Long before coming to work at TEAR Fund, my wife and I decided to sponsor a child. I thought I would share a little about why.
Firstly, we’re big fans of Tear Fund and their ethos of partnerships with other organisations in the developing world and because of that we have chosen to support a few of their initiatives. We believe in what TEAR Fund is doing.
Our sponsor child’s name is April. Her birthday is in April, the day before mine. When we started sponsoring her she was six years old and had already had 3 sponsors cancel their support with her previously. That’s partly why we chose her. April is from the Philippines and is part of a project there. Our money goes to the center who run the project she is part of who then use it to provide for her.
We sponsor April alongside giving to other TEAR Fund initiatives such as microenterprise for a number of reasons. Firstly because I believe we all have a responsibility to each other. No person is an island, we each affect the world in some way. The question is, do our actions affect the world in a way that causes pain and suffering in the lives of others or do our actions relieve the pain and suffering in the lives of others? For each of our actions there is a comparative reaction…. what affect are your actions having?
I also believe in giving to such things because I believe Christ would. Jesus would have used all the means at his disposal to make a difference in the lives of those who needed it. He touched those the rest of the world had rejected. April was presented to us, we have the means and therefore my duty to Jesus whom I have chosen to serve gives me a duty to her.
There is something else as well, something not so easy to explain. There is something that happens on a deeper level in an almost mystical/spiritual sense. Giving to such things to help people that can be helped through what I have allows the divine to reach past the negatives of my own selfish humanity and reveal part of Himself.
I could get a kick out of using that money to buy a couple of DVD’s each month or by attending a few movies, eating in a restaurant or any other number of activities, but there is something greater when I allow the divine to use my resources to reach beyond myself. Through such a minor activity He touches me, he softens my heart. Through expressing love to someone else in such a way, His love is revealed to me in a way that I would not have been able to understand otherwise.
Such an experience is not like letters literally appearing in the sky or an other world spiritual trance like experience, it’s more like an unexplainable quiet peace that wells up within when my thoughts are drawn to the places where I am expressing something that makes me move my attention off myself and to someone else.
Giving to such things that impact the life of another in such a way is part of being drawn into that dance of the divine to be shaped into the image of the One I have devoted my very being to.
One thing I know… the only ones among us who will find happiness are those who have sought and found ways to serve. – Dr. Albert Schweitzer
If you would like to join me and sponsor a child through TEAR Fund, call us on 0800 800 777 or visit http://tearfund.org.nz/child-sponsorship/sponsor-a-child.html
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A few years ago i had the amazing opportunity to meet one of the children i sponsored.
There is a practical level of help which comes with sponsorship which makes a huge impact, but there is a level of hope and amazement as well, which transforms lives. By giving to help sponsor a child, your not only giving money, your giving beleif, your giving hope for the childs future, and your giving them an opportunity to question the reality of Christian love.
Sponsorship is such a no brainer, i beleive every working adult should be sponsoring at least one child.