Happy weekend, friends! Several of you have blessed me so much by contacting me this weekend about the Valentine Project for the girls of Hope Unlimited for Children. (If you don’t know what that is, it’s not too late! Just click the link above to read about it on Renaissance Man’s blog.) You’ve been working on your Valentines … writing blog posts about the project … organizing groups of friends to help you. Oh, how excited the girls will be when they receive your sweet gifts of love! Thank you for caring.
Here are the answers to the main questions I’ve received …
1) How old are these girls?
Most will be in the 10-17 age range.
2) What language do they speak?
How will they know what I write?
The girls speak Brazilian Portuguese. (Yes, that’s different from Portuguese … and I had no idea about that until Hope Unlimited entered my life!) A few of them know English, and many more of them are working hard on their English! Don’t worry… It’s fine to write your Valentines in English (whew!) because they will be translated.
But if you want to throw in a few familiar (to them) phrases, try these …
Sua amiga (Your friend)
Com amor (With love)
Deus te abençoe. (God bless you.)
Você é uma menina linda! (You are a beautiful young lady!)
Saiba que você é amada. (Know that you are loved.)
More phrases available HERE under Personalize It.
You have no idea how much your seemingly insignificant little Valentines will mean to these girls. You simply have no idea …
Thank you, friends!
By the way … saiba que você é amada.
Sua amiga,
Susan
Running behind this year? No time to do this before Valentines Day? No problem! Brazil’s Day of Love isn’t until early June, so as long as your Valentines are received by APRIL, you’ll be fine. How ’bout that? You’re actually AHEAD of schedule now!
Please send your cards marked “Valentine Project” to:
Hope Unlimited for Children
P. O. Box 100
Jefferson City, TN 37760
JOIN BLOGGERS FOR HOPE …
Sending Valentine love to “the least of these”
I hadn’t planned to, but I think I’ll link this to Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper and Spiritual Sunday at Blogger Spirit. Let’s get the word out!
Hi Susan- I signed up as your newest follower and we will be doing this project (as I emailed you). I can’t wait. xo Diana
Thanks….what a wonderful project. Our precious friend is working with this group in Cambodia…so my heart is being pulled into this ministry, thanks for sharing.
Janette, I’m thankful God is tugging at your heart for orphans. There are many groups working on behalf of the children, but not nearly enough individuals and churches helping to raise awareness and support. What group does your friend work with in Cambodia? Hope Unlimited is only in Brazil, but I always love to learn about other ministries.
Susan, as if I haven’t bugged you through email enough already, 😉 are the Valentines preferred in individual envelopes or without? I ask because mine are tags and I can easily provide matching envelopes for each but rather check what is preferred because some ministries prefer to see the actual item or have very specific guidelines.
Love ya for bearing with me. 🙂
Either is fantastic. Your choice! Thank you, friend!
What a wonderful project. I’m happy Spiritual Sundays can help get the word out. I have a special spot in my heart for Brazil because my best friend was a missionary there for almost 50 years.
Blessings,
Charlotte
I have asked the women of my class to come along with me for this project. They’re looking for cards this week and bringing them to me. I’ll send an email with the list of phrases.
Oh, I hope they come through. This is just such a worthy idea. They seemed very moved when I told them about it.
Sorry I didn’t get to comment earlier. I wanted to thank you for sending me the linky info. I had no idea. Like Marcia do you send separate envelopes? or can you send a bunch in a bigger envelope? Also is there a deadline to be received? Thanks! I added the button to one of my sites pages to be up all year round. I’ll be following along with you now too. Thanks, Theresa @ DearCreatives.com
I’m so glad they celebrate later than we do. We can recycle our Valentines!
– The Tablescaper
I see this is a posting from 2012. Just today I discovered your site coming through the “backdoor” so to speak while looking for suggestions on how to clean and remove stains from antique bottles. I LOVE antiques of many sorts. That lead me to the posting for the Wedgewood Cameo counterpane you saved from the trash and removed all the stains. BEAUTIFUL piece of antique linen which is another type of antiques I also LOVE. But that’s another listing, back to the Valentines. Is the Valentine Card Hope Unlimited project still continuing here in 2015? Since their holiday that happens in June it would be wonderful to spread the word again. I’ll wait to hear word from you whether I should dig the Valentine cards back out again. If it is I’m going to contact a place we have near me – a ribbon outlet. It’s at the factory where they produce the ribbon and you can’t BELIEVE the buys a person can get. (They sell at times rolls of uncut ribbon large enough to be used as table covering just like you would rolls of table paper or the plastic stuff you buy by the roll, all for about $4) If this place ever closes I haven’t a clue what I’ll do around the holidays. This year they received cases of Valentine Cards from another site which they sold for 25 cents each. I sent cards to EVERYONE I could think of, including all the residents living in our retirement community my family owns and manages. They loved them. After all, who doesn’t like to be told they’re special and people care about them! Often people like this get far more out of being remembered on Valentine’s Day than spouses and dates who just expect something.
Pamela, I’ll send you a separate email, but for anyone reading this in the future… YES, the Valentine project for the girls at Hope Unlimited for Children is an ANNUAL event. We ask that cards be postmarked by April 1 so we have plenty of time for translation and getting them ready for the girls’ party in June. To read more about the Valentine Project, click the Sharing Hope tab at the top of this blog and choose Valentine Project.