Stories from Lar Feliz

The Death of a Child, the Birth of a Dream

When Lar Feliz began, we housed only boys.  At the time, it was the greatest need.  We all lived at one farm together with nearly twenty boys.  During those early years at the project, we had our very first Open House to raise awareness about our work.  The guests were the mayor of Holambra at the time, his wife, and a few others, among them a young Dutch couple with their three young children.  It made such an impression on the couple that they made an appointment with us to come again to bring us toys.  Later that week, we received an urgent call for prayer from this couple.  Their two year old daughter had drowned in an accident and was near death.  She died later that day, and we went to a Memorial service held for her by her parents.  It was so hard and there were no words that we could find to comfort them.  At the end of the service, the husband announced that he would give a donation in name of the child for us to begin a work for girls.  We were so touched by this, and later that year we began receiving girls as well as boys.  Through the death of this small beautiful child, we opened our hearts to having girls at Lar Feliz, and the dream was born and realized.