Aaron & Kelen Emens have made it their life’s mission to help the children in Brazil. Check out sunshine-life.org and listen here to learn how this all came about.
What a beautiful opportunity to help bring education to every child in the Amazons.
You’re listening to the Love Tidbits Podcast, where you’ll discover a small, tasty, delightful, bite-sized tidbit of love ~ I’m your host, LeAnn Austin
Hey y’all, welcome to Love Tidbits, episode #72: Sunshine Life with Aaron & Kelen Emens
I love observing and connecting with other humans, especially noting how they feel and implement love into their lives.
We have the amazing Aaron & Kelen Emens sharing some beautiful love insights with us today. Alright Aaron & Kelen, briefly introduce yourselves.
Okay, my name is Aaron Emens. We live here in Southern California. My wife is from Brazil, the state of Amazonas, in the northwest portion of Brazil. And we started a nonprofit called Sunshine Life, to help build schools and teacher housing in Brazil. To help the teachers as well as the students specifically in those areas.
So cool, okay, I’m excited to hear more about this. So I’ll ask question #1: How do you incorporate love into your business and/or your life?
Yeah, if you look at our, I get a little emotional, so sorry. If you look at our logo, the Sun, it’s as our, the nonprofit’s called Sunshine Life. If you look at our logo, the sun part is a heart, and there’s people around it where their bodies are hearts and their hands are kind of giving in towards the heart, the sun part of it. Those are the rays. And for me, that logo really embodies a lot of what we do. For me, the reason why I do what we’re doing is because of the love that I feel towards these people. These children especially, I’ve always felt like, excuse me. I’ve always felt like children don’t get a choice where they’re born. You know, they don’t get a choice of which family, what circumstances they’re born into. And I’ve always felt it’s our responsibility to help as many people as we can. And when this, when everything came to light, you know back in 2020, a tough year for many, many people.
And around July or so, my wife Kelen and I started thinking about what can we do to help whomever. And so we started talking and we decided that we wanted to do a little fundraiser to buy presents for children in this area. And as things started happening, I started understanding more and more what these children suffer and what they go through. And I couldn’t believe it, I really couldn’t. You know, cuz looking through the perspective of what we have here in the United States. A lot of times we become blind to what’s out there. We don’t quite understand it, or it’s just never been introduced to us, so we don’t know.
And it came to my attention that a lot of these children don’t even have schools. Wow. And I was incredulous. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, is this right? Is this true? And Kelen was like, yeah, it’s very true. You know, she grew up, my wife grew up in the middle of the Amazons, they call it the interior.
She didn’t have any electricity, no running water, no plumbing, none of that for the first 12 years of her life until her mother decided that she was going to take herself and her children to the city so they could try to have a better life. You know, during this time Kelen, there was a school there, but you know, it’s very hard. I mean, you have 15-20 kids going in one classroom, ages 5 to 15. You have one teacher trying to do what they can. And they would focus more on the older kids, not the younger kids. So when Kelen got to the city, she didn’t know how to read or write at 12 years of age. Wow.
And so she’s going to school and also at that time, she’s the second eldest, the oldest daughter. At that time there were six children and her mom was pregnant with the seventh. And it really came upon Kelen, at the age of 12, to work and provide for the family as well as try to learn to read and write. And, you know, there were a lot of things that happened of course in school, being a poor girl, not knowing how to read or write at 12 years of age.
There was a lot of bullying going on because she wasn’t going to school with kids her age, because she didn’t know how to do the things they did. So she had to go with younger ones or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So she was going to school with four and five year olds. Wow. Cause she didn’t know how to read or write until she got a little bit older and she had to follow that. She ended up graduating high school when she was 21 years old. But, you know, there were a lot of bullying and things of that nature that went on with all of that. You know, she was very poor, didn’t have very good clothing. She ate the soap that they used to bathe with was what they used to wash dishes, because that’s all they had. And so it was a very particular smell, so everybody knew what it smelled like. Wow.
And so it’s just an amazing, and getting back to the original question, why do we do this? The love aspect of it is we see these children understanding all that they suffer and all that the care that they need. And this is very close, especially to Kelen, because of this is where she came from, this is where she grew up. She understands how they lived, what they suffered through. When we gave these presents to these children, you could see the joy in their eyes. And she said, I guarantee you, this is the only present they have ever received.
Wow. And so it is just, that’s you know, just an inkling of what they go through or what they don’t have. You know, Kelen didn’t receive her first present until she was 16 years old.
Oh my goodness. Well, and that is so amazing and beautiful that you took this situation and you have figured out, okay, how can we help? How can we reach out, and just creating this. With the sun and everything and just watching the two of you. Kelen is there anything you’d like to say? You’re welcome to say anything if you want to as well.
Hello. My name is Kelen. My English is not very well, but that’s okay. Google translation.
