For the Love of a Child

Child sponsorship programs are changing lives””in distant lands and right here in the United States.

Discover the facts. Listen to the testimonies. And realize how this is happening.

By Doug Priest

“Our people sponsor nearly 400 children, and congregational giving continues to grow. In fact, the more we give to others outside our walls, the more our general fund has grown.”
“”Steve Reeves, Connection Pointe Christian Church (Brownsburg, Indiana)

Alice was conceived out of wedlock. She never knew her father. After the birth, her mother entrusted Alice to her grandmother and moved to another country. Alice lived in the Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Her home was a single small room that she shared with her grandmother, two sisters, one brother, and two cousins. Her grandmother had no regular job, so she washed the clothes of neighbors to feed herself and the children. Many nights they went to bed hungry.

The Mathare Valley slum is a dark, destitute place. Into this area of just over a square mile are crammed 1 million people. They live in squalor, in shanties just 12-feet square. The homes do not have indoor plumbing, and few have electricity. Thievery, begging, and prostitution are some of the most common ways of securing food. A few lucky slum dwellers have regular employment. Most struggle to scrape together money by selling bars of soap or scavenged vegetables on the side of the road. Many struggle from hunger; there is little chance to pay school fees, so the children do not go to school. The hopelessness of the situation leads many to escape reality through glue sniffing or getting drunk on the poisonous local moonshine.

One day a social worker stopped by Alice”s house and encouraged her grandmother to consider letting Alice enroll in a private Christian school. “But how will I pay the tuition? I cannot afford her school uniform, let alone the books and supplies she would need. I would be happy if Alice could go to school, but it is impossible.”

“Maybe not,” replied the social worker. “Because Alice”s mother lives in Tanzania and she does not know her father, she can probably be sponsored so that her needs will be covered. In addition, she will be able to get food at the school. The Missions of Hope School is a Christian school, so she will be taught from the Bible. Her teachers will be Christian and they will care for her. Many children go to the school from this area. You can tell from all the green skirts and checkered blouses that you see the girls wearing on their way to and from school every day. We would like you to pay a little bit””whatever you can””but most of Alice”s costs will be covered.”

The best child sponsorship programs are combined with a host of other ministries so that an entire community can be transformed. While it is important for a child to receive food and clothing, it is also important for the child to receive a quality education. It is critical for the child”s parents or guardians to secure employment, perhaps through a microfinance program. The child needs to be part of a loving Christian community””a newly planted church, for example. Preventive health care means that the child will not have to suffer from malaria or worms. HIV/AIDS support groups lead to improved emotional health. Small farms, even single plants raised in pots, can add nutritional value to a bleak diet.

New Partnerships

Child sponsorship has been around for decades, but in recent years a new element has been added to the program. Formerly, a sponsor would individually determine to sponsor a child with the agency selecting the location and the child. Today with a church-based child sponsorship program, a congregation in America partners with a church in Ecuador1 or India2, or partners with a mission working in a slum like Nairobi.3 The church has a sense of fellowship and bonding with a sister church or neighborhood. People from the American church travel to the sister church and get involved in direct ministry there, and they can meet the children they sponsor. The ties become personal. Who is ministering to whom? Everybody is changed.

Urban Growth

The United Nations projects that by the year 2050, two-thirds of the world will be urban, up from the one-half that is urban today. By that time, fully one-half of the world”s population will be squatters or urban slum dwellers. Mission”s new frontier is the urban poor. Most of the world”s urban poor live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They are the largest unreached people group in the world, and many of them are vulnerable children. Child sponsorship as a part of a holistic ministry strategy is leading to church planting movements and the transformation of communities.

Working Together

One common feature of these child sponsorship ministries in Ecuador, India, and Kenya is that dozens of U.S. congregations are working together with one another to transform communities. What if the Christian churches banded together and focused sponsorship of children and communities in other areas of the world? What if our family of churches was known for establishing church planting movements, transforming communities, and radically changing the world? We can do this. Dream it.

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1Stadia, a church planting agency, links U.S. churches with Compassion International in Ecuador and other countries in Latin America. They hope to be sponsoring 4,000 children through local churches by the end of the year.

2Central India Christian Mission”s child sponsorship program reaches nearly 5,000 children in India.

3CMF International”s church-based child sponsorship program currently sponsors 7,000 children in the Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya, working in partnership with Missions of Hope International.

Doug Priest is executive director of CMF International and a contributing editor to CHRISTIAN STANDARD. 

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