Child Development Ministry Sets High Outreach Goal for Compassion Sunday
by Allie Martin
March 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - Churches across the United States will be asked to set aside one Sunday next month as part of an initiative from Compassion International.On April 25, the ministry is holding Compassion Sunday. On that day, churches will be encouraged to highlight the ministry of Compassion International and to ask individual members or families to sponsor a child in a developing country through the international child development organization.
Regina Hopewell, a coordinator for Compassion Sunday, says the ministry hopes to see more than 17,000 children sponsored through the event. "When people understand how easy it is get involved in making a difference in the life of a child," she says, "they are eager to sign up and take on this opportunity. And sponsors often find that they are blessed and their lives are changed just as much as -- if not even more than -- the children that they're helping."
Compassion International allows an individual or family to sponsor a child for a monthly fee of $28 -- money that goes toward helping the child and his or her family as well as providing health care, supplemental nutrition, supplies, and after-school educational and biblically-based activities for the child.
Hopewell says that monthly fee makes a big difference in the lives of poverty-stricken children.
"Most of these children come from non-Christian homes, so it's really the only opportunity these kids would have to learn about Jesus," she says, "and then, to have their physical needs taken care of -- whether it's going to the compassion center to get a hot meal, or whether it's to get some educational benefits, or to be tutored so that they can do better in school and stay in school."
The Compassion representative says even those children who are not in school are getting help through literacy training and basic arithmetic and other skills classes. The ministry does its best to provide resources that will help poor children realize and reach their God-given potential.
Compassion sponsors are encouraged not only to help support a child financially, but also to develop relationships with the child by regular correspondence. The organization also makes information about the child's country available, and in some cases, arranges for sponsors to visit their child's project, meet him or her, and see the work of the ministry first-hand.
"It's just such a wonderful way to minister to a child and have your eyes opened to the situation that kids live in around the world and how desperate they are to hear the gospel," Hopewell says.
Compassion International provides everything necessary for a successful Compassion Sunday event -- free of charge upon request. Individuals who cannot participate on April 25 are encouraged to schedule an alternate date to hold a Compassion Sunday event at their churches to encourage others to become involved in reaching out to needy children.
