The Affect of Sponsorship on Families
First of all, it is important for everyone who reads this to understand how important our sponsorship program is to us for so many different reasons. The main reason is that our sponsorship program brings together the kids that we love with other people here that will love them too. That is such an awesome thought for us…That our kids will have many people who love them, that think of them as sons and daughters, and that will pray for them daily. Our kids desperately need this sense of belonging and they need prayer more than anything. Of course the financial support is also helpful, and we are so thankful for everyone who prays for us regularly and gives to us even outside of the sponsorship program, but this post specifically focuses on those of you who are sponsors.
One of the best things that I have seen about the sponsorship program is how families with children have gotten their children involved in the process. I was thinking about this after having lunch with a friend who sponsors one of our kids and has a few kids of his own. He was telling me that they pray for Gladine every night, but one night they forgot to pray for her during their evening prayers. Before they could leave, one of his children stopped everything, reminded them that they forgot to pray for Gladine, and they prayed for her right there as a family…How awesome is that? That kids are praying for kids that they have never met but they love. That kids and adults are beginning to think outside of our own borders and are beginning to understand what it means to love everyone with the love of Christ.
When we have kids, we desperately want them to understand what it means for them to see the whole world as a creation of Jesus Christ, and everyone in this world as people that He created in His image and He loves perfectly. We want our kids to understand there are many people who have never heard the Word of Christ, who have nothing to their names, who struggle to live, and that there are kids who may never know the love of a mother and father. We want them to know this so that their hearts break for what GOD’s heart breaks for. We want them to know this so that they can be thankful for what they have while at the same time understanding that there is so much more to this life than physical blessings.
I was just reading in Luke 10 where Jesus sends out the 72, and when they come back they are full of joy because “even the demons submit to us in Your Name.” And Jesus basically replies by saying of course the demons submit to My Name, I told them too. But then He also tells them this in 10:20: “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.”
That is what I want my children and my family to rejoice in! Not that we are blessed physically (because we may not be), not because we are blessed financially (because this will fade away), and not because spirits will submit to us. I want my children and my family and myself to rejoice that our names are written in Heaven!
So, what does this have to do with the sponsorship program and how it affects families? When our sponsors and their children begin focusing on the lives of the poor, the widow, and the orphan, they are growing nearer to the heart of GOD. When our children begin praying for people all over the world because they are lost without Christ, or do not know the love of a mother or father, or cannot eat because they cannot afford it, they are coming nearer to the heart of their Savior.
When my friend told me this story, I realized how important this could be for the families who are getting involved (even if you do not have children or if they are grown, we all need to come near to the heart of Christ!). I hope that as this moves forward, GOD will begin to change your lives like He has begun to change ours. I hope this ministry is so much more than an orphanage. I hope it is used by GOD to change each one of us and to bring us closer to our Savior as we begin to understand His Heart!