Giving Wisely

I just finished "Giving Wisely" by Jonathan Martin, a gift from our daughter Sharon & family. His premise is that Americans are very generous, but often do more harm than good with their unwise giving.

Martin makes several valid points in his book, but I think the situation is vastly more complex than he describes. One case in point is child sponsorship. He feels that most child sponsorship programs create inequities in the community by raising one child over another. He thinks the best programs raise the whole community togeether rather than helping children one by one.

Yet even if sponsorship raised the whole community, wouldn't that create an inequity (and an equal danger of jealousy) with surrounding communities? Can anything be done to help anywhere without creating inquities of one sort or another? I think not.

Of course, I admit I am prejudiced on this point, because Every Child Ministries has child sponsorship programs. Or maybe that actually makes me more qualified to speak. Being intimately connected with the policy decisions made regarding those child sponsorship programs, I am familiar with the difficulties and the dividends of sponsorship.

At Every Child Ministries, we take pains to make sure that the very neediest children in the community are selected. Yes, their level will be raised because of the sponsorship, but if they are at the very bottom of the opportunity ladder, then raising them a few notches will not make them privileged and spoiled, but will put them closer to the norm with other children.

Most sponsorship organizations permit only one child per family, but most of our children are orphans of at least one parent if not both, taken in by relatives or others. We did find that when the outside child got sponsorship but not the children by birth, this did create difficult relationships. We were watching this closely, and made a policy change to allow and even encourage sponsorship of one of the children by birth as well.

Other things we have done to discourage jealousy and inequity are 1. to encourage gifts chosen by the project coordinator rather than by the sponsor, 2. to pool holiday gift funds and purchase the same thing, a needed item, for all the children and also to send gift bags of food items or other needed items home to the families, 3. to help with community projects in the sponsorship areas whenever possible (clean water, school library, etc.) 4. to visit the families by rotation and leave a gift for one of the other children on each visit.

When I think of the changes sponsorship has brought to the children in our programs, I know for sure that our sponsor's giving has been wise. Although not without pitfalls and problems, child sponsorship is still, in my opinion, one of the best ways to help children.

Further, sponsors love the personal connection. Giving to a community project just isn't the same. Helping one child is something to which most people can relate. That's why it's so popular.

I am vitally interested in the topic, "Giving Wisely," but on the subject of child sponsorship, I still say that sponsoring a child is a very wise investment. I still say it's very good stewardship.

Beggar Children --What a Life!

While in Uganda I've had an opportunity to visit the Karimojong beggar children and their families living in the slums of Kitwe and Kisenyi, right in the heart of the capital city of Kampala. What a life these kids have! Forced out of their homeland by drought and starvation, they are now forced into tiny makeshift shelters, ten to fifteen families to a room! When it rains, their dirt floors flood and they are forced to stand throughout the night. They are looked down on by the majority Buganda population as well as other ethnic groups in the city. They are not welcome most places they go. I certainly don't condone sending children out on the street to beg, but you have to have some sympathy when you consider the problems they are facing. Even these patched together tents and homes made from pieces of junk picked from the dump are se t up on rented land. One group is about to be expelled because the developer has plans to build there; others have been warned they have only one year left before they will be expelled. This means even more severe overcrowding or simply sleeping on the street "wherever". Even the public toilets, such as they are, require an entry fee! And if the Karimojong return home, they face mass starvation. Conditions are so desperate there that children try to escape by clinging to the underside of trucks!

I am so glad that success does not depend on me and on my good ideas! My ideas are not even a drop in the ocean of need the Karimojong face. We serve a God who is unlimited in ideas and in resources--who designed the universe and keeps it running, who designed the intricacies of the cell and of DNA. We are committed to doing all we can to help these precious people. Please pray that God will show us the way and open up His resources to accomplish the task.

The Karimojong people desperately need a Gospel breakthrough. Please pray for that.
We would like to sponsor more children to school so that they can get jobs and fit into Ugandan society. Please pray for sponsorships.

It must feel to the Karimojong that God does not love them, but I know He does. Please pray for Recho, Merab and our other workers as they seek to demonstrate that love.

