Saturday, November 22, 2014

URGENT MESSAGE from +The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade

URGENT NEED FOR OUR GIRLS

The transportation situation at Our Little Roses needs immediate attention. I’m afraid if we don’t replace two of our vehicles right away, we won’t be able to get the girls to school, tutoring, medical appointments and other activities.

      As a good friend of Our Little Roses, you know that we stretch every donated dollar as far as we possibly can. Your support is precious to us – and your love for the girls is one of the great blessings in their lives.

      Every day, thanks to you, most of our girls leave Our Little Roses and go out to different schools in the community that meet their individual needs and strengths. Or they attend our own Holy Family Bilingual School.

      To see these once homeless, abandoned, and abused girls going off to school and having other opportunities – finding their way toward a hopeful future – is a beautiful sight, a miracle unfolding every day because of God and because of YOU!

      But the reality is that our two vehicles are dangerously close to the point of total, irreparable breakdown. Even before our recent trip to Our Little Roses, we knew the vehicles were on borrowed time.

      We’ve kept them going through numerous rounds of repairs over hundreds of thousands of miles… but we’re at the point now where the repairs have become too costly, parts are difficult to find in Honduras, and the “band aid” approach of trying to squeeze out a few more miles in each no longer makes sense.

      I know this is an unusual request. I much prefer to tell you about our girls, their courage, their resiliency, and the incredible life-saving difference you are making in their lives.

      But this transportation matter is urgent… it’s essential to daily life here and school for the girls, and I’m praying you can help today.

      As you know, education is the only way for our girls to escape the poverty and suffering that has defined their lives up until now.

      Getting to school, to tutoring, to medical appointments and other extracurricular programs is vital to their futures… the self-worth and self-esteem that comes with going to school is transformational for girls who have known nothing but hunger, pain and neglect before God sent them to Our Little Roses.

      Right now we simply don’t have the funds to pay for two new vehicles, which will cost us a total of just under $50,000.

      I’m writing today in faith, knowing that with your compassion and the Lord watching over us, we’ll find a way to meet this challenge and every other immediate need of our girls. And as you consider a gift to help with this emergency request, I pray you’ll remember just how grateful we are for you at Our Little Roses.

      Please, will you help with the most generous contribution you can make today? Every single gift – large or small – is a blessing. God bless you for your prayers and your most compassionate help. I don’t know what we’d do without you.

+The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade
Chairman, Our Little Roses Foreign Mission Society
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese Of Southeast Florida
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You can help right now by making your gift directly online at:  http://ourlittleroses.org
Simply click on the DONATE button to make your gift. In the instructions, write URGENT APPEAL.

Or mail your gift to:  OLRFMS, 525 NE 15th St. Ste 100, Miami, FL 33132.  Please make your check payable to OLRFMS and write "Urgent Appeal" in the memo.