I recently received a surprise visit in Campinas from Golbery.  In 2000 he had transferred to Hope Mountain from the City of Youth, going to serve as a “Junior Monitor” and help establish a positive youth culture to help welcome and embrace our new incoming kids. He completed the Hope program there.

Golbery visited with his wife of four years Diane, a hairdresser with her own salon who learned her profession as a day student at Hope Mountain. Golbery wanted to show Diane the home he grew up in, the City of Youth.

Golbery was “sentenced” to Hope at age 12 (below the legal age of incarceration), after participating in a bus robbery in which the driver was killed.  Initially a tough kid, during his second year he gave his life to Christ.

A couple years after Golbery graduated from Hope, he came back to work for us as our bus driver. When he met  Diane, he invited her to church, and they started dating.  They married two years later and today are faithful members of a local congregation.

Today, Golbery has a responsible job driving a repair truck, which he takes home, and is on call performing emergency repairs of some nature for a private company.

In 1998 Golbery’s brother Paulo was murdered by traffickers. However, his other brothers, Adelson and Tercius, later had the chance to come to the City of Youth. Both brothers are  doing very well. Adelson has been with a trucking company for two years, and Tercius jets around Brazil doing maintenance on some kind of specialized equipment.