You Can Make a Difference Through Sponsorship
Few opportunities are as profound as the chance to significantly improve the life of a vulnerable child halfway around the globe, but does sponsoring a child really help? Yes! But it has the potential to do more than just improve a child’s life here on earth.
Child sponsorship can make an eternal impact, and you can be part of that.
More Than Food, Medicine, and Education
In 2013, a study conducted by the World Bank found child sponsorship made a statistically significant impact on education and employment. The study surveyed 10,144 formerly sponsored children from six developing countries. It found sponsored children were more likely to complete secondary and post-secondary school, obtain salaried work, and secure professional jobs in adulthood.
One More Child partners with local churches and ministries around the globe through our community development efforts, short-term mission trips, and Child Sponsorship program. We meet tangible needs by providing access to adequate nutrition, medical care, education, and opportunities to hear the Gospel.
Incredibly, the World Bank study also reported that the connection between a sponsor and their sponsored child positively impacts the growth and development of the child.
While One More Child is committed to making a positive impact through its sponsorship program, it is the relationships our ministry partners and child sponsors build with families and children that open hearts to receive the life-changing truth of the Gospel. It is through relationship that child sponsorship helps those in need.
Meet Sarah, a Former Sponsored Child
Sarah is one of the social workers with the ministry partner of One More Child in Uganda. I asked Sarah how she got connected with this ministry. Sarah told me she was one of the first kids in the children’s home when it started back in 1998. She grew up in a home with eight siblings, an alcoholic and sometimes absentee father, and a mother who was not able to produce income for the family. To earn money, the kids were hired out as field hands to pick crops for those who owned larger farms. There was never enough money for Sarah or her family, and they were always hungry.
Through a miraculous encounter with a local pastor, Sarah learned about Jesus and gave her life to Christ. Her family was not happy about her decision, and Sarah’s mother made sure she was working in the fields on Sundays, so she could not go to church. However, once Sarah became a sponsored child, she began attending the ministry’s school. She got regular meals, and once she moved into the children’s home, she slept in a real bed, ate hot meals, and got warm showers.
With the support of her sponsor, Sarah graduated from high school, earned her degree in social work from Ugandan Christian University, and now works full-time in Uganda. Sarah is married, has a beautiful daughter, and spends her days caring for kids with the same background and challenges she had as a girl.
So, if you are wondering, do these child sponsorships really work? Ask Sarah. But for the support she received from her sponsor and the love she received from Hines, Sarah said, “By now I’d be dead…”
The Impact Is Eternal
Much of what changes in a child when they are sponsored happens in their hearts. Sponsorship provides a sense of feeling special, valued, and loved. Even though they may never meet their sponsors in person, for many, sponsorship becomes a beacon of hope for a brighter future.
One More Child wholeheartedly encourages every child sponsor to continue sponsoring but also to invest in the meaningful work of building a relationship with their sponsored child. Our partners want you to know that even though your eyes may not witness all God is accomplishing, the lives of children there are forever transformed by sponsorship.
Sponsor and Go
The emotional and spiritual needs of vulnerable children and struggling families must be met as vitally as tangible ones. Child sponsorship has the potential to transform hearts, especially when sponsors build upon what One More Child begins through its sponsorship program.
To really help a sponsored child, take these steps:
- Become a child sponsor right now, and send your first letter.
- Become a Child Sponsorship ambassador to multiply your impact.
- Go on a mission trip to share the hope of Christ with children.
You have the opportunity to not only significantly improve the quality of life of a vulnerable child halfway around the globe but also offer them access to an eternal one through Jesus Christ.
Together, we can reach one more.
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