In Acts 16:31 we can read a great promise that we are now able to harvest from our PEPE’s: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your family shall be saved”. In our PEPE’s we work like this: we seed the good seed to harvest changed lives! We have reached the hearts of children who consequently, seed in the hearts of their families the gospel that reached them. The child knows Jesus at PEPE and it is the child herself who will introduce Jesus to her family. Believing in this reality we keep working for many children to have their lives changed by the Power of God. We are very happy because God has given us this great gift which is to have lives changed by His great love!
In the neighborhood Usina, in the region of Misiones, there was an abandoned house which always called our attention and we dreamed of having a beautiful PEPE in that place. After much prayer and many contacts, the town hall gave us the house to make a social work. And that’s how it was born the first Argentinean PEPE on the 2nd of May of 2011, when we have launched PEPE there we have called “Rayito de Sol”, which in English means: Sun Light. We call it Sun Light because in Misiones the rain falls every month of the year hiding the sun. God gave us the joy to be able to take care of 20 children this first year, our first Pepitos and Pepitas.
One of our Pepitas is called Fernanda Galarza. She has arrived at PEPE with only 3 years old and stood out among the other children because she was very slim and short. As soon as the children arrived at PEPE, children received a delicious lunch prepared by the volunteers’ team, and just then we started the activities. The time has passed and our first children were growing and becoming teenagers, even little Fernanda.
PEPE was also growing and organizing different activities to reach the families of children such as: Small group for the Mothers, Literacy Program for Adults ( where the mothers could learn how to read and write and they have already sent us Bible texts through cellphone) and the Happy Hour which gathers up to 60 children keeping the contact with children we assist up to now and ex-children of PEPE’s including their siblings. Each first Sunday we have the Family Service; we keep working with PEPE Goes (Visiting Program), even on vacation, keeping thus, the bond with families; we offer different workshops for the mothers (cooking, sewing, art craft, etc.) and we closed the year with a Christmas activity which reaches simultaneously children and mothers, developing activities like games and Cooking classes.
In February this year, we have celebrated 10 years of PEPE in that community. Occasion which many mothers and a father were baptized. Our biggest joy was to participate in the party of our first ex-pepita baptized, Fernanda, which is 13 years old now. Through Fernanda all her family is currently in the church praising the Lord and living the Power of God who changed and keep changing their lives!
Graciela Alencastro
National Coordinator of PEPE Argentina
Carmen Ligia (Text edition) – Continental Coordinator of PEPE Americas
