Thrive_Autumn 2019 digital issue

thrive-magazine.ca
thrive / 13
JOURNEY
WITH A
CHILD
by Norman Nielsen
Today’s children carry a burden laid on
them by adults. “Adulting” demands that
we fix what we have broken by commission,
or have allowed to stay broken by omission.
Worldwide there are an estimated 140 million
orphaned children, deprived of one or
both parents. It is also estimated that 100
million children live on the streets today, vulnerable to exploitation
and abuse. The United National High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) reports that over half of the world’s refugees
(25.4 million) are children who spend their childhood away
from home and often separated from family. A joint World
Bank-UNICEF study published in 2016 reports that 385 million
children around the world live in extreme poverty.
It’s hard to wrap our heads around these kinds of numbers. How
is it possible for so many children to be denied all the things
that we take for granted, considering them to be human rights?
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the deep and desperate need
that the numbers represent.
As followers of Christ we have a compelling reason to be instruments
of change, to fix what adults like us have broken or
ignored. We are commanded to do so. The parables of the New
Testament include a description of what the people of God’s
Kingdom look like when Jesus says: “Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you
since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I
was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed
me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came
to visit me.” Matthew 25:34-36. (NIV)
But what can we do to lift some of that crushing weight borne
by the weakest and most vulnerable? How can we best respond
to the hopelessness, and yes, accusation in the eyes of a hurting
child?
This fall, FAIR, in partnership with Fellowship International
missionaries on-site, has launched Journey With a Child, an appeal
introducing The Fellowship Child Sponsorship Program. This
new program is dedicated to a holistic approach to meeting the
needs of the most vulnerable in Lebanon, Honduras, and Sri
Lanka. Each situation has unique features but The Fellowship
Child Sponsorship Program strives to provide what is specifically
needed in each location, including education, healthcare, food,
and shelter over the period the child or youth is in the program.
Two of the programs are residential, two are non-residential.
Our top priority is the spiritual wellbeing of the children.
Opportunities to share the Gospel, for discipleship, for spiritual
development, and for prayer support are built in. These children
have the capacity to be change-makers for Christ in their
communities and around the world.
In order to fully fund the four locations included in The
Fellowship Child Sponsorship Program, FAIR needs 665 sponsors
giving $35 monthly to support needy children in
Honduras, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka.
Co-sponsors, where several sponsors support one child or youth,
will receive regular updates and, where possible, photos. Each
program has its own fund into which individual support is
pooled so that everyone within that location is benefitted equally.
In addition to long-term support from sponsors, FAIR,
through the Journey With a Child appeal, is seeking to raise
an additional $80,000. These funds will provide for the framework
that supports the program, including: bridge funding to
maintain the current locations until sponsorships are in place,
on-site staff expenses, and promotion of the programs.
Take that journey with a child, one that will lighten the load
they bear and turn their feet from a path of hopelessness to one
of hope.
—Norman Nielsen serves as Associate FAIR Director.
IT IS ALSO ESTIMATED THAT 100 MILLION CHILDREN
LIVE ON THE STREETS TODAY, VULNERABLE TO EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE.