim them as his own. God’s will would not be thwarted.

In the Gospel of Luke (13:31-35), we see Jesus being pretty clear that he has a plan, and no one is going to derail it. Herod is turning up the heat on Jesus, and Jesus tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he will finish his ministry on his own terms. God gave him a job to do, and he intends to do it.

Lent is a great time to reflect on God’s will for us in our lives. How do we try to thwart God’s plans for us? How has God pursued us to make his plans come to fruition? What is God’s plan for our lives?

I arrived back in Honduras on Jan. 16, 2010, just in time to join up with the Santa Rosa project’s portion of Walk2gether. After volunteering with the Santa Rosa project for 10 months, I was reassigned to Hermano Pedro project in Guatemala in June for six months because of the political crisis that had erupted in Honduras. Thankfully, everything went smoothly with the elections, and I was able to return to Honduras.

I was greeted by the familiar faces of the Santa Rosa staff, members of the Guatemalan staff and many sponsored individuals and their families. One woman in particular stuck out to me, Olga. I have known Olga since I began volunteering in September 2008. Olga has been a part of the CFCA family for seven years and has three children who are sponsored. I came to know Olga because she was always in the office sweeping, washing dishes, making coffee: she wanted to do whatever she could to show her gratitude to CFCA.

I talked to Olga while we were walking, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time chatting with her after my long absence. The participating walkers from the CFCA communities were walking a maximum of 10 kilometers, so I was surprised when Olga continued walking after the others had stopped. Yet, the next day, and the next, and everyday throughout the week, Olga was walking with us.

As the days passed, it became very clear how important this walk was to Olga. She began suffering greatly from the varicose veins in her legs. The veins became very swollen, and there was concern of them rupturing. However, Olga kept walking, limping along and overcoming her pain. Even when we were finally able to convince her to ride in the support vehicle for a bit, she would not stay in the car for more than 10 or 15 minutes. When I had the opportunity to ask her why she didn’t want ride, she shared with me that this walk was something she was doing as an offering for her children’s sponsors, whom she has never met.

The walk was something she wanted to do to thank the sponsors who have helped change her family’s life. Olga said that without CFCA and the sponsors, her children would be unable to go to school. She and her husband simply do not make enough money to pay for their children’s educational expenses. Olga herself did not have the chance to attend school because of similar circumstances. For this reason, Olga realizes the great opportunity her children have been given through CFCA to help them move forward in life.

Olga says, “Walk2gether is a walk of love.” It is not only a walk showing the love Bob Hentzen and CFCA have for the people being served in these countries … it is also a walk that sends its love all the way to the sponsors, wherever they may be.

The sponsored members and their families are walking to support Bob and to show their thanks and love to CFCA and their sponsors. Those who participate in the walk are saying CFCA has made a difference in their lives, and they will walk in the hot or cold, up mountains, with blisters and even painful varicose veins as their way of saying, “Thanks for your help” and, “I love you.” Just as Olga has shown us.

The tradition of Lenten self-discipline comes mainly from the Gospel accounts of the temptation of Jesus. This Sunday, we hear Luke’s version of that familiar story (Luke 4:1-13). Before Jesus begins his public ministry, he makes a personal, 40-day retreat into the desert. There the devil tempts him with power, personal glory and material comfort. He passes the test and, strengthened by the ordeal, emerges to begin his path to Calvary.

We are usually content to take the lesson of the story at face value. Life is a struggle between good and evil, and it is only through personal discipline that we have the strength to choose the good. Jesus also faced the greatest temptations. He overcame those temptations through fasting and prayer and, therefore, so should we.

Fair enough. But why did Jesus feel the need for personal discipline? What did he gain by resisting the tempter? And why, if he knew he would be tempted, would he go into the desert in the first place?

The answer is that he did it not for himself but for others. The discipline he gained was not for the sake of personal accomplishment but so he could have more to give those he desired to serve. In resisting the devil, he resisted those things that he knew could divert him from the path of loving service.

Unlike the experience of Jesus in the desert, which drew him outside of himself and toward others, our little Lenten sacrifices sometimes have the opposite effect. We take pride in our personal accomplishments, as if the mastery of will is the ultimate goal. But when personal success becomes the focus of Lent, we miss the point.

