USA (MNN) — There are millions of children around the world who live in poverty. They have no idea when or where their next meal will come. Water is scarce. Many of these children live in areas around the world where they've never heard the Gospel. Food for the Hungry believes you can make a difference this Christmas.
Greg Forney with
Food for the Hungry says child sponsorship has been an effective way to help children out of poverty, while helping the entire family. "It's amazing to see how praise erupts out of the children and the families — praise to God for someone who has shown love to them. It really opens them up to hear the Gospel."
When you sponsor a child for $32 a month, the money goes toward providing food, water, medical care, education, and more, giving hope and a future to the children they serve.
Christmas is a a celebration of God's love for us. It's a celebration of God sending His only Son to earth as a baby — crossing the great divide between sin and holiness — to become the sacrifice for our sin. Forney says being a child sponsor is kind of a picture of that. "[It's] extending your love across a great distance, reaching into the hard places around the world to help children in need."
Food for the Hungry's sponsorship strategy is geared toward empowering and equipping families, the local church and the leadership of the community to meet the needs of their children. They focus on long-term solutions — strengthening families and the communities in which the children live. Your monthly pledge will help meet the critical needs of the child you sponsor as well as other children in the community. At the same time, it ensures that each child will hear the Gospel.
Forney says sponsoring a child "is just one of the many ways that you can really get involved in the spirit of Christmas, which is really a relational act by God to bring us into fellowship with Him. We extend that to others when we help the poor, and those who don't know Christ, and child sponsorship is a great way to do that."
You can sponsor a child in someone's name this year for Christmas. "You can use sponsorship as a tool to teach your children about poverty, about sharing God's love with others, and helping the poor, which Jesus emphasized."
If you'd like to sponsor a child, click here.