Human Potential the Easiest Resource to Waste

Those who know me realize I am very conservative in use of resources. I am always going through my house and asking over every item, "What is the highest use to which I could put this?" I'm concerned about stewardship, and I want to use what God entrusts to me well.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the waste of human potential amongst my beloved African children. It started when we printed out a batch of report cards scanned from our Uganda office of Every Child Ministries. They were the long anticipated FIRST report cards representing the first academic efforts of former Karimojong beggar children. Was it really possible to take kids who had never been to school off the street, kids who were just learning their first words of English other than "Give me," have them begin in third grade, and really expect that they could do well? We were not at all sure. Sometimes in similar cases we have seen children struggle for years. Some never can catch up. Yet the first report cards from the beggar kids shows that they must be very brilliant children. Brilliant, yet on the very bottom social level. Brilliant, yet despised and ridiculed by the majority. Brilliant, but just now getting their very first break in life, their very first opportunity.

I know they are loved and valued by God whether they are brilliant or not. We all are. Yet I am also utterly amazed that these kids have within them such immense human potential, potential that no one might have ever discovered. It seems like human potential is the easiest resource of all to waste. How I pray that we will find more people interested in child sponsorship, more people willing to invest in unmined human potential.

How can a six year old understand rejection?

How can a six-year old understand rejection? Today I wrote the story of Emmanuel in Congo. I'm hoping that someone reading his story will be moved to sponsor him for $30 a month.

Emmanuel's mother was a prostitute who had little time for him. Especially when she began to get sick. Emmanuel watched her waste away and die before he was four years old.

Still sick with grief, he was taken in by an uncle. But the family did not understand AIDS. They looked for a different cause for the mother's death. When they visited a traditional diviner, he was happy to provide an acceptable reason. It must be that little Emmanuel had "eaten" his mother's soul through witchcraft. He had only been with the uncle a short time when the whole family began to hate him. Blaming him for his mother's death and fearing he may do the same to them, no one could treat him decently, let alone show him love. Soon he was chased away from the home and ended up alone on the streets to fend for himself.

Emmanuel is now eight years old. He's finally had a break in life. He was found by one of the caring associates of Every Child Ministries, who arranged for care with a loving family. They need help, however. They are struggling to support their own family, and if Emmanuel proves to be the burden that breaks the fragile support system for their own, he may again find himself despised and cast out. Lord, please lay Emmanuel on the heart of someone who is able to sponsor him for $30 a month. Give strength to his foster family so that they may love and accept him as their very own. Provide for their needs and those of their whole family.

Your heart breaks for Emmanuel specifically and for all the Emmanuels of this world. Send them help in Jesus' name.

ECM Gets Involved in Fighting Child Sacrifice, Ritual Abuse

When Resty, the coordinator of ECM’s Gayaza Sponsorship Project in Uganda visited her sister recently, she told me she had my training on child trafficking fresh on her mind. So when she learned that a village woman had just rescued a three year old child who was discarded in a sack, she was immediately interested. As she learned to do in her training, she began to ask more questions, to look deeper.

When she learned what had happened to the little girl, she knew she had to get involved. The baby had suffered horrific ritual abuse in a traditional shrine, including having her undeveloped canine teeth cut out of her jaw, undoubtedly for ritual purposes. Her head hung to one side and her neck looked rotten, signs that she had probably been tied up around the neck. Then she had nearly suffocated when stuffed alive into a bag and discarded. She was found nearly drowning in her own feces, and seemingly near death.

In God’s mercy, a kindly lady found the little girl and did everything possible to rescue her, cleaning her up and seeking medical treatment at a hospital in spite of that fact that the child seemed not to see, hear or make any sound, and that all her joints had stiffened, including her backbone. The foster mother named the child Hope Tereza, and cared for her valiantly in spite of the fact that she had two other children to care for, one of them also unable to speak, and that her tumbledown hut leaked badly.

As the police began to search for the parents, two men showed up threatening the foster mother. It turned out that these men had kidnapped the child eighteen months previously and had used her as a sacrifice for rituals in a traditional shrine. The police then were able to locate the parents, who had nearly exhausted all their resources, even selling their land in their search for their missing child. The police have advised the family to leave the child in foster care for the time being while the parents settle some family issues. The girl’s original name was Resty, the same as the ECM worker who has been helping her.

