You might look at it as building a school.

We see it as building young lives!

Liceo Nueva Vida, or “New Life School,” in Cazuca, Colombia, is a great example.

Cazuca is a barrio (slum) overlooking Bogotá — half a million people are crowded into this impoverished neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar. Refugees from the nation’s violent guerrilla warfare swarmed here for safety … but the violence followed them.

Homes are made of scrap lumber or tin, there’s no running water, and up until 1992, there was no school for the children.

Today, there’s a thriving Latin America ChildCare school, but with more than 300 children crowded into a space created for 175 students, the needs are great.

That’s why it was such a blessing when friends like you donated to the matching challenge to help build an expansion for Liceo Nueva Vida.

Now, the bottom floor of the new building is complete, and this year the second floor should be completed as well!

Another school you’ve helped build — in order to shape young lives — is Harvest Hill in Jamaica. Not in an urban area like Cazuca, Harvest Hill is in a poor rural area.

The nearest school to the community is 10 miles away — which might as well be on the moon; these poor farmer and fisherman families simply cannot provide transportation for their children.

Thankfully, friends like you have helped renovate and expand Harvest Hill to include a new playground, a new kitchen for feeding the children, flushable toilets, lights, and ceiling fans.

Because of your faithfulness, children who had very little hope for the future are now receiving food, an education, and an introduction to the Savior!

Thank you for building lives in some of the world’s most impoverished areas.