Yes, we do personally benefit from our Lenten disciplines, and that is good. But the best and most lasting benefit is that we also grow in solidarity with others, especially the poor and those on the margins of society. It was love for these that drove Jesus into the desert in the first place, and it is the same love to which his followers are still called.

Feb. 6, 2010

Dear Ma’am Trisha,

Thank you for the very inspiring message and for sharing my journey with the CFCA. Thank you also for the appreciation, prayers and support of everyone in Kansas and in the projects.

We are now here in Nicaragua and have finished our first 40 kilometers here yesterday. So far, we have walked 1,051 kilometers after crossing the mountainous 575 kilometers of Honduras. It was a great time walking with the Honduran CFCA sponsored families and staff in the projects. I am privileged to meet my co-coordinators and the rest of each project team.

I deeply appreciate your support to the Manila project team as you are constantly communicating with my team.

We received a call from the Philippines last week during the mission awareness trip to Antipolo. It was really a great joy for me to talk with Ma’am Malou (Antipolo project coordinator) and share with them some of my journey and experiences on the Walk. Sir Bob also gave his message to the Philippines team. I believe they are having a wonderful mission awareness trip.

My prayer is that this year’s trip brings hope, joy and life-giving experiences to the sponsors, CFCA families and to all my co-workers in the Philippines. I am very proud to represent them in Walk2gether, and also all of our co-workers in Kansas and in projects around the world. It is very inspiring to walk, as every co-worker of each project that we have visited has requested me to continue walking for them. I am very thankful and will always be appreciative for this great opportunity provided by my CFCA family.

This is all for now. I will be in touch again in the next few days. I hope my emails do not take most of your time. I just want to tell my experiences in this beautiful journey. I would like to add that the Walk, to me, is a healing process of the many challenges in my personal and work experiences, and I am very hopeful that this will surely be a great success for me and for every CFCA community, co-worker and sponsors, as well.

Thank you very much. My best regards to everyone.

Sincerely,

Veron

CFCA responded by sending monies set aside for emergencies from our Disaster Assistance Fund. Because typhoons are so common, the Philippines projects also set aside funds in their budget for calamities.

The staff assessed the situations of the different families and put them in one of three groups: families who were homeless; families whose homes were still standing, but damaged, and whose belongings were gone; and those who had recovered some of their belongings. The families received food, clothing, medicine, housing materials and livelihood replacement funds, according to their needs.

After the water receded and rebuilding began, Paul Pearce, director of International Programs, visited the projects and was given a surprise and heartwarming gift. Four youth in the Manila/Antipolo projects created a massive and beautiful thank-you card that was meant to send appreciation to CFCA for all of the support they received. Signed by roughly 200 people, it represents the families who were helped by CFCA special funds.

The card, done in the Japanese style of anime, depicts scenes from the flood such as brown water with debris floating in it, people salvaging things from their homes, and children in their school uniforms with their pants hiked up so as not to get their uniform dirty.

The card is 30 inches tall, and drawn with crayons and markers.

“When I saw it, I knew I had to take it back to the office,” Paul said.

However, the card was too large to fit in any luggage or backpack. So, Paul decided to carry the card during the 8,000-mile journey. He wondered just how he would get through airport security with this oddity, but found people to be not only curious, but genuinely grateful to CFCA once they heard what the card was for.

“When I reached the airport in Manila, at every security checkpoint the guards wanted to look at it and talk about it,” Paul said. “When I was walking by shops in the airport, one of the shopkeepers told me that her house had flooded as well.”

Once in Japan the security guards were impressed with the artwork of the card. Flight attendants and fellow passengers were accommodating to Paul and his giant card.

“Instead of being a hassle, it became a badge of honor,” Paul said. “It is a reminder of the special grace the Filipinos have. That in the middle of this disaster, they have the thoughtfulness to come together to make this thank-you card. They never stop amazing me by their resiliency and how they respond to hardships. It’s pretty humbling.”

The card arrived at CFCA headquarters unscathed and is on display.

Manuel was a 16-year-old boy, living in El Salvador, who, in spite of his severe muscular dystrophy condition, lived with hope for the future to come.

“I want to be a radio technician,” he said, “I like it, and I can learn.”