Yeah. She’s wondering if I can translate for her? Oh, for sure, yeah. Responding to your first question.
Since she was born, she always had this vision of trying to bring her best or the best to other people. And she said, even though she was born in such poverty, she knew that she wanted to change things, but not just for her. For other people it was never about herself, it was always about trying to help others.
A lot of poor children, they say one day when I’m rich, I’m going to help other people. Yeah. She always wanted to have some sort of partnership to be able to change the world around her at least a little bit. Yeah. I found Aaron that has this same desire.
So she said we wanted to change it at least a little bit. And sometimes, you know, we’re in this area and we see everything, but we don’t try to do anything. We see all the issues, but we, a lot of times we don’t even try to do something.
Maybe you’re able to understand a little bit by the things that we’re saying, but if you were to go down there and see what they go through, that’s really the only way that you would be able to understand how different their world is compared to our world.
I’m sure we can’t even grasp it without actually seeing it. Yes. Yes, exactly. Well, tell me #2, and Kelen, if you want to answer first. What is something you love about you and why each one of you? Because I, I wish y’all could see both of them. This is so tender and seeing them together, I love this. So yeah, tell us what you love about each of you.
Okay. I always help people around me, but I never understood the impact that I had on their lives. She said, you know, when she came here to the United States and then went back for her the first time after she was here, she would find people that would come up to her and say, oh, you’re Kelen that helped me when my father was sick. You are the one that helped me with when I was having my baby in the hospital, that my husband couldn’t be there for me.
All these things that she did, it was because she loved doing those things. In essence, she had in herself, she admires her altruistic manner, and that she does things for other people without expecting anything in return or understanding the impact. That she has or, or had in their life.
I love that so much. When we help truly and genuinely without expectation. That is so beautiful. Thank you Kelen. Aaron, how about you? What do you love about you?
So this is a, she says my persistence and my patience, my love. She’s feeding him lines here, this is great. And so, I mean this work has not been easy, but for me, I think it can be a gift and a curse isn’t the right word, but it can be a little difficult at times. I’m a very empathetic person. I can put myself in other people’s shoes very easily. And it can weigh heavily on me, but it also gives me that strength to continue forward knowing that the only way their lives are going to change, is if we do something about it. They don’t have the power to do it on their own. They don’t, if they did, it would’ve been done. They don’t.
I mean we’re talking, we’re in 2023 now, and the schools that they have, I don’t believe were ever built here in the United States, even in the 17 hundreds, the way that they’re built there. Even if they have schools. And so yes, the empathy is something that I admire in myself. I’m able to put myself in other people’s shoes. So for me that’s what is, you know, patience and making sure that we keep going. Yeah, that’s important it’s very important. But I do appreciate the fact for me personally, that I’m able to put myself in other people’s shoes and understand a little bit, of course, I can’t understand everything, but understand a little bit of what they’re going through. And then that’s what gives me the strength to be able to keep going, to know that we can do this.
Yes, you can do this. What beautiful qualities that you both recognize in yourselves. I love that. Ah, so good. Alright, question #3: I love talking about daughters-in-law. So any thoughts about being a daughter-in-law or knowing a daughter-in-law?
Because I have five daughters, so I don’t have any daughters-in-law. And so it’s a little different I mean, I’ve had Kelly being my mom’s daughter-in-law and things like Yeah. And if she doesn’t, it’s okay. I was just curious if you have any thoughts about that.
She says, I have the best mother-in-law. She says she’s very incredible. Judy is very incredible. She gives this energy of love, compassion and loving those around you. Sounds like very similar to Kelen. That’s so beautiful. You both are that way, passionate and loving. Awesome.
Alright, #4: anything else you’d like to share, and tell us where our audience can go to find out more about you, and about the Sunshine Life, and everything. Tell us all the things. I appreciate that. As we mentioned, we started the nonprofit Sunshine Live. You can find us at sunshine-life.org on the web, and then also Facebook and Instagram at Sunshine Life Amazons.
You know, the schools that we’re building, we’re not talking like huge campuses or anything like that. It’s more like a small home, you know, two classrooms, maybe four classrooms. Some of the issues of course, is that these schools, the ones that we’re going to start on are the ones that get flooded every year because the Amazon River rises and falls every year, and it’s not like five feet. It’s like 30, 40 feet that the river rises and falls every year. And so in this area, there are 26 schools that get flooded every year that they have to shut their doors for four to six months out of the year while the schools are flooded. Because whenever they were built, they weren’t built high enough, and so they get flooded every year.
So what we’re doing is we’re tearing down those schools, building new schools that can keep their doors open year round. And then also provide a place for the children to learn, but also to play. Because as you can imagine when the river floods, or when the grounds flood, there’s nowhere for them to go. I mean, they will go out and play in the water, but it can be fairly dangerous of course, with snakes and all those wonderful things in the currents that come. That’s one of our biggest intentions here is to provide schooling year round, give these children opportunities that they don’t have.
