Roberto Pena's story

Here is an article I found on Richmond.com written in 2009 by Lindsay Brown about Roberto Penna.  It provided me some insight on who he is and why he is doing the work of our Lord in Brazil.  He is an inspiration in his faith, dedication and patience in doing the work of a believer.


Seeds of Hope:

Roberto Pena's Story of Giving Back to Home
By Lindsay Brown
Contributor to Richmond.com
Published: June 24, 2009

Photo by Lindsay Brown

Affable, optimistic, and tenacious, Roberto Pena is a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the country’s tropical capital city. Roberto, pronounced Humberto in Portuguese, arrived in Richmond, Virginia on November 8th, 1986 at the eager age of 21, accompanied by his 18-year-old wife Rachel, and their 6-month-old son Isaac. In Sao Paulo Roberto had been working as a video editor for an organization that broadcasted the Jimmy Swaggart and Rex Humbard evangelistic TV programs in Brazil. Seeking greater opportunity, Roberto sought overseas work in the United States. Classic Video, a company based in Dayton, OH invited him to work for them, but when the young family finally arrived in the U.S., the company no longer had the financial ability to offer Roberto a position. Roberto did not speak English at the time of his arrival and finding work would turn into an immense quest that lead the family on a road trip to Austin, TX. Unable to find work there, they came to Richmond, Virginia, where Roberto at last found a job.

For three and a half weeks the Pena family lived in Motel 6 on Williamsburg Road near the Richmond International Airport. Roberto walked three hours, or 18 miles, each way to the now closed Darryl’s Steakhouse on Parham Road, where he worked as a dishwasher. This amount of daily walking would not have been typical of even a Sao Paulo citizen, despite the gorgeous tropical climate in Brazil. Roberto walked through Richmond’s winter snow and sleet to earn his $24 each day. The motel cost $19.98 per day, leaving the family with roughly $4 a day to buy food. Roberto would buy a $1 can of pate, a $1 loaf of Wonderbread, and save $2 a day for the next diaper purchase. In the fourth week of their Richmond life, they moved into a classroom at the Life Tabernacle Church on Staples Mill Road. To this day their family motto remains “Nothing can stop a Pena.”

Roberto worked at Darryl’s for one year and four months. Sitting comfortably in the café with me, he smiles warmly as he recalls Steve Johnson, his ex-manager, and tells me about the man’s new career as a real estate agent. His capacity for remembering names and keeping in touch demonstrates that people matter to him.

Daughter Tatiane was born in December of 1987. Within several months of her birth, Roberto and Rachel started cleaning houses for a living. When driving to jobs they would pass a big, rounded church called West End Assembly of God. Out of curiosity, they decided to check it out. Within months, they began volunteering in WEAG’s youth outreach. Roberto’s Christian faith began in Sao Paulo at the age of 14 when peers invited him to Sunday school at a local Baptist church. His mother and siblings followed in his spiritual footsteps soon after. “God is always a step or two ahead of you. God is always serving us,” he says.

In March of 1989, housecleaning clients helped Roberto land a job as a janitor at Henrico Doctors Hospital. Two months later daughter Sarah was born, completing the Pena immediate family to its final count of five. Rachel carried on the housecleaning business while Roberto moved on to the hospital.

When I ask him if he minded the sterile environment and the sight of sickness, he instantly smiles and declares “I liked it there.” The levity of his answer incites my suspicion. It does not make sense to me that a man skilled in video production would feel content to end up mopping hospital floors. Roberto detects that I am unconvinced and clarifies: “Life is a bunch of dots that connect one dot at a time. People cause themselves suffering by setting expectations for themselves, but if it wasn’t God’s will, it wasn’t going to happen anyway.”

After three months cleaning in the operating rooms, Roberto became a Patient Transporter. Adorned in scrubs he would wheel patients and all appending equipment from the room to room. While enjoying several years at the hospital, he befriended sales representatives selling hospital equipment and in 1993 became a rep himself. His ambition and approachable demeanor have made him a natural networker, and by September of that year, he bought his first roundtrip ticket to Brazil.

“I don’t believe in luck. I just believe you pray for things and if it’s God’s will, it will happen,” he says.