His 85-year-old grandmother and only relative, Mercedes, kindly smiled and believed in his words, “Manuelito learns very fast and has fixed a little TV which he connects to a car battery because we have no electricity.”

A few weeks ago, after complications from hepatitis and kidney problems, Manuel passed away, leaving a great example to the world he left behind. Through his shining personality and kind smile, he was able to enter people’s hearts, which motivated many to sponsor more children in his community, others to contribute to the construction of four homes for families who were living under cardboard and plastic in the area, and sparked the creation of a new fund for children with special needs.

Because Manuel was the first sponsored person in that area, the CFCA staff and Manuel’s community members saw him as the “father” of their community. In his honor, the CFCA community he lived in changed its name from Community La Linea (train tracks) to Community Manuel.

Deep in my heart, I feel Manuel had a mission, and he accomplished it. He made us aware of the problems of his neighbors, and CFCA was able to help many because of him.

I pray to the good Lord to help me find my mission in this world, as well as the understanding to carry it with the same love, hope and joy that Manuel had.

Editor’s note: The winter issue of “CFCA Spirit,” mailed this month, features a story about Manuel and Mercedes. CFCA did not receive news of Manuel’s death until after the publication was printed.

As you know, our island was jolted by a strong earthquake that affected, above all, our neighboring country of Haiti, especially the city of Port-au-Prince. Seen from this side of the island, the panorama could not be much darker. The latent reality today is that all the hospitals in our country are filled beyond capacity with our injured Haitian brothers and sisters.

From the capital, Santo Domingo, to the border zone that is serving as a bridge for the arriving international help, the hospitals in our country are not only overflowing with patients, but they are also being filled with concerned relatives in search of information about their missing family members.

The day after the earthquake, in Santo Domingo, there was a collective sound of sirens coming in all directions from ambulances, carrying the injured to the health centers. Those with means flew by helicopter to the health center CEDIMART in Santo Domingo and the Metropolitan Hospital in the city of Santiago.

Our country felt the tremor, but it did not affect the physical structures as much as it did the family structures. Hundreds of families have not seen their family members return because many of the Haitian companies they worked for have collapsed. To cite an example, my oldest daughter’s classmate lost her father. They heard him alive in the rubble, but he lost his life while they were trying to rescue him two days after the quake. It is estimated that there are hundreds of Dominicans who have died.

The tragedy affects the whole territory, and emotionally, we are all sorrowful. We do not escape the shadow of this catastrophe that has affected our neighbor.

In our territory there have been a variety of fundraising activities, and truthfully, solidarity has overflowed these days, which has helped to alleviate a little of the tension that has always existed between the two countries. People can now be seen hugging each other in pain, united by one cause, forgetting their differences and prioritizing the human being.

Tragedy makes us see that we are all children of the same God, and in our case, connected by a single territory, sharing the same island, and therefore we endure the same suffering. We live sheltered in the hope of ending our disagreements and uniting ourselves as brothers and sisters who share the same rays of the sun.

Walk2gether continues and, step by step, we are overcoming the mountains of Santa Barbara and La Esperanza, walking at an altitude of approximately 9,000 feet above sea level.

Some of the walkers have begun to experience the wear and tear from their efforts, such as blisters and chapped lips; however, their spirit continues, strong and unbreakable.

On Jan. 24, we arrived at the area of La Paz. Because the difficulty of the altitude, mountainous terrain and roads limited our progress, we were unable to cover the full 40 kilometers planned per day. So during our rest day, on Jan. 25, we had to go back and cover the 16 unwalked kilometers accumulated from the prior days.

That very same day we decided to suspend Walk2gether for two days, returning to the road on Jan. 28. The reason for this is that the new president of Honduras will be inaugurated on Jan. 27, and many demonstrations are planned for that day. This is a risky situation for us, as any type of demonstration is viewed as political. The local authorities are mobilizing military troops and police to the same roads where we are walking to prevent protesters from entering Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

One little story during our walk: a few days ago, Bob fell while walking on a dirt road. I can report that he suffered no injuries whatsoever. On the contrary, he proved to be in great physical condition, and, at the same time, we discovered that Walk2gether will continue either walking, jogging, running or rolling down the road.

My best to all,

Manuel Pineda
CFCA Santa Barbara Project Coordinator

When we first arrived at the CFCA center, I was rather surprised to be in a dormitory-type of setting and by the shock of cold water showers.

