Gracielle Ferreira Andrade, 22, Brazil
(Active Member of the Family International)

I’ve been an active member of the Christian missionary group The Family International for over 2 years. When I found out about the tragedy and specially heard the accusations being leveled against them, I was very shocked and sad. So, after thinking about all that is being said against the Family at this time, I decided to share a little bit of my vision and experience with the young people and children in the Family.

There are several points and things that happened that encouraged me to have the Family as my church, and one of the main ones was the dedication I’ve seen and the sincere love I’ve felt from these missionaries. I’d never met Christians so full of conviction and determined to live as Christ taught, loving God above all and their neighbor.

This love and conviction is part of the daily lives of the young people and children in the Family. Since I’ve met the Family, I’ve seen the unique opportunities their children have of getting a good education, fun and healthy socialization. I love talking to them and they can hold conversations about science, politics, economy and anything. They can discuss all kinds of subjects and are open to share their knowledge and experiences with you and to learn from whatever you might want to or be able to teach them. These children are raised in a safe and loving environment and their creativity and intelligence doesn’t cease to amaze me.

Being an university student my friendship circle is composed of mostly other young people like me, and I can attest with full assurance that few of them have the perception of situations and clarity of thought as the young people and children in the Home with which I fellowship have.

While young people in the world are mainly interested in themselves and the benefits they can get, absorbing the selfish doctrine of watching out for number one and getting goods, I see the young people in the Family learning how to love others and share with the needy.

To me, the Family is the group of people the Lord has chosen to convey His eternal love to the world, with the most loving and radical methods to rescue souls for His Kingdom. I’m sure that there’ll be persecutions, because it’s a promise in the Word, but the Lord will care for us and we will not be confounded.

I love you, my Family!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 4th, 2005 and is filed under Speaking Out, New/rejoined Members, 18 to 24, Archived. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.