Karis Kornfield 
1 ~ 29 Apr 09
Have you ever seen the movie “City of God”? It made me angry—the kind of anger you don’t even notice at first, that boils up finally into hot tears. Why? Because there was such a very familiar taste to it.
I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, surrounded by the favela (urban slum). During high school sometimes I would stop on my way from classes and cautiously sit on the curb with the kids to tell them the stories they asked for. At first they asked for money, but quickly understood that I didn’t have any. I stepped across open sewage lines to get to friends’ homes. There, they would be proud to be building the second room onto the house with seven people in it, yet the most generous people one could ever meet.
This is the specific place where I grew up and the sorts of people we as a family invested in and knew—the wealthy of Brazil lead a completely different, sophisticated life, of which we only had snapshots, glances. Brazil is considered one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Ever since middle school I’ve had dreams of investing significantly in these children. Many of them are worked like little adults or neglected except for the four hours a day they spend in school. But my life has taken a few unexpected twists—again and again I have been thwarted in my plans and projects. I can’t be in Brazil right now, perhaps never. I’m very excited to share with you, however, a way that I might serve them even from here in Pittsburgh. More about this on tomorrow’s posting.
2 ~ 30 Apr 09
C E V A P
Karis Kornfield
One of our friends from church had a house cobbled together a few streets into the favela near our home in São Paulo. Nina originally opened her garage for an afternoon meeting once a week for children, using Sunday school materials. A Bible Club. We had had one, ourselves, out of our home for several years. I presented my first strums of the guitar there.
I volunteered at Nina’s Bible Club throughout high school. The kids I taught are nearly all members of our church now, growing adults with good jobs, some married. One of the highlights of my time in Brazil last Christmas was seeing them (the ones who hadn’t become missionaries) and how well they were doing.
Nina’s Bible Club expanded until it burst the seams of her house; they built on another room, and quickly had too many children for that. They moved to the church grounds, where they could make use of the soccer court, Sunday school classrooms, kitchen. Eventually, they partnered with Compassion International, becoming a program that runs three days a week. We now provide two good meals a day to the 110 children who attend, as well as sports, Bible teaching and worship, and what we call “reforço escolar,” which literally translated means “school reinforcement.” My sister Rachel currently volunteers with the program, teaching English to three avid teenagers.
This project is called CEVAP, an acronym for “Centro de Valorização da Pessoa” (in English: “center for valuing personhood,” or “center for adding value to the person”). It meets some very real and urgent needs in the community it serves, and tomorrow I hope to give you a little bit of context in which to appreciate the importance of this sort of project for the future of the Brazilian nation.
3 ~ 1 May 09
A Little About the Brazilian Education System
Karis Kornfield
The São Paulo public school system works in shifts, using the same classroom space:
7 |
— | 11 |
a.m. | |
11 |
— | 3 |
||
3 |
— | 7 |
p.m. | |
7 |
— | 11 |
The classes are large, often 50 students with a single teacher. My friends would sometimes come to the door during the time they should have been in school because the teachers were on strike again, or their teacher simply had not shown up for class. In a study recently published by the Brazilian equivalent of the New York Times (Estado de São Paulo), one third of the children in 4th grade does not know the content of the 1st.
The “school reinforcement” CEVAP provides touches on a very great injustice in the education system, in that only those who can afford to send their children to private schools or tutors have very much chance of getting into public universities. There is a bottleneck of youth who spend years trying and trying again to pass the competitive entrance exam. Those who have been on their roofs flying their kites or in the streets using wadded-up socks as soccer balls or at intersections trying to sell candy and roses to those foolish enough to stop at the lights, or in overcrowded underdisciplined classrooms with unmotivated teachers, have little chance for a better future.
It is painful for me to speak this way of my beloved country, to attempt to stir up pity or indignation in you, to give you a sense of Brazil’s warts. This sort of focus on needs is part of a whole distorted attitude between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern, which I do not want to be a part of perpetuating.
At the same time, there is a genuine way to impact the situation in my own neighborhood. There is already a lot of good being done by members of the community, but they are desperately in need of funds or they will have to close down.
4 ~ 2 May 09
What We Can Do
Karis Kornfield
CEVAP is in imminent danger of being shut down in June.
It is currently run from our church building, which is a hodgepodge cement structure which needs to be torn down and reconstructed in order to adequately space the ministries it serves. There is nowhere to house CEVAP in the meantime, nor are there funds to rent a place. It has been so frustrating to be unable to be with people I love so much and concretely serve them. But then I realized that even from my hospital bed in Pittsburgh, there is something I can do. This is why I am appealing to you.
