We Are Alive

Things have been totally insane here. We are giving ourselves until the end of the year to have our new space ready for operation and with our new facility, we are dreaming big for what VIVA can be. Our goal in a nutshell is to bring people to Christ by promoting equal opportunity through relevant education. With that purpose in mind, we now have a few more things we are working on putting together:

VIVA Courses

As always, we will offer courses about things that are relevant for life but that we don't learn in regular schools. We have about 20 courses opening in January, including a documentary-based sociology class taught by yours truly.

VIVA Cultural Center

We plan on using some of our space to put together expositions from our classes such as creativity class and photography class, as well as from local artists. We are excited to offer a space for our community to practice the creativity with which our Creator has blessed each of us.

VIVA Study Center

We will offer free wifi and plenty of work space for people to study, read, work, or just hang out. We are also opening the VIVA Café, an iced coffee shop to invite people to use this space and to help cover the costs that come with it.

VIVA Library

We want to incentivize our neighborhood and students to read more because what they say is true -- knowledge is power and readers are leaders. We have been accepting book donations and organizing them so that people can come read here or check out books for up to a month completely free of charge.

VIVA Youth Wing

This is where we host youth group. We just started a new series called "Cuidado" or "Care". We are talking about different topics and exploring how to both care for them as well as be careful with them. For example, how do we care for our friends with love and kindness while also being careful that we are a good influence on them, rather than them being a bad influence on us?

VIVA Counseling

In January, Carioca finishes his degree in Christian counseling and will be offering free sessions to individuals and families.

All of this is taking A LOT of work. If we're not at VIVA, we're out getting some document we need for operation or picking up a donation from someone's house (our new facility is built completely on the generosity of others) or studying so we can do all of this better.

Some days things go pretty smoothly and other days things really do not. We are thankful for the rough days because they remind us that we don't do this for any sort of glory or recognition or even comfort. We do it all because Jesus loves us and He loves this community and we are on this earth to help make sure people know that.

Sorry for the lack of communication lately. We are working hard trying to get things all set up here and we sometimes forget that we have such an incredible support system in the States. So, hi! We are alive! And there are some exciting things happening here that we are anxious for y'all to see.

Here are some specific prayer requests:

Financial Support

Rest