Last week it was my honour and privilege to visit Togo, with Compassion UK, to see first hand the impact of their Child Sponsorship and Child Survival programmes.
Through Compassion UK, people from Welcome Church currently sponsor around 225 children in Togo, which is often recognised as the least developed country in Africa. We’ve also provided funding as a church for a Child Survival project there. I know people from our church also sponsor children in other countries, which is great too.
Project visits
We visited several church projects during our time in Togo, each being run by a local church to serve their own community.
Amongst the church projects we visited was one where over 140 children are sponsored by people from Welcome Church – and they pulled out all the stops to welcome us! There was singing, worship, a marching band, prayer, presentations and performances from the children, alongside a chance to take a tour and see what happens at the project. I also got to see inside the church building where over 700 people gather each week to worship. The pastor insisted I stand in the pulpit for a photo 🙂
It was great to meet the pastor and the project leader, and to meet lots of the children who people in our church are sponsoring. We had a lot of fun and games with them all – mostly involving chasing, running and footballs – and they were a lot fitter than any of us.
I also saw the Child Survival Project that we’ve funded as a church and met the leader of that, alongside lots of mums and their babies. We heard testimonies from some of the mothers and caregivers (grandma in one case, auntie in another) who’s babies would not have survived without this project. It really is making a huge difference.
Local churches in action
What quickly became clear is that this is the local church in action doing what it does best – serving its own community. During one visit to a church project in a rural area the village chief came to see us and say thank you for all that is being done by the church to serve the children and families of his community. His big hope now is for a bore hole to being drinkable water to their village. During another visit, to a church project in a more challenging area, there were children outside the project picking through a rubbish pile for anything they could use or sell.
The churches we visited were all passionately committed to serving children and seeing them lifted out of poverty and given a future and a hope that impacts the whole community, and it’s all done in the name of Jesus. Our sponsorship is what makes the work these churches do to transform their own communities possible, and we should never doubt its value and importance.
Home visits
Part of the trip included making home visits to some of the sponsored children, and among these were a young lady who Jo and I sponsor and a young man sponsored by our son Zac. The various home visits we made put into perspective the difference that sponsorship makes, as we saw first hand the living conditions of the children and their families; they really are among the poorest of the poor. The prayer request of one mother we visited was for a front door for her house to keep the animals out, especially when they sleep on the floor at night.
These home visits also highlighted the importance of letter writing as the letters are kept, read, re-read and treasured and they help build connection and a sense that they know you. When I showed our sponsored child’s father a photo of Jo on my phone, the response from the whole family was “we know her from your letters”.
I was impacted by the way child sponsorship lifts up not just the one child but the whole family, and this impacts the whole community in turn. Sponsorship is a great funding vehicle for holistic development that impacts a whole area.
One fact we discovered during the visit is that Togo has a population of around 8.4 million people, and Compassion sponsor more than 83,000 children there, and those numbers don’t include the children who have already graduated from the program. This means that roughly 1% of the population is currently a Compassion sponsored child who is being given a future and a hope in the name of Jesus. On top of this is the positive impact on their families and communities. Culture can be changed from the top down, but it can also be changed from the bottom up.
Get involved
On Sunday May 12th we’ll have a chance as a church to sponsor more children from the same project. Let’s be on the front foot to do that; it’s all part of Jesus’ mandate and mission that we bring good news to the poor. If you’re not yet involved, let me encourage you to step up.
I’ve included some photos, but I have been a bit careful about posting pictures of individual children. If you have any questions, please do just ask me.
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