I hope to help raise money either to rent a building for CEVAP (about $525/month) or to buy a permanent community center, which might cost about $90,000. We’ll see what God does! If God touches your heart to give even a small amount, I know that God will honor and multiply your generosity, out of love for the children CEVAP is caring for now and will care for in the future. Even if you can only offer $10 or $15, or a few cents from a Sunday School class, you will bless both CEVAP and me.
If you would like to participate in helping CEVAP continue functioning past June, you can make a tax-deductible donation on-line through my sister Rachel’s mission board at www.OneChallenge.org, by going to that site and pressing “donate” in the left-hand column (or pressing the donate button at the end of this page). If you would like to give monthly, the first option is best (OCExpress Automatic Giving). Just put “Rachel Kornfield (CEVAP)” under “Name” in the “Donation Details” section. If you would like to give a one-time gift, you can do so by credit card by choosing the second link, once again including “Rachel Kornfield (CEVAP)” under Name.
For one-time or monthly gifts, you can also fill out checks to OC International, including a note that says the proceeds are to go to Rachel Kornfield (CEVAP), and send them to:
OC International
PO Box 36900
Colorado Springs, CO 80936-6900
The money will be transferred to Brazil and deposited in the CEVAP account. (For legal and proper accounting purposes, the Rachel Kornfield (CEVAP) designation is necessary, as that is how the ministry project account is set up.)
I will be supplying on my site more information, stories, pictures and testimonies from the kids themselves. I hope God will touch you with love for these children, just as he has touched me.
5 ~ 14 July 09
Update
Rachel Kornfield
Thank you SO much all of you that have given to CEVAP! Due to your generosity, in the month of May we collected over $2500!!! This will make a huge difference to the project, which is currently struggling to have a sense of direction and next steps, given a variety of challenges in terms of physical space, leadership and ability to pay employees. When I told the CEVAP director about the gift she was extremely encouraged. If any of you would be interested in giving further to this project, on a monthly basis even, it will certainly continue to have a significant impact on the lives of these children.
I was inspired to start translating the monthly newsletters CEVAP has been sending out since last October. They contain some very powerful testimonies of how God has worked through the project. Here are some words from the CEVAP kids from January:
Nathalia, 11 years old, at CEVAP since 2003
“If it weren’t for the Project, I would not know Jesus and the difference that made in my life is that everything changed, everything that was upside down he put right.”
Aretha, 14 years old, at CEVAP since 2003
“The Project makes a difference in my life because I learned to be more involved with Christ and today I recognize that without him I would be nothing. The Project provides the opportunity for us to relate to Jesus, this made me change my life and today I see things through other eyes, the eyes of Christ.”
Ana Carolina, 14 years old, at CEVAP since 2003
“The Project is important to me because it changed my life, it made me draw closer to Christ and gave me strength of will to grow in my responsibilities, made me more patient, wise, understanding, closer to Christ. For me the Project is my life.”
These are a few examples of how much God can do through us, the body of Christ, and how many good fruits we can harvest through the CEVAP Project. You are part of this!
“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” Mark 9:37
And some current prayer requests, in Gisele’s own words:
• We thank God for the faithful donors that contribute to the maintenance of the Project;
• We ask for the children, that God would protect them from the risks and abuses to which they are subject;
• For the families, for God to work in their hearts helping them in their care for their children and to draw closer to God;
• For the challenges and decision to be made related to the future of the Project;
• For the Project board and team, that we would administer the resources with excellence.
• For financial provision.
Thank you!!!
Blessings and love,
Rachel Kornfield
6 ~ 28 Aug 09
Testimony
Charlene Cavalcante Soares, 13 years old
In the project for the last 5 years.
"The Project was one of the best things that have happened in my life, because were it not for God and the Project I would be like a person who thinks nothing has meaning, nothing makes sense.
"The Project has taught me many things, such as: not to judge because God is the only one who has that power in our lives, to be humble; it taught me what is right and wrong, and most of all that Jesus died for me on the cross, for all my sins and various other things.
"I like the Project because each time I am knowing more and more about Christ, I like my friends who are also part of the Project, I like the “tias” (teachers) as if they were my real “tias” (aunts). I also have a desire to attend this church, but my mother attends another, so I go with her. But I believe I will come here one day.
"I adore my godmother and I like various other things about this place. I like to play ball on the court, I like singing with tia Ester, learning English with tia Raquel (Rachel), I like to hear tia Celina talk about the Bible, I really like tia Gisele, I like the food, I like everything about the Project. The Project is very, very important to me.
