In April this year I’ll be flying off to Togo! 🇹🇬 Here’s what’s going on:

In 2019, Welcome Church launched a partnership with Compassion UK, focussing on Togo in Western Africa. Togo is one of the least developed countries in the world and Compassion work in partnership with local churches there to see children released from poverty in Jesus’ name. They bring a lot of this about through a sponsorship model, through which you can sponsor a child and build a relationship with them through letters, photographs and prayer.

Compassion are Christ centred, Church based and Child focussed – values that connect well with us at Welcome Church, and they work to help the poorest of the poor. Jo and I have sponsored children with them for many years now, and it’s been a joy to write letters to those children and receive updates, photos and letters in return.

Our Church Partnership

When we launched this partnership with Compassion we gave people the chance to sponsor a child in Togo, and many responded to that (another chance will come up to do that in May this year!)

We also gave 10% of our June 2019 Building Project Gift Day to a UK government backed “matched funding” initiative for Compassion to fund Child Survival Projects in Togo. We gave just over £40,000 to that appeal which, due to the matched funding initiative, was doubled to £80,000.

This is vital work because, in Togo, 1 in 20 babies die before their first birthday, mostly from preventable causes, and 1 in 58 women die due to pregnancy or childbirth. These are shocking statistics, and Compassion are working to change this through their Child Survival Projects, which are run by local churches in Togo. As a result of our giving a new Child Survival Project was opened.

Latest Update and a Trip

On Sunday 14th April I will be flying out to Togo for 5 days, with Compassion, to see the project we’ve funded first hand. During this trip I will also get to meet some of the children we are sponsoring, including a girl who Jo and I sponsor. Please pray for this trip!

We recently received an update on the Child Survival Project. It’s a great report with lots of photos and includes an encouraging letter from one of the mothers who has been helped. The report is attached, so please be encouraged to download it and read it.

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