HEADS UP, 7 UP!
I, Heather, have vivid memories of playing “Heads Up, 7 Up” in elementary school. With my head pillowed in the crook of my left arm and my right fist propped up on my desk, I waited with eager anticipation for the possibility of being chosen by one of the seven students who was “It.” With the slightest graze of my shoulder, my right thumb popped to attention, as I tried to decipher which of my classmates chose me.
The thrill of being chosen, the thrill of trying to identify by whom I was chosen, and the reward of being able to pay it forward to another of my classmates was the epitome of elementary school excitement.
But being chosen doesn’t always bring joy.
In Daulatdia, Bangladesh, there is a community of children whose future has been chosen for them. Growing up in one of the largest brothels in the world, these children bear witness to the depravity of human trafficking on a daily basis. They’ve grown accustomed to hiding under the bed or being shooed out to the alley while their mothers are trapped in a system of revolving doors.
Without a father’s name to list on their birth certificates, children in Daulatdia are social outcasts and have difficulty gaining entrance to school. Without an education, the options for a different future are very limited. Girls are especially vulnerable to being trapped in the brothel as their mothers and grandmothers “age out.”
Without intervention, a future of slavery has been chosen for them.
But God.
You have the opportunity to be part of what God is doing to write a different future for these children and their families.
Children of Promise has been invited by local leaders to start a residential program called the Meena Project for these vulnerable girls in Daulatdia. The house has been built. The girls who will live there have been identified. The final barrier to getting them into the home is the startup costs to get it completely furnished. It’s an invitation that we just can’t turn down.
This May, you can triple your impact to help Children of Promise grow into a sustainable future and launch the Meena Project.
When you initiate a recurring monthly donation* of $7 to Children of Promise, a generous donor has agreed to release $14 in matching funds for the final startup costs of the Meena Project.
Your $7 commitment will make a $21 impact.
Children of Promise has been experiencing incredible growth over the past few years. Amazing invitations to join God’s work of making wholeness possible for vulnerable children keep coming our way. We want to be able to say yes, and your $7 per month commitment will help us do that for the long term. This month, your commitment will also start writing a different future for 50 girls in Daulatdia.
Our goal is to be able to release $7500 of startup funds to the Meena Project, which means that we’re looking for 535 people who will start or increase their recurring monthly donations to Children of Promise by just $7 per month.
Together, let’s choose a future of wholeness for the children in Daulatdia and a sustainable future for Children of Promise.
Give Here
*All new or increased recurring gifts to the Making It All Happen fund through May 31. 2024 will qualify for this match.
WHY ME?
“Why did you choose me?” Yeferson asked, as he sat across the table from his sponsor, Josh Mifflin. Odete, our program director in the Dominican Republic, had just finished telling the group of sponsored children what a privilege and blessing it is to be sponsored. While many children are helped through the Gap Fund, she explained, not all have been chosen by a specific sponsor yet. That information peaked Yeferson’s curiosity. He jumped at the chance to ask Josh.
Just like in “Heads Up, 7 Up,” we long to be chosen and we’re curious about the one who has chosen us.
STEWARDING THE GIFT
Isn’t it a beautiful gift that we’ve each been chosen by God and that He invites us into relationships and entrusts us with opportunities to steward?
Just as we are responsible for stewarding our relationships and opportunities well, sponsored children are also. As they grow, they have the opportunity to pay it forward to their families, church, community, and country.
Children of Promise has been around long enough to easily recognize the generational impact and the way that graduates of the program are stewarding the gift they’ve been given.
We see it in the life of Adonis, a young man who recently met Jesus and has been empowered by his local CofP volunteer to share the love of Jesus with his friends.
We see it in the life of Abhishek who grew up to study and teach geology at the university level. Still involved in the local church in which he was raised, he’s a living example to the younger children who are currently sponsored that they, too, can rise out of poverty.
We see it in the life of Juliet, who was sponsored after her father tragically died when she was in 7th grade. She grew up to be a 3rd grade teacher, and now teaches other sponsored children in her community.
It’s impossible to wrap our heads around the breadth and depth of impact that sponsorship has made in the lives of more than 14,000 children who have been sponsored since 1992.
But just like Yeferson, we can allow the thought to spark our curiosity. What will God do through the lives of the children in Daulatdia, Bangladesh when they have hope of a different future besides being enslaved like their mothers? Will this be the generation who is able to break free to be change agents for the generations who follow them? We don’t know about you, but we’re excited to find out.
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