Love has a way of radically transforming lives. At Forward Edge, we place our focus on helping children trapped in poverty reach their full, God-given potential (Ephesians 2:10) by meeting their basic needs (food, safe water, health care) and empowering them with quality education, vocational training, and spiritual discipleship. This holistic model helps vulnerable children receive the care they often desperately need. What is the result? They begin to thrive.
However, while food, water and education are crucial in breaking the cycle of poverty, love is what penetrates the heart and creates lasting change in the lives of the children our programs serve. Every program leader in our locations has dedicated themselves to forming deep relationships with the children and loving them consistently. For many children, this may be the first time in their life they’ve experienced the love of Jesus. This was true for Nubia.
Nubia’s Story: A Life Transformed
Nubia first came to Trigo y Miel, Forward Edge’s children’s program in Oaxaca, Mexico for tutoring, as she was severely behind in school. Victor and Lety Velasco, our program directors, quickly noticed that Nubia was sad, withdrawn, and unwilling to try. It was then that Victor and Lety showed extra concern for Nubia, and that is when she opened up to them, describing herself as “ugly”, “fat”, and “stupid”. She told them there was no use in trying to help her because she believed she would never amount to anything. Sadly, these were the exact words her family would use for her in her childhood, and over time she had begun to wear them like a heavy shroud, carrying them with her everywhere she went.
Victor and Lety began to speak the truth to Nubia and tell her she was beautiful, smart, and worthy of being loved. Each day she came to the program, she heard these words of love and affirmation and as a result, began to improve in every area of her life. She quickly caught up in school and over the years rose to the top of her class! She became a leader in the program and began mentoring younger kids who needed to hear those same life-giving words Victor and Lety had repeated to her. As demonstrated in Nubia’s life, the role a loving adult plays in a child’s life, especially as a mentor, is invaluable. It is love that moves mountains.
The Role of a Caring Adult
Child Trends, a nonprofit research center that conducts research on the well-being of children and factors affecting children’s lives, reported that “… the presence of one or more caring, committed adults in a child’s life increases the likelihood that children and youth flourish, and become productive adults themselves.”
Fortunately, Nubia has also been loved by and enjoyed a close relationship with her sponsor, Barbara. In a letter to Barbara at Christmas, Nubia wrote, “I love to write to you and tell you about my life and my dreams. It is so good for me. I am fulfilling my goals little by little. I´m going to college and working part time. The college campus is so big, and it is fully equipped. I will be doing my practicum soon. I think it will be at a hospital or in a community outside of the city. I´m learning a lot. Thank you for your gift and for your love. I know you are on my side, and you love me no matter what.”
How Powerful Love Is
Nubia experienced a new beginning when she came to Trigo y Miel. A beginning marked by deep love and care through her relationship with Victor and Lety, and later through her sponsor, Barbara. This changed the trajectory of her life, her outlook, and her ability to step into God’s plans for her life.
Now, she’s flourishing and has a true sense of worth and purpose. What a testament to how powerful love is.
In the extremely poor village of Kijabe, Kenya, there lives a crippled widow named Mary. After her husband died of AIDS a few years ago, she struggled to find food. While she suffers from HIV, too, Mary’s greatest challenge is a nerve problem in her legs. She has to use crutches
“If I look back and see what I was, I can see a nefarious, and even a little perverted, young man. I was someone aimless, without knowledge and without any foundation.” Medardo grew up in an open-air garbage dump called La Chureca in Managua, Nicaragua, and then later, in Villa
Our children’s programs had wonderful Christmas programs full of food, music, celebration, and the true meaning of Christmas – in fact at least 13 people were saved through these programs! Oaxaca Haiti Kenya Uganda Ghana Cuba Oaxaca Haiti Kenya Uganda Ghana Cuba In Oaxaca, families were invited for a delicious
We are so excited to be starting 2019 off with the addition of a brand new Forward Edge ministry location. Our newest Child Sponsorship program, Light A Candle, serves 400 children in some of the most difficult areas of Kampala, Uganda. Kampala comprises 3.5 million people within the city limits,
21 yrs. old
Entered the program: March 2023
Comfort lives with her mother in a house built with mud and roofed with thatch. They have no access to potable water. There is no piped water in the village so the women and girls in the community fetch water from a local dam; once it dries up, they have to walk very long distances to find other sources. This affect their availability to work and attend school regularly.
Comfort’s family is Christian. She lost the father at an early age and her mother is a housewife with no source of income. Before Create Hope, they lived on less than $1 a day and usually one meal a day. Joining the program has enabled her to attend school and have a bicycle to take her the 5 miles each way, every day. As with many girls her age, Comfort misses school when she is having her monthly cycle because she cannot afford to buy a sanitary supplies.
Plus bonus group fundraising ideas!
