For years and years, we received 30 guests at our house for events, my mother stayed up all night to prepare all their food, singing around the house and often without any help. Even after tiring days of work, they had the strength to listen to many young people, give advice and embrace them, always with a smile on their faces. As a teenager, I liked the full house, the congresses, but I didn't realize how much my parents worked for others.

My father received many honors, among them, Meritorious Citizen in the Centenary of the Assembly of God in Brazil, Emeritus Citizen of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, for 65 years of social services rendered in the State, Honorary Citizen of Porto Alegre, Capão da Canoa, among other cities.

A phrase my mother told me when I was 12 never left my mind:

"One day, the desire to help those in need will be born in your heart".

Over the years my parents have always dedicated themselves to helping others without measuring efforts.

In 2011, my mother got sick and I took them to live with me in Porto Alegre, so that I could be with them every day and dedicate myself exclusively to taking care of them.

I used to say to my mother: Who will pray for me if you let me??? With sweet voice she answered.

"Daughter the mother prayed her whole life for you, now when I'm gone you will receive so many blessings that many by your side will be blessed too".

In 2013, with 75 beautiful years of marriage and a difference of only 3 months, two lives dedicated to the love of neighbor came to an end.

At that moment my world fell apart, I felt sad, lost, as if I didn't need to be here anymore. So I looked for a very small place to spend some time, and try to find myself again. For some reason I chose the Province of Malta, where I got to know the work with Refugees coming on ships from Africa. Then I remembered the Love of my parents. From the Love they felt for others, I understood the meaning of the blessings that would reach other lives.

I decided to return to Brazil 4 months later to continue the social work that my parents had done for years, helping our orphanages, nursing homes and other projects. And here, too, the seed of the desire to bring a word of HOPE to Refugees began to germinate.

I got to know and fell in love with the Refugees Project in Malta.

A moment of sadness turned into something very special.

In 2017 I was following the great tragedy that was taking place in Venezuela, through missionary friends who lived there. So for my birthday in 2018, I gave myself a visit to the country.

I arrived 2 days after a 7.5 earthquake. We couldn't buy food or medicine, everything was very difficult across the country. When we got food, we prepared it with the help of church volunteers and distributed more than 500 dishes and it was a party; in addition to bringing help to hospitals and orphanages, making corn flour arepas (typical Venezuelan food) benefiting many people.

On one of those occasions, I was invited by the church to bring a message to Venezuelans. When thinking about the content of the word, only HOPE came to mind and even before starting, a woman, in the middle of the crowd, said in a loud and clear voice that they no longer believed in the government and that the world had turned a blind eye to its people and through my voice, there could be HOPE for those people. ESPERANZA HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION was born there.

Faced with so much suffering, sadness, I come across a boy with a sad look, called Jesus, 10 years old and with incurable scars, we talked every day, and he told me that his biggest dream was to change the government so that his country would have food again so that his friends would not die and that the crisis would end.

Then I met his mother, Marcia, who worked in exchange for food, because money was worthless there. She wanted her son to come to Brazil so that he could survive that war. I invited her to join our home where we were staying with the missionaries I brought from Brazil to help. The more I lived with the baby Jesus, the more I fell in love with him.

A month later I returned to Brazil, I could not see a table full, which reminded me that that boy had nothing to eat, as well as many. I woke up every day thinking that the worst could happen to Jesus. So I decided to pick them up, it was a war operation, 65 hours to get them out of there, and they arrived in Brazil on December 17, 2018, having a decent Christmas for the first time with a tree and gifts with their names on it.

When I embraced him in Brazil, safe and sound, I realized that I couldn't bring the 30 million Venezuelans who wanted to get out of there, but I could bring this boy with that look sweet and wide smile, called Jesus and his mother, and would be representing an entire nation.

I ask him: What do you want to be? And he tells me he wants to be a great businessman to that one day he can return to his country and save many lives and he hopes that his friends are alive.

Hearing that is priceless.

Today Jesus is at school, he speaks very well in Portuguese and he loves English, he has gained weight and grown a lot and he keeps the measuring tape trying to measure to see if he has reached me. They already have documents and Marcia is ready to work.

Sometimes we may even be criticized for these actions, but I would do it all over again.

In 2019, due to lack of security, we were unable to enter Venezuela, so we have missionaries from Projeto Esperanza on the border, Boa Vista -Roraima, working there, I could see the chaos in the city. We were invited to get to know the Brazilian Army's Acolhida Operation, which does a wonderful job of bringing refugees to Brazilian states.

Esperanza - Humanitarian Organization and the Missão do Bem Project were created with the aim of spreading throughout Brazil this desire to help, share, collaborate with others. To show that it is possible to help those in need, whether with food, with hugs, with smiles, with our time. To prove that if each of us manages to change someone else's world, together we will change the world!

I wasn't the missionary or the doctor that my parents dreamed of, I'm a business administrator, but I was very blessed with the love of others, with the desire to help, and to spread blessings to whoever is by my side. To spread that desire to other hearts.

I hope that one day when I no longer have the strength for this, baby Jesus or other children can continue this legacy, the greatest inheritance I have received.

LOVE CANNOT BE EXPLAINED!
LOVE IS FELT AND IT IS SHOWN!