However, after visiting some of the homes of the sponsored children, I realized I was living in luxury by comparison. The people we visited were poor, yet they were always ready with a smile and hug. And, despite their housing situation, they always had on spotless clothing.

Every American citizen should appreciate the luxury we live in.

Jan. 11, 2010

Today the El Salvador mission awareness trip participants and I joined Walk2gether. We didn’t leave at 4 a.m. like the walk team and Bob did. We met them about 15 kilometers in, right around 8:35 a.m.

The 10 of us trickled into the line, meeting some CFCA staff and families for the first time. The morning weather was still slightly chilly from the unseasonably cold night, but the sun was quickly working the chill out of the air.

I didn’t know what to expect when we began the day. I was still trying to decide how to best cover the walk and share it with those who cannot experience it in person. In the end, I just decided to let the walk lead me, and a story would find me. And, a story did find me, many stories in fact.

Take Veron, for example. Veron is the project coordinator for CFCA’s Manila project in the Philippines. She is walking through Central America with Bob, both to represent her country in the walk and also her son, who is unable to walk. When she speaks about her 6-year-old, there’s a soft look on her face that tells me she is not entirely in El Salvador, but also 14 hours away at her home in the Philippines.

Veron overcame many obstacles to participate in the walk with “Sir Bob,” as she calls him, and now she adds a steady, soothing presence to the walk.

“Another 40 kilometers done,” she said at the end of the day.

Then there is Harry, a sponsor from Wisconsin. Harry has met Bob on several mission awareness trips. He is fully committed to CFCA and his sponsored children. I pulled out my audio recorder to document a sponsor’s view of the walk, but he was so choked with emotion before I finished my first question that he only managed to say this:

“This is the biggest thing I have ever done in my life, and Bob does this every day.”

Harry and I spoke several times during the walk and the rest stops, trading stretching tips and chatting about light topics. At the end of the walk, however, he smiled at me with tears in his eyes and said he might not be able to do that interview after all. That’s OK, Harry. Your eyes say it all, anyway.

At the 20-kilometer mark, I spoke briefly with Jose Francisco, a quiet man and the father of four sponsored children. “Which children?” I asked. He pointed at the two children I had just taken a picture of. They were giggling over my notepad, writing their names for me. I told Jose Francisco that I would like a picture of him with his family, meaning the two children. He sadly told me that only four of his 8 children were there. So I took a picture of him with his four children, and his wife and mother-in-law, who were also there, as it turns out. I took several photos of them but the one I like the best is the one in which I caught them laughing with each other. It isn’t perfect – the grandmother’s eyes are closed and Dina isn’t looking at the camera, but you can see the love they have for each other.

The final 10 kilometers of the walk were along a busy, noisy highway. We walked single-file, which gave us time for some internal reflection. I thought about all those I had spoken with through the day, and decided that Bob was right.

Walk2gether really is about the people.

Please join us as we pray for all those impacted by this terrible natural disaster. 

We’re thankful that CFCA communities in Haiti did not suffer physical injuries or damage. To learn more about the impact on CFCA projects in the area, please read the news story on the CFCA website.

If you’ve read the most recent Sacred Ground (our bi-annual magazine for all friends of CFCA), or looked around the Walk2gether website, you’ve heard about Sticker Sundays. But, just in case you haven’t, let’s re-cap:

On the second Sunday of each month, we encourage our sponsors to wear their Walk2gether sticker, found in the Fall 2009 edition of Sacred Ground. When people ask what the sticker represents, tell them about your sponsored friend and how you are “walking” with your friend through your sponsorship.

This is a great way that we can support the Walk2gether team, and find sponsors for the 789 children, youth and elderly waiting for sponsorship in El Salvador (where Bob is walking this week).

So, this Sunday, put on your sticker and watch for other CFCA supporters wherever you go. You may be able to make a new CFCA friend, and find a sponsor for a waiting child, all at the same time!

Your friends can sponsor through CFCA on our website, or by calling Sponsor Services at (800) 875-6564.

If you would like Walk2gether stickers, please call Sponsor Services at (800) 875-6564.

Upcoming Sticker Sundays
March 13, 2010
April 10, 2010