In our house, not many subjects are learned from a textbook. I find our kids seem to retain information better when it has some practical application to their everyday lives.
Sponsoring a less fortunate child from another country is an eternally beneficial way to make things like geography, learning a second language, penmanship, and even evangelism come alive to them. Writing letters to a real person their own age from a different culture and receiving a response in a different language (along with the English translation) keeps them passionate and engaged.
There are dozens of child sponsorship programs to choose from, but we particularly favor Word & Deed. Their mission is “to address the spiritual and physical needs of people in the developing world in accordance with biblical principles”; concern for man’s eternal destiny and the extension of the Kingdom of God is the central focus in each one of their projects, whether that be child sponsorship, Christian education, orphan care, or disaster relief. Their goal is to teach the needy to provide for themselves rather than providing for them, so as not to create a culture of dependence. (We need some more of that vision in North America!)
If you’re looking for a very tangible way to engage your children in ministry as part of their education, consider sponsoring a child through Word & Deed! Word & Deed’s public relations director, Hanna Korvemaker, has more details about their Sponsorship Program:
Karen is a studious, intelligent, and caring girl. Every day she helps her mother with the household chores and then does her homework. She has many friends, likes to watch TV, listen to music, and wants to be a “professional” one day. In many ways, Karen is just like any average fourteen-year-old girl.
But there is more to the story.
Karen and her mother and brothers are some of thousands of “internally displaced people” (IDPs) who fled their hometowns to settle in IDP zones which have clustered around some of the main cities in Colombia. But IDP zones can be dangerous and unstable places too and, although they are often seen to be preferable to the violence of drug cartels or paramilitary groups, they are marked by poverty, malnutrition, inferior infrastructure, pollution, flooding, poor sanitary conditions, disease, very small homes with little privacy, gangs, high rates of crime, drug use, and prostitution.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there either.
Karen, and hundreds of Colombian children in situations like hers, has a doorway to a better life through the Word & Deed Sponsorship Program. Word & Deed partners with the Corporación Dios Es Amor (CDA, in English, the God is Love Corporation) to ensure that children from some of the most impoverished IDP zones receive the stability and community of a Christian school which provides them with nutritious meals and a quality, Christian education. CDA’s holistic approach aims to empower these children not only to find a better life for themselves, but to become instruments of blessing to their families and communities too.
We have 200 children waiting for sponsors in Colombia (view them here). Will you consider becoming a child sponsor for $38 per month in Canada ($35 in the US)? You will ensure that children like Karen receive the benefits of our Sponsorship Program, and you will have the opportunity to correspond with your sponsor child.
Word & Deed supports a wide variety of projects (from agricultural programs to medical projects) in a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America. We welcome you to explore our website or to contact us for more information about our ministry.
Public Relations: Hanna Korvemaker
Email: hanna@wordandeed.org
Phone: 1.877.375.9673
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