Missions/Child sponsors

[allforHim]

My husband and I were led to increase our giving to missions last year.We give through our church who minister to local needs and of those oversees.I feel happy that we're giving in this way and I see the spiritual rewards in our day to day life.The problem is my husband wants to stop giving to missions and start giving to sponser a child.Hes been listening to a radio station thats doing a drive for sponsers and wants to do it.I like the idea, but feel the work of the missions to be of utmost importance in these last days, so dont want to take the money from there.I am praying about it and maybe the Lord will ask us to do both, then I'll know God will give us the money to do both.My question is....if the world is really so near the rapture, is education really as important as harvesting souls? The missions we give to both reap the harvest and help provide for the kids in the land their in. They believe that reaping is the reason their there,but while there they can educate and stuff. Do the child sponsers do it in that order? Surely its seek ye first the Kindom of God.........then all these things shall be given unto you. I'm confused and could do with some input. Thanks :hug

:hail AllforHim

[CountryBumpkin]

Just be very careful about which child sponser you choose. With most of them only a very small amount actually reaches the child, with the bulk of your money being used for administration etc. - so they say.
I personally do not give to child sponsers.

[CanuckMedic]

Go here and you can see how much goes for admin, etc. Most of them are remarkably efficient.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

[UNeverEverNo]

Go here and you can see how much goes for admin, etc. Most of them are remarkably efficient.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/That's pretty cool.

I checked Compassion International (I have a little girl that I sponsor in northern India) and it was four stars. :thumb

[Live4Jesus]

We have 2 girls we sponsor through Compassion. We've sponsored them for 5 years now.

Giving to a sponsor organization does help spread the Word and I believe does help win souls as well as building up believers.

[HiLaReE320]

I am sponsoring one from World Vision. (worldvision.com I guess?) And its been great. We've only been sponsoring for a couple months and our girl from Brazil has already sent us lots of pictures and letters, and we have sent her some of ours, also. It's a really neat program and it's only $30 a month. Why can't you do both, give to missions (trust me, they definitely need all the help they can get) and sponsor a child? I'm sure God will make a way..

[Cocoa1080]

I wanna sponser one this summer when I get a job, does anyone have a good link?

[Tominator]

World Vision has a policy to not allow the spread of the gospel.

It's "too dangerous". When I talked to the representative on the phone about it, she was very, very rude and definitely did not reflect a giving, loving, Christian spirit.

We canceled our "child" whe the representative admitted that very little or none of our $30 would actually go to the little girl or her family...but to the "surrounding community and regional efforts" to raise the standard of living. At the same time they prohibit even a mention of Jesus in any correspondence with the child. They enforce this by editing all letters and by removing any Chrisitian items such as a book mark with a cross on it.


From my experience, I do not even consider World Vision a Chrisitan Organization. How could they be when they are ashamed of the gospel?

[Cocoa1080]

i have heard good things about the handsandfeet.org

http://handsandfeet.org/

?? anyone else know anythign

[PlentyGroovy]

I like Gospel for Asia ministry and Compassion Int'l. :thumb Gospel for Asia is reaching thousands in the 10/40 window where there are millions that have never heard of Jesus. Compassion sponsors one child per family which has a ripple effect through the family and extended family, good stuff.

[Live4Jesus]

one thing I like about Compassion International is that you can go visit your sponsor child. They have sponsored trips or you can organize your own trip there. We haven't been able to do this but we hope to visit the girls one day!

We get letters about every other month and pictures 2 to 3 times a year.

For our 2 girls it's $64 a month.

[Kenjen]

World Vision has a policy to not allow the spread of the gospel.

It's "too dangerous". When I talked to the representative on the phone about it, she was very, very rude and definitely did not reflect a giving, loving, Christian spirit.

We canceled our "child" whe the representative admitted that very little or none of our $30 would actually go to the little girl or her family...but to the "surrounding community and regional efforts" to raise the standard of living. At the same time they prohibit even a mention of Jesus in any correspondence with the child. They enforce this by editing all letters and by removing any Chrisitian items such as a book mark with a cross on it.


From my experience, I do not even consider World Vision a Chrisitan Organization. How could they be when they are ashamed of the gospel?

We sponsor a girl through World Vision. When holidays come around, they send us a greeting card that they say will be sent to our child. It is always Christian in nature...talks of "God's love" or something similiar. :confused However, when we get progress reports on her, there is a space for religious instruction and it always says "none". And the reason stated is "family is Muslim". :doh I have not heard anything about the editing of letters.

We have never received a letter from her, just a yearly picture from the organization. I too get the feeling that our donations don't go directly to this child, but to the community.

I've been thinking about stopping our support and using it elsewhere (maybe through a different sponsorship organization), but feel kind of guilty doing that too. :(:

[allforHim]

I ve look into your suggestions and compassion int does sound good. They do teach the gospel and at least 80% of the $32/m goes to the children.Other child sponser groups sound aweful, like the one above. They cant pick and choose who to share the gospel with. We've prayed about our finances( we are already living by God miracle provision) and we're going to do it with His help.Thanks for your help guys, really appreciated. :hug

[Kenjen]

Hmmm, I wish I had done research before we made our decision. We signed up for sponsorship at an FFH concert at church. There are so many Christian artists pushing World Vision at their concerts that I guess I assumed it must be a very legit & Christ centered organization. :(:

[allforHim]

Easy done, that was one of my concerns. In this day and age there are just too many that say they're Christian and end up not. Very sad.Maybe you could look into moving to another one like compassion. I've heard so much good about them, and they give the good news to everyone.

[toddlemom]

We sponsor a little one in Uganda through Compassion. They read through our letters before translating and sending them to be sure they are OK -- not offensive -- and we talk about Bible, adn church, and tell her we are praying for her. I was glad of that.

ANother good thing is that when we hear about events in Africa our antenna goes up, praying she will remain in good health adn can still go to school. Which is a good thing.

[Sandra]

We sponsor a girl through Children's HopeChest. They operate orphanages in Russia and Africa. The money does go to the orphanage as a whole and to summer camps for the orphans. Most are "social orphans" where one parent has died or is in prison and the other has lost parental rights. The sponsored orphanage is visited weekly by a Christian Discipler who teaches the Bible, Evangelical Christianity, and works with the children on their personal issues from a Christian perspective. We are encouraged to write our child once a month. This organization wants us to relay our own walk with Jesus in our letters and let our child know we are praying to them. We receive their letters via email and snail mail. The snail mail letters are in the child's handwritting with the translation below. Our child also writes to us about her Christian walk. Trips to the orphanages are organized and you can go visit your child. A trip is leaving to the orphanage we are involved with this month, but we cannot go this year. When a trip is planned, personal gift bags a prepared for all the children. We have prepared a gift bag for our girl that will go to her personally. We are already very anxious to hear back from our girl on her reaction to the things we are sending her.

We are very happy with Children's HopeChest.

[LeahIA]

We sponsor 2 Compassion children.

Also make sure they're a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Responsibility.

[Frostie7]

If anyone would like the contact information for some legitimate orphanages in Ukraine which desperately need help send me a private email and I will forward to you.

[sealed]

We sponsor through Compassion, too.

My MIL does through Heifer International. Not sure if it is a CHristian org. tho.

[jjkn]

I very highly recommend Gospel for Asia's Bridge of Hope. The website is www.gfa.org. Every penny that you send for your child is spent on them. You can also sponsor a missionary, send money to buy livestock, chicken or rabbits for member families, lots and lots of ways to help.
The whole focus is spreading the Word and leading the lost to salvation. The statistics from 2 years ago was that every child in the school becomes saved and most of the families do to.