Why Sponsor a Child Through Manna 4 Lempira?

One of the things I (Trish) like most about our  ministry - and one of the most frustrating things, as well - is that Allen likes to "go deep." When he sees a problem, and he looks for a solution, he generally doesn't jump on the most obvious possibility. Instead, he thinks through the ramifications of implementing a potential solution, and he also considers whether the idea is sustainable in the long term.

An example of this would be feeding malnourished children. We could set up a feeding center in one location, and go there regularly to personally prepare the food and attempt to give Bible lessons (with our imperfect Spanish) . . . but this would limit us to feeding the children in just a couple of locations each week! We wouldn't have time to go to additional locations, and we wouldn't have the time in each location to really get involved in the lives of all the children. This solution would leave too many unmet needs in our part of Honduras!

So, instead, we created a system where local pastors in needy communities run the feeding centers. They involve volunteers from their congregations to help with the cooking and serving, they are able to give the Bible lessons in the exact same local version of Spanish that the children use, and they live where the children are - placing them in an ideal situation to get to know the children and their families, and to lead them to God.

With this set-up, instead of running a small number of feeding centers ourselves, we now oversee 150 feeding centers throughout western Honduras - with the partnership of our generous donors! The pastors are delighted that we give them the food for free, which they can use to reach and serve their communities - none of them expect or receive any compensation for this.

I think this is wonderful - it makes so much sense to analyze what has been done in the past (by our ministry or by others), consider the outcomes, and make adjustments as needed, to do the best possible job we can!

However, it is frustrating for me, because I feel compelled to explain why we do things in the way that we do . . . and, oftentimes people aren't all that interested in reading about each part of the ministry in that much depth!

We're attempting to solve this problem by creating videos. The short video I'm introducing today gives a partial explanation of how the Manna 4 Lempira sponsorship program works to help the children in our part of Honduras. Maybe another time I'll make a video to show all the work that happens behind the scenes to keep the program running - there's a lot of spreadsheet work, regular oversight, measuring feet, and traveling (collecting backpacks from across the U.S. and delivering them to collection locations for shipping)  . . . but we'll save that for another day and another video!

This video specifically focuses on how the program helps the sponsored children - and how we serve the sponsors, as well.

If you're seeing this post by email, here is the link to view the video:  

Why Sponsor Through Manna 4 Lempira? 

  - posted by Trish