Reasons to sponsor a child.

Today I had lunch sitting next to Jerry one of our translators. Jerry is a very pretty capable young woman with a beautiful name in Amharic I can't pronounce, but which in English means Jerusalem - City of Peace. Names are very important here and everyone knows the meaning of their name.


During the course of conversation Jerry explained that she is a final year Leadership Development Programme student in Electrical Engineering. So I asked her, as everyone here is an Advocate - if an Advocate was encouraging someone to sponsor a child what would be the one thing she would say to the potential sponsor? Her reply humbled me completely.


She said without a moments hesitation, 'You should not think in small terms that your support only affects one child. Your sponsorship impacts the leadership of the next generation of a nation.'


Jerry then explained to me that although she had lost her father when she was 13 years old and her mother had brought up 5 children on her own she was the only one in a Compassion project. Nevertheless although the youngest child in the family she had been able to share her books, learning, clothes and ultimately her faith with all her family. The change in her since she became a Christian has also impacted on her friends and community. She is strongly involved in church leadership and evangelism.


Jerry and a group of 4 friends have begun to take orphan children off the streets, house, clothe and teach them about Christ and send them to school. We are talking of about 30 children now and 13 more have been taken off the streets clothed, fed and reunited with their families. She and her friends have formed a board to organise this.


When I asked where the money came from she smiled and said - 'good question'. Her friend's families have a little money and by living more simply she uses money given to her from Compassion, for her living expenses. She can manage with very little for herself apparently.


So in these days of banking short term profits and political greed it seems that there could be no better investment than in the next generation of Christian leadership in some of the poorer nations of the world and in God's Kingdom. What do you think?