East Africa (MNN) — Have you ever wondered if child sponsorship provides long-term benefits? Sure, you might help feed a kid and put them through school, but what happens when they age out of the program?
In East Africa, “Three of the kids that we loved 20 years ago are now pastors, and they all run private Christian schools,” Set Free’s Dean Vander Mey says.
“Who knows what their lives would have been, but because they were loved and brought back to life and nurtured, they are now outstanding men in their community.”
Set Free operates Light Academy, the only Christian high school in a location devastated by AIDS. More about that here.
“This school is in the middle of a demonically held region where witch doctors eat children,” Vander Mey says. When Set Free began its work in 2005, “there was death and destruction; there was no life, and now there are children who are flourishing.
“Our grades are some of the top grades in the whole country. The average in the whole country is 56 percent, and our schools have 98.3 percent.”
The 42 orphans who attended a Set Free spiritual warfare seminar in 2005, hoping to receive corn porridge. Set Free began its discipleship and Christian education program with this group.
(Photo courtesy of Set Free Global)
The program began with dozens of hungry orphans, a teacher, and some shoes. It has expanded to include 14 primary schools and Light Academy, a residential Christian high school.
Sponsorship makes it all possible, and the discipleship provided by Set Free’s Christian teachers is life-changing. “Witch doctors have abused 90 percent of our children,” Vander Mey says.
“They’re not only set free, but they want to go find other people trapped in their hurt, pain, and anger the way they were.”
Sponsor a child through Set Free here.
“For that listener [who] doesn’t think God’s listening, just know He is. And, if these children who have been horrifically abused by witch doctors can heal and recover and be set free, so can you,” Vander Mey says.
“God is close to the brokenhearted. He revives those crushed in spirit. Psalm [50] says, ‘Call upon Me in your day of trouble, and I will answer you, and you will honor Me.’”
Header and story images courtesy of Set Free Global.
