USA (MNN) — Millions and millions of children live in poverty around the world. The situation is bleak and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. Because of that, Christians are uniting around the world, joining the Micah Challenge to combat the problem.
The Micah Challenge is a global Christian campaign that encourages Christians to engage with the poor and influence world leaders to meet the United Nations millennium development goals by 2015. More than 260 Christian organizations are working together in this effort. They call it a Christian’s responsibility.
Compassion International, a long-term Christian child development ministry, has joined the effort. Compassion’s David Dahlin says the group is challenging the church to get involved. “The church in the west, in the affluent part of the world, really lost its way in terms of understanding its responsibility to the poor. Especially in the United States we somehow got the idea that was the government’s problem and so the government or on the world stage, the U-N, was supposed to solve this and so Christians were absolved from responsibility.”
However, that’s just not the case, says Dahlin. “There are thousands of verses where God is communicating about the issue of poverty and wealth. It’s the second most common theme in the Bible. And yet, most Christians had not heard a sermon on poverty in the last year.”
Dahlin is praying that, “The church really is awakened to this and it’s on main stage. It’s not a few churches doing it. It’s not a few pastors. It becomes very main stream that the Christian church is on front of addressing the issues of poverty and championing that cause.”
Compassion International’s Child Sponsorship program is just one way to do that. For them, it’s not just about helping physically. “All of Compassion’s programs are done through local evangelical churches. And it’s not just about handouts; it’s not just about schooling; it’s also about clearly communicating the Gospel.”
If you’d like to sponsor a child through Compassion International, click on the link below for more information and to get connected.