ECM is now helping the valiant family who rescued the child as well as to the child Resty herself. We’ll call her Resty Hope to combine the two names. We have given assistance from our Rescue Fund, but we now need additional help. If we pull together, we believe that this family should be the beginning of a new sponsorship program in the Masaka District. We are seeking sponsors not only for Resty Hope, but for the two other children of the foster family. We also need special funds to help meet Resty Hope’s special needs and to get the new Masaka program started. In addition, our staff are working with all stakeholders to develop informative skits for public use that will show parents how they can protect their children against the growing problem of child sacrifice in Uganda. Gifts will also be accepted for this program.

Resty Hope’s joints are becoming less stiff with therapeutic massage, she seems to be seeing and hearing, and she is now able to smile. It is believed that a cerebral palsy chair would help her.

I remember being impressed recently as I watched a video recently of Gianna, a young woman who suffers cerebral palsy induced by the late term saline abortion by which her mother sought to end her life. She was born alive but damaged by the saline, and has become a mighty advocate of life. (You can watch her at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPFhCNOuQ. If you have difficulty, just go to youtube and type abortion survivor in the search box.)
Like Gianna, Resty Hope, may never again be normal (although we acknowledge God’s ability to heal). But even if she is never normal, God must have very special plans for her life. Who else could have sent a woman who had such a heart to help her, just when she was at the point of death?

Let’s all join together in praying for Resty Hope! Those who wish to help can designate their gifts for one of these projects when giving to Every Child Ministries at www.ecmafrica.org.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them--in the ABC's, too

I was incredibly encouraged by my visit to ECM's team of Americans and Ugandan nationals working in the Gulu District. I visited our sponsorship program in the Tegot village (formerly called an IDP camp, but the government now wants to call it a village in keeping with its policy of encouraging people to return to their home areas).



My job, besides seeing how the team was working together, was to visit with the guardians of the children in our sponsorship program. Only a very few have living parents. Most of the parents were killed in the war with the LRA or died of AIDS spread in the war. Many of the kids live with a very old grandmother.



I was supposed to encourage the parent figures in the kids' lives, but they did so much to encourage me! One of them was thrilled that her little grandchildren are coming home and showing her what they learned in school. She herself was never able to attend school at all because the war brought education to a standstill for two generations. Now her grandchildren come with their papers and say "Look, grandma. Today we learned the letter b. See, this is what it looks like. This is what it sounds like: bbbbb. This is how you write it. Look, Grandma."

Pray for the Karimojong

I am in Uganda training our staff on ways they can recognize and fight child trafficking and modern-day slavery. Today I was talking with ECM's new National Director, Charles Obwoon.

My conversation with Charles started in a very ordinary way. He wanted to know if I would consider other sponsorship projects in other places in Uganda, besides the three we have now in Kamwokya, Gayaza, and Gulu. It was the kind of question people ask me all the time. Eventually, yes. As soon as what we are already doing is strong and stable enough and as soon as there is adequate support. Not immediately, but yes, certainly in the future.

His next question stopped me in my tracks. Would I consider a sponsorship project among st the Karimojong? Immediately he had my attention. In the past few weeks before coming to Uganda, I'd spent a considerable amount of my "spare" time researching the Karimojong. No one knew that--certainly not Charles. I had examined the Karimoja territory in northeastern Uganda on Google earth. I had read the reports of the very, very few missionary efforts there. I had even written a page on the Karimojong for a prayer guide I am compiling called "Prayer for the Dark Places".

An interesting people, the Karimojong. One of their central cultural beliefs is that God gave all the cattle on earth to them. Since they believe they have a divine right to all cattle and neighboring tribes have cattle, I'm sure you can see how this makes for a difficult life--especially since some of those neighboring tribes have similar beliefs.

The Karimojong are one of the groups I was planning to discuss in the staff training on child trafficking. You see, ECM has learned that Karimojong children are sold regularly in cattle markets along the border between Kenya and Uganda. We have learned that every Friday, certain cattle stalls are reserved for selling children!

Some Karimojong parents are selling their children, apparently out of desperation because of their extreme poverty. It is not yet clear whether they sell them to brokers who perhaps make false promises that the children will have a better life elsewhere and even be able to send money home (such false inducements are very common). Whatever the parents think, the children are sold at the markets and bought by slave masters. One common destination is Kampala. The masters beat the children to make them cry, then set them out on the streets to beg. Watching from a distance, the master's helpers quickly swoop up any aid given to the child. Little children commonly sit in the sun without food or even water to drink for long hours. At the end of the day they receive a skimpy meal just designed to barely keep them alive. The masters don't want them to look healthy, because they bring more money in looking sickly.

Yes, I was very much interested in the Karimojong project, and I considered his interest a confirmation of the burdent God had been growing in my heart. If ECM can successfully plant sponsorship programs in the home area of the Karimojong, it could dramatically decrease the number of parents who would try to sell their children, as well as those who would be vulnerable to the deceptive promises of the child traffickers. In addition, very little Gospel work has been done amongst the Karimojong, so such a project could help build the church of Jesus Christ there.

Here are a few ways people can pray with us: 1. The selection of a place. The Karimojong are a semi-nomadic cattle herding people. Sponsorship is nearly impossible where people don't stay in one place. But some of them do! Pray we'll find the right spot. 2. Connections with other Bible-believing Christians and preferably churches in the area. We want what we do to help build the church of Jesus Christ. 3. The selection of children and families. The Karimojong traditionally value knowledge related to their world of cattle herding. School type knowledge is little appreciated, yet this is causing their group to be scorned and left behind in the modern world. Pray we'll find some families who desiere their children to go to school. 4. The timing. Every Child Ministries is making significant strides at recovery following some difficult attacks in Uganda. We don't want to stretch ourselves too thin. Pray that we'll know when it's time to move forward with this project.

The most outstanding thing about her trip was...

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and partners at our annual IN Banquet in Crown Point, IN. I was especially struck with the reports of Katie Suitor, last summer's mission team leader to Uganda. She said that the thing that struck her most about her time in Uganda was ECM's sponsorship program. She said she noticed the HUGE difference between children who were sponsored in our program and those who were not. She could even tell from looking at pictures, even if she didn't know who the kids were. The sponsored kids looked healthier, were happier, cleaner, better dressed, and somehow more hopeful. The sponsorship program is labor-intensive for Every Child Ministries, so I was really encouraged to hear what a difference it is making in kids' lives. Thanks for that encouragement, Katie.

We gained five new sponsors during the evening, and we are very thankful for that. Many more are waiting to be sponsored.

By the way, I want to send a heartfelt thank you once again to everyone who worked so hard to make last evening a success. We only came halfway to our offering goal for Uganda, but that is a good start and we are thankful for the progress made. Many, many volunteers worked hard to provide this big event. We really appreciate all of you.

Harriet Finds Hope

Today our new 3-minute video about child sponsorship comes out. On it, we tell about Harriet, a 14-year old girl I met two years ago. She came to our morning Bible class for children of the Kamwokya slum community who were not in school. Harriet distinguished herself by helping with the younger children and was selected for sponsorship. I soon learned that for some years Harriet had been acting as the head of her family. After losing both parents and a sister to AIDS, she had to drop out of school and take in washing constantly in order to keep her and her two younger sisters and a brother alive. It was a rough road for Harriet. She gave up her dreams of ever finishing school.

Receiving sponsorship has changed all that. With all the children sponsored, they are all back in school and receiving the basic necessities of life.

I am tired today and discouraged about some issues we are facing. But when I think of Harriet, when I look at her picture and remember how she was just overcome with emotion when she learned she had received a sponsor, well, I find new courage to go on. My BIG African family encourages me because I can see that my work is worth all the struggles. Harriet, if you kept on after losing your parents, if you kept on when handed adult responsibility while still a child, if you kept on through long, tiring days of doing load after load of other people's laundry by hand, surely I can keep on, too. Thank you, Harriet, for encouraging me today.

I'm hoping lots of people will watch our new video and that many more people will sponsor a child so they can receive the kind of encouragement that I have from you. You're a star in the film, Harriet! May it bring sponsorship and hope to many kids like you.