It was a normal Monday in early October until they almost called security on our son.

“Gym has always been difficult for Gianluca,” his teacher’s email read, “but today he was very reckless with the climbing, jumping and swinging off railings…to the point where the teachers could not catch him. I don’t want to get to the point where they will have to call security on Gianluca in gym class, but it may get to that point. Please have a talk with him about behaving in gym.”

Gianluca is our oldest son (6) who both has ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder. This combo makes things trying for his cognitive and behavioral development. He’s in a self-contained classroom with only 5 other autistic kids, and he’s in weekly private speech/occupational therapies.

Although Gianluca has come a long way, he’s still very self-directed, cannot have developmentally appropriate conversations and – as his teacher pointed out – he’ll often have no sense of danger when climbing. While we did question why they’d contact security and not a school therapist for a special-needs first-grader, this made it clear that Gianluca still needs all the help he can get.

Praise God, though, he has not had an episode like this in gym since! And truly, he’s made great strides of development. He uses more words and simple phrases, understands more and really loves life.

The reason that we write this extra letter is to ask if you might be in the position to give a special one-time gift. As you know, Cru has zero central funds for ministry, health and staff expenses. As always, a few monthly supporters, due to financial hardships, needed to drop off of our financial team.

We are working on raising additional monthly support to make up for this loss, but our greatest need is to cover weekly private therapies and medical expenses that our son Gianluca has had and will have in 2018 because of his on-going struggle with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We also must cover several ministry conferences and expenses. Last year God provided all of our $4000 goal!

The total amount we are depending on God to provide moving into the 2018 year is $5000. This covers Gianluca’s therapies for 12 months, which are $250/month out-of-pocket after a $1000 deductible and it covers some other ministry needs as well.

Would you prayerfully consider helping us reach these funds by giving a special gift of $500, $250, $75 or some other amount? Make checks payable to “Cru” and mail them back with provided envelope by December 15th. You can also give online: www.GIVE.SFORZAGRAMS.com.

All gifts are tax-deductible! Feel free to call/text/email us with any questions: Joey.Sforza@cru.org.

Whatever you decide, our full appreciation for you is unchanging. Thank you!