As we build these facilities, we also want to bring in computers. They don’t have computers. They don’t have a library. You know, they don’t have any of the things that we have here. Nothing. You know, they see a computer and a cell phone because their teachers have one, and the teachers will use it to look up some things. Yeah, they don’t even have bathrooms. You know they have outhouses and that’s it. I mean, and that’s how Kelen grew up. But that’s what they have.
So that’s just trying to help them understand, because we’ve done various interviews with these children and it’s, they understand when you’re talking with the older children, they understand what they’re missing. And what they should have, and what they don’t have, and how that impacts their life. And you can see that they want more, and they need more. They just know that they don’t have any way to impact that for themselves. And they know that it’s probably too late for them, but they have children, or not children, but they have brothers and sisters that are younger, they may have some children too, depending on who it is.
So that’s what we try to do, help provide them with opportunities so that they can. Every one of them that we’ve interviewed has said, I want to do this so that way I can come back and help my community. Yes. It’s just like Kelen’s doing. Yes. Like how can I help? And I’ll put the links in the show Our audience can, however they can help, you’ll have all the information there that they can do to help you with that. Is that correct? Exactly, especially if on the website, you go to the website and that will have a place for you to be able to donate. We’re a registered 501 C3. So there’s all tax deductible and all that good stuff, all of the donations. Excellent, that’s good to know.
I don’t know if you have something. Yeah, we’re very thankful for the opportunity that you’re giving us. Oh, my pleasure. This is amazing. Everything that we’re doing is because we understand the necessities of those kids. I started studying when I was 12 years old. It’s been 30 years since I’ve left that area. The incident when she was 12 years old, she went to the city. She didn’t know how to read, write, or understand numbers. My mom had my brother and didn’t want to return back to the interior because she understood that we needed to study.
My dad didn’t want to go to the city. And when she came to the city, she understood that where she came from, there was no opportunity. There were a lot of difficulties that came to her because she didn’t know anything in all of her classmates. Older classmates knew everything already.
She said one of the things that she thinks is very funny is that when she got there, they were talking about cartoons and all of these things, and she had no idea what they were talking about. Yeah, and she is like, Hey Kelen, do you like Lion King? Have you seen, even though she didn’t know it, she was like, yeah of course, yeah, I like it. She’d pretend like she did. Yeah.
It was very difficult to live in the city. Her mom was trying to support her with all the issues that they were having, with the bullying and everything. It was very difficult, but they stayed there because they knew that that was the best opportunity for them to be able to learn and to to do more.
But she says in the interior where she’s from 30 years later, it’s exactly the same. Really nothing’s changed. She’s saying that these children, as I mentioned before, all of them said, you know I want to be a teacher, and I want to come back here. I want to be a veterinarian and I want to come back here and help the community. But they don’t have those opportunities. They don’t even have a high school for them.
And the government there doesn’t do all that they should. Brazil as a whole doesn’t do all that they should to help these children. And so that’s where we come in, because without us, without somebody from the outside, it will continue as it has for the last 30, 40, 50, who knows how many years. Because as Kelen said, it’s the same that it was when she left 30 years nothing has changed.
Well and I love too Kelen and Aaron, both of you, that you’re taking this situation Kelen this, I can’t even imagine how it was growing up for you, and totally turning things around and making it better for these other children that it is so, so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And I love that. So, last question: What is your favorite quote about love?
I appreciate that. Mine is from my grandfather, my Grandpa Ames. And he suffered a stroke while he was helping someone else on a roof. And after this, he was left paralyzed, couldn’t communicate like he wanted to. He was always very jovial, saying jokes, and he still did that as much as he could, but he always said, “it’s all about love.” And for me, this experience if you want to call it that we’re in, this life experience. When I look through it, the window of that quote, “it’s all about love.” It just gives me a different perspective. There’s always stuff that’s going to happen. Things that are difficult, things that are hard, but when we act out of love, trying to help other people, I mean love and service, cuz he always talked about, it’s always service as well. And when we act out of love and service for those around us, the world is just a better place. And so that quote for me has always been impactful for me.
And my wife, hers is 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. I don’t know if you’d like me to read that or not. Yes, absolutely. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
Wow. Well you both truly exemplify charity, and I’m so grateful that you can be here and share this with everyone today. So it’s all about love y’all. Something to think about.
Thank you Aaron and Kelen for sharing your tidbits of love with us. Have a good one y’all ~ and here’s to Sunshine Life and love. Yeah, thank you.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, please share and leave a review to help others hear tidbits of love.
What would it feel like to finish your goals, enjoy your relationships, especially with your daughter-in-law, appreciate your body, and embrace being you? Join my Lovin Me program today, and see yourself in a whole new way.
You are already really good at loving others. I’ll help you become an expert at loving you. More information at leannaustin.com
