“Com amor”
“Você é uma menina linda!”
“Saiba que você é amada.”
and pretty flowers … and dating entered the picture.
Dating … that human courtship ritual filled with social activities and relational assessment. That critical time in young life when choices affect the future. When conscientious, caring parents pray their children have listened.
But what happens when there were no conscientious, caring parents? When a young girl is abused … or prostituted … by her parents? When she’s taught that her only value is as a sexual object? How can she possibly understand what true love is?
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| via Hope Unlimited |
That is the reality for most of the girls at Hope Unlimited for Children. The concept of dating and marriage, love and family, evoke feelings of confusion and guilt and fear. But their story doesn’t have to end there …
In Brazil, the Day of Love is in early Summer.
On that day, surrounded by godly women who love them, the girls at Hope Unlimited are taught about true love and purity and what it means to be of value as one of God’s highest creations … and loved by their Creator.
Valentines that come from people who took time to make a few extra Valentines for someone they don’t know. People like you and me. It’s a very small act that has a huge impact on the way young girls think of themselves … and how they face the future.
Vanessa and I were so moved by Susan’s post! We are going to be spending the next couple of weeks encouraging our friends and family to join us in providing a special “Day of Love” for these young women! We will be sharing our progress in the next few weeks. Would you please consider joining us? Here’s how you can help this ministry!
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| via Hope Unlimited |
If you’d like to join us in making Valentines for the girls of Hope, you can be certain you’ll bring happy smiles and growing confidence into a young girl’s life. It can be as simple as making a couple of extras when you write Valentines to your loved ones … or you can make an “event” out of it and involve your Sunday School class, ladies Bible study group, mission group, civic organization, Girl Scout troop, sports team … parents of daughters.
Send your Valentines marked “Valentine Project” to
Hope Unlimited for Children
P.O. Box 2707
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
All Valentines received between now and the end of April will be translated and shared at the 2012 Day of Love celebration.
Here are some answers to questions you might have:
* Most of the girls are in the 10-17 age range.
* All of the girls speak Brazilian Portuguese. (A few speak some English, and many of them are working hard on their English!) If someone wants to include a note, that’s great; it will be translated. It’s also okay to include a picture of yourself or your family, letting the girl know they’re being thought of/prayed for by a friend. (They are very familiar with Americans who love them and very proud to display their Valentines!)
Here are a few phrases that might be useful:
Sua amiga (Your friend)
Com amor (With love)
Deus te abençoe. (God bless you.)
Você é uma menina linda! (You are a beautiful young lady!)
Saiba que você é amada. (Know that you are loved.)
To read more about the Valentine Project, you can visit Susan at My Place to Yours (where she will be happy to answer any questions you have) or at Hope Unlimited.
Won’t you consider joining us and blessing these young ladies! Let’s show them Christ’s love…the best LOVE of all through our hands…Thank you for joining us on this Simply Sunday…
Updated to add: We thought it would be fun to share which readers of At The Picket Fence participated in this wonderful project! If you decide to make Valentine’s cards for these young ladies whether on your own, as a family, or you coordinate a group, would you please send us photographs and a little blurb of what you did and we will included it in a follow up post? Let’s show blogland what a great community we bloggers have with each other!
Also a BIG thank you to Vicki at Curly Willow Collections for creating this lovely button to help us promote this project!
You can get the code for your own button from our sidebar! Help us promote this worthwhile project!
Updated to add: We thought it would be fun to share which readers of At The Picket Fence participated in this wonderful project! If you decide to make Valentine’s cards for these young ladies whether on your own, as a family, or you coordinate a group, would you please send us photographs and a little blurb of what you did and we will included it in a follow up post? Let’s show blogland what a great community we bloggers have with each other!
Also a BIG thank you to Vicki at Curly Willow Collections for creating this lovely button to help us promote this project!
What a blessing this is for me. Do you know that my girls were all lamenting the fact that we were going to be gone for the 14 days surrounding Valentine’s Day and so we wouldn’t have time to make our cards/tags this year. Well, NOW we can come home and make them AFTER Valentine’s Day and send them off for this project. These little girls are going to be so excited. I can’t wait to do this and we will share pictures when we are done. God bless you for this post! xo Diana
How wonderful Diana! Thank you for helping to bless these lovely young ladies…We can show them Christ’s love by being HIS hands! Make sure to take pictures and send them to us, we’ll put them in a post.
Heather
Obrigado, ladies! (Thank you!) I can’t wait to see what it looks like when all that Picket Fence reader love stretches from here to Brazil and wraps itself around some fabulous young ladies. I love your hearts, and I’m so very grateful that you’re joining with My Place to Yours and Hope Unlimited for Children to bless young girls with Valentines and, more importantly, with a loving touch from someone who wants them to understand that dating and marriage, love and family, are still beautifully attainable in their lives. Their pasts do not define them!
Want proof? A fantastic story of a young girl transformed will be posted on Hope’s blog TOMORROW. I hope you’ll check it out. I promise it will be worth the wait! http://www.hopeunlimitedforchildren.blogspot.com
It is a blessing for us to be able to help in some small way spread the word about this ministry and this special project. What a small, simple way to have such a big impact on these young ladies. Looking forward to reading tomorrow’s story. Love you and your precious heart Susan!
Heather
What a wonderful idea! My design assistant (aka my preschooler) and I will get right on this – we’ve been making Valentine’s for days and are running out of people we know to create them for – so this is just perfect! Thank you!
Thank you Cameron! I know each Valentine will be treasured by these young ladies. That’s for being a blessing. Be sure to send us a picture of you all making your Valentines we will share it in a post. 🙂
Heather
What a wonderful organization to be involved in. I also love all your pink and red Valentine’s on this post. Ahhhh, it is such a special day of love.
~Sheri at Red Rose Alley
Thanks for adding the Bloggers for Hope button, ladies! Vicki did an awesome job, didn’t she? I’ve just added a linky to the post I just did: http://myplacetoyours.blogspot.com/2012/02/1.html. I hope everyone who posts about the Valentine Project will link up so we can all read it! (I just linked yours for you.) Thanks again!