Children of the Kingdom's family is growing and we are so grateful for four new sponsors who have partnered with us over the last couple of weeks for our children in India. Some of the new sponsors were recruited at a local church banquet, and one friend has extended an invitation to her colleagues at work to consider sponsoring a child.
I thought this article from Christianity Today would be an encouragement to see this research-based evidence about the impact of child sponsorship.
Click here (or copy URL into your Internet browser) to read the article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/june/want-to-change-world-sponsor-child.html
Children of the Kingdom was started in 1994 after a summer mission trip I was able to go on to Kenya. My host family shared with me that Compassion International’s (a child sponsorship organization) team had come to the village to interview families for their program. Unfortunately, Compassion’s quota had been filled in the country and they could not take on any more children. That is when Pastor Samwell Kaaleng and I began the partnership that started Children of the Kingdom. Since our humble beginnings in 1994, we have graduated over 100 students. Last December, I wrote letters of gratitude to 11 of these graduates who have made commitments to give funds to sponsor children in the program. I cannot tell you how incredible it is to see this program come full circle and to see them investing in their community. We expanded the program to India in 2008, and in 2014, we developed the partnership with the Caleb Hope Foundation with whom we are working now alongside our brothers and sisters in India. From 2008 until now, it has been wonderful to see the way that the children in India in our program are thriving and beginning to invest in their communities too.
The article in Christianity Today for which I have given you the link above shows the success of child sponsorship programs like Compassion International (Children of the Kingdom has been modeled after that program). “The key to ending poverty resides in the capacity of human beings—and their view of their own capacity—to facilitate positive change. …..Along with providing some basic resources that allow children to progress farther in school, the child-development approach advocated by Compassion appears to get under the hood of human beings to instill aspirations, character formation, and spiritual direction. In short, it trains people to be givers instead of receivers.”
We are grateful for our sponsors who are making an investment in the lives of these children. This work is making a difference in training these children up to be givers in their community! Spread the word to get more folks on board and help us be able to sponsor more children in need.