Brazilian native Roberto Pena currently works in medical sales, selling refurbished equipment to facilities in the States and in Brazil. In 1994, he helped lead West End Assembly of God’s first mission trip to Brazil’s capital, Sao Paulo. “We worked at an orphanage, building a playground and remodeling by painting and fixing kids’ rooms.”

When Sao Paulo orphans turn 18, they enter society with little skill or education. Their parents abandoned them, were arrested due to drugs or died of overdose. The city has a 24% unemployment rate in its metropolitan population of 20.7 million people. Upon visiting home, Roberto felt the desire to educate orphans with skills in woodworking, welding, sewing, culinary arts, and computers. “The whole reason God brought me to America was to bring me back to Brazil. It was like I went through boot camp coming here. I got trained spiritually and emotionally, and then went back home to make a difference.”

In 2005 Roberto had a significant discussion with Pastor Robert Rhoden that tackled Roberto’s reluctance to ask the church for organizational guidance. Asking was especially challenging for Roberto. “I worked hard since I was 13, so it was hard to be a person who asks. I wasn’t comfortable with it. Now I never need to ask.” Moments after he states this, a woman in the café sets a coffee in front of him. “I won this coffee, but I don’t want it.” As Roberto thanks her, she quickly whooshes through the exit. He smiles widely as he gestures to the coffee and asks me “Do you see what I mean?”

Roberto named the ensuing project Seeds of Hope. Later in 2005 with 20 missionaries at his side, he bought an 18’ x 75’ lot in Sao Paulo. The next year with another team of missionaries, he bought the conjoining space, bringing the lot to 36' x 75.' Their building is now three floors high and roughly 7,000 square feet. It holds 86 orphans.

Seeds of Hope, works in cooperation with West End Assembly of God in Richmond, Virginia; the Redeemer Assembly of God in Goochland, Virginia; the University of Virginia; New Life Korean Presbyterian Church in Yorktown, Virginia; the Crossing Church in Tampa, Florida; and the Mosaic Church in Orlando, Florida. Together they send out roughly 20 missionaries each year to spend 10 to 15 days in Sao Paulo. Some missionaries fundraise, some pay out-of-pocket. The visa typically costs $140, while airfare from Richmond is roughly $1200.

The average income in Sao Paulo is $180 a month. The cost of attending a private college is $1800 a month. State college is free, but competitive to gain entry. Seeds of Hope increases young adults’ likelihood of getting into state college by teaching them skills and by forming enduring relationships that provide them with hope. “It’s not just about the work, it’s about the relationship,” Roberto reiterates. Not only are the orphans enriched, but also the missionaries. Roberto encourages missionaries to maintain contact.

Roberto has hired workers to run the facility year round. Several times a year Seeds of Hope kicks out a kid for violating the drug-free policy. Roberto and Rachel hope to spend the next three years building a drug rehabilitation facility on 10 acres in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. “They’re going to work the land,” says Roberto. The facility will also provide troubled youth from the States with drug rehabilitation.

The Penas have traveled to Poland, Germany, Guatemala, and Thailand on other mission trips. Currently, they are praying about starting a school in Rwanda. Aware of his ambitious streak, Roberto states “I take it as high as I can with my own abilities.”

On November 30th in 2008 daughter Tatiane survived a head-on car collision. She endured broken bones, requiring a 30cm rod and 17 screws in her femur. She remained conscious while trapped inside her vehicle. She passed her phone to the police officer through the driver side window, which miraculously opened several inches during the collision. Roberto and his wife had just been in a minor car accident when they received the call about Tatiane’s accident. A complex chain of events unfolded quickly to lead Roberto to Tatiane’s bedside in Chattanooga, TN by the next morning.

After he finishes telling me Tatiane’s story, I ask him if he believes in coincidence. With a bright smile he answers “The big bang theory is just a big poof, God is in control.”

About Roberto: Makes toys and furniture with wood as a hobby.

About his family: Son Isaac, 22-years-old, attends J. Sergeant Reynolds and is interested in culinary arts. Daughter Tatiane, 21-years-old, is a psychology major at the University of Tennessee who wants to help abused children. Daughter Sarah, 19-years-old, is studying social work and political science at Virginia Wellsley University.

Lindsay Brown is a freelance photographer and writer. She earned a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and will be earning a Masters in Journalism next year from Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland.