For 21 years, PEPE International has been sharing joy, hope, and promoting transformation. For 21 years, we have crossed borders to help thousands of children who live undernourished, rejected, suffering, without a future perspective, and without finding hope in Christ Jesus. There are hundreds of Christians, church members, who become missionary educators and respond to God’s challenging call to reach children. Why do we do this? Because we are loved by God, and therefore we love children.
We at PEPE Americas are part of this history! The first PEPE’s were founded in 2002 in Peru and Paraguay. In 2005, we arrived in Bolivia and Colombia. In 2006, in Ecuador and, in 2010, we opened PEPE on the Dominican island. In 2011, we went to Argentina and Chile. In 2014, we arrived in El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. In 2015, God opened the doors of Venezuela and Panama, and in 2017 we entered Honduras. PEPE Program is present in 15 countries connecting churches with children and their families, a great victory. But the challenge remains as there are still many more countries to reach.
Today, our first children have grown up to be lawyers, athletes, teachers, pedagogues, business people, musicians, doctors, nurses, pastors, missionaries, Christian mothers, and fathers who are teaching their sons and daughters on the way they should go. So, each year, God sends new children to be loved, cared for, valued, taught, and protected, for in this way we fulfill God’s order and continue to save generations in our America!
Every Latin American child has the opportunity to blossom like the palm tree when its roots are established in God since their childhood, to reach old age producing many green and full of life fruits. This is the truth of PEPE, proven in Psalm 92:12-14 “…they will blossom like palm trees and grow like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are planted in the house of the Lord; they shall flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age, they will bear fruit; they will stay green and full of life.”
Some of the testimonies we received are “PEPE changed my family!”; “PEPE changed my church!”; “PEPE changed my heart!”; “At PEPE I met Jesus!”. As a continental coordinator, these testimonies inspire me. I don’t need anything else because that’s the reason PEPE exists!
Happy Anniversary to all those who made and make PEPE reach more than 18 thousand children every year: to our World Mission Board, which is the integral support for PEPE; to the brothers and sisters of churches in Brazil and around the world who support us with their prayers and offerings; to all the pastors who have transformed their churches by accepting this missionary challenge; to every missionary-educator who is on the front line; to each member of the team that works hard in the coordination, this party is yours too!
Carmen Lígia
PEPE Americas Continental Coordinator
Translated by Letícia Pedrosa Rodrigues
