I am Joshua L., pastor of (TZ-243) in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. We minister to Teresia at (the project.) I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for your generous support of Teresia. This sponsorship program has touched the lives of many children and parents. In our parish, we serve a mixture of ethnic groups and the majority of people work as livestock keepers and farmers. Through this program, many of them have been brought to Christ and have been able to send their children to school. Currently, there are more than 120 registered children who attend our nearby English medium school. The main challenge faced by our community is illiteracy, as the majority of people in our community did not go to school, and unemployment. This had perpetuated poverty in our society.
Our church's vision is to release children from illiteracy and disease and to enrich them with the Word of God. At the center, we had been able to nurture more than 270 children in the spiritual, physical, socio-emotional and cognitive aspects from the age of 3-14. Our children and youth attend school, church and Sunday school, and are free from malnutrition-associated disorders, unlike the other children in the community. These children are growing healthily as we provide them with medical care and hygiene training.
Our church also ministers to the community by reaching out to the disabled and providing them with meals, the word of God, and prayer. Furthermore, our church has established a saving and credit cooperative society where members can borrow money to start businesses and then return money at fair interest charge. Our church has an English medium school named Nuru where we invite children from poor families to attend school free of school fees.
One of the most important things in the sponsorship program is the correspondence between sponsors and sponsored children. When children receive letters from their sponsors, they feel very special and it helps their relationships with the sponsors improve. They are always happy to hear from their amazing friends in another country. If children do not receive letters from sponsors, they ask the workers at the center why it has been too long since they received a letter. We encourage all sponsors to write to these children because it helps them feel loved and motivated to do their best.
Please pray with us that all sponsored children will reach completion of the program. Secondly, let us pray for them to do well in school. Let us pray for their parents and siblings, and for good health. Please remember to pray or our program so that we may reach our goals. Lastly, thank you once again for the immeasurable love you show Teresia.
If you are interested in sponsoring a young lady in Tanzania, please consider Mariam. She is 9 years old, and her birthday is October 25. She lives with her parents in an area that has a high rate of HIV/AIDS and a lot of child abuse and exploitation. Read more about Mariam here.
I always enjoy getting letters from the children we sponsor but it's also really encouraging to get the bigger picture from a pastor. It helps me understand the wider context of the community where the children we sponsor are living.
ReplyDeleteI love that this project is reaching out to disabled people in the community!!!!!! So neat!!!!
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