Father Who Left Work to Care for Bedridden Child Receives Tribute from Young Adventists

Who said Father's Day can't also be a mission day? Young people from the Canadá neighborhood, in Cascavel, Paraná, made a point of taking a little time to visit and pay homage, this Sunday morning (August 8), to a neighbor of the Adventist Church.

Ari Pinheiro, who has been living in a very complicated situation with his family for years, has already faced a series of problems. One of them made him have to leave his job duties 16 years ago to take care of his son, Juliano, in an integral way. At the time, Juliano was 30 years old and began to show symptoms of a type of degenerative disease linked to atrophy and is now bedridden.

Knowing some details of the story, the young people (who are also members of the Hope Parking Cascavel project), as well as some pastors, went to the elderly person's house, prayed, talked, and left a basket of gifts and some personalized motivation letters.

“We have weekly contact with Pinheiro, and everything he does for his son is really admirable. We've already visited Juliano, who is bedridden, doesn't speak, can't move, so it's the father who does everything for him. For us, this is a demonstration of the heavenly Father's love, of God's care for us. It's the care he takes for the child with all the personal care. It was very special to deliver this gift to him here today”, explains Débora Teixeira, participant in the action.

Genuine Concern for Others

For Pastor Aderson Lisboa, who left a word of comfort and prayer during the occasion, this type of mobilization denotes essential aspects in the face of the church's missionary challenges. "It is interesting to note that young people today are really willing to make a difference in the life of someone who needs it, especially this father who has a bedridden child, and we see the strength that the church and young people have for preaching the gospel and for the progress of the work”, he assesses.

Pastor Rodolfo Kalschne, director of the area that serves Adventist young people in Western Paraná, was in action, translated as an incentive for more mobilizations applied to each community context. “When we went there with the young people, we wanted to bless him, treat him with affection, because that's what we've been wanting for our youth. That he understands that we have a responsibility to the neighbors of the church, to our community… we need to take actions like this, where we put our Christianity into practice and take the love of Jesus in different ways”, he concludes.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site