"One of the things that really impacted me here at the Project was when I accepted, for the first time, Jesus Christ in my life.
"The Project is all these things to me."
Prayer Requests
Thanksgiving:
• For the new member of our team, Ester, who works with the 6 to 8 year olds, and gives music lessons to the teenagers;
Requests:
• For our children, that God keep them safe from the dangers and abuses to which they are subject, and call them to greater intimacy with Him;
• That God might cover us with wisdom, grace and love, that we might act for Him in each situation, in each life, and in each heart;
• For the Baptism room that we want to put together, and for the developing of a relationship between the children and the church;
• For financial provision.
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.” — Matthew 28:19-20
7 ~ 9 9 09
Thanks from the CEVAP Director
We are very grateful to God for the lives of each of you who donated and prayed for CEVAP and to the Kornfield family which has contributed in so many ways to this ministry. To all of you, our extreme thanks. Know that, with your help and prayers, God has impacted the lives of our children and teenagers and we are harvesting good fruits from all of this. Currently, we have some teenagers participating effectively in the youth services of our church and drawing closer and closer to the body of Christ.
To date, 240 children have participated in the project, all of which heard the message of the cross weekly, for at least a year, explained in different ways, in terms they understand. They were able to experience the grace that one day reached us. We consider this a great victory, for we believe that all of them were transformed by what they heard and saw here and that the natural path of their lives was altered by the blood of Jesus. May the Lord of Grace continue to provide all the resources, spiritual, emotional and financial and the wisdom to care for the sheep he has given us.
And may he give each of you infinitely more than you can ask or imagine, pouring out blessings on your lives. Thank you so much.
Gisele Ribeiro
CEVAP Director
8 ~ 7 Oct 09
Testimony
Alice, 13 years old
In CEVAP for the last 5 years.
"CEVAP was one of the best things that have happened in my life. I used to be rebellious, I would pick fights with people for no reason, cursed a lot, disrespected the tios (teachers), my family and my friends. Today I’m a lot calmer. I learned that God is very important in my life because without Him I would be a nobody. I also learned that I should not let myself be taken by the evil way and many other things.
"Were I not in CEVAP, I would be doing everything wrong today. I thank God for CEVAP, and for everything He did in my life."
Aline, 13 years old
In CEVAP for the last 5 years.
"CEVAP is a work of God, because it made the difference in my life. Before I was rebellious, answered back to everyone, and fought a lot. "I was a violent girl." Now, I’m not perfect, because nobody’s perfect, but I’m a whole lot calmer, I respect people, I’ve learned that it is very important to know about the word of God. Without Him our life is nothing. I used to like to do everything alone, without anyone else and now I have learned to work in a group."
Prayer Thanksgiving:
• For the provision that He has given us;
• For the fruits that we have been harvesting.
Prayer Requests:
• For our children, that God keep them safe from the dangers and abuses to which they are subject, and call them to greater intimacy with Him;
• That God might cover us with wisdom, grace and love, that we might act for Him in each situation, in each life, and in each heart;
• For the Baptism room that we want to put together, and for the developing of a relationship between the children and the church;
• For financial provision;
• For direction for the coming year.
“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce in us this species of fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, righteousness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control; against these there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23
9 ~ Jan 10
Testimony
Mugna, 15 years old
In CEVAP for the last 6 years.
"Everything in my life started when I was 9 years old. My grandfather had just died, my family was very shaken up, so my mother decided to move to this neighborhood. That was when I joined CEVAP. My siblings and I were the first kids in the project.
"In the project I learned that God comes first; I also learned that I should respect people. The most important thing I learned is about Jesus’ life and what He went through to save us. Jesus is a person who loves us very much and gave His own life for us.
"What I like best about CEVAP is Tia Celina, because she explains everything in our teenage lingo. If I were asked what would have become of me had I not been a part of the project, I would answer that I don’t even want to imagine where I would be.
"I accepted Christ at the project, and on the 28th of November, 2009 I was baptized here at the Church. Now I want to begin some sort of ministry, IBI Kids or Art and Life, and I want to tell more people about Jesus."
Prayer Thanksgiving:
• For one more year of CEVAP, thus far the Lord has helped us!
Prayer Requests:
• That God would show us His objectives and strategies for 2010 in our work with the children;
• For more passionate workers who share our vision;
• For the children and their families, that they might feel the power and love of God more and more through the project;
• For the Team and Committee of the project, that they might continue being faithful to God in this work, and that they might prove capable of displaying His glory.
"I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him, will give forth much fruit; without me, you can do nothing." — John 15:15