Giving Back
Freely you have received, freely give. -Matt 10:8b
The Arrival
Northwest Community Relief and Development is partnering with New Life Church to sponsor The Arrival. Responding to a consumer-driven culture in bold and unexpected ways, The Arrival challenges us to reduce the amount of spending on "extras" at Christmas and redirect our efforts towards gifts that save lives: chickens that provide eggs for families in impoverished nations, hot meals for local homeless people, immunizations for children in Bangladesh, and more. Join us in supporting this cause.
Dalit Freedom Network
The Dalits, also called the “untouchables,” “outcastes,” and most recently “slumdogs,” comprise nearly one quarter of India’s society, with population estimates of 250 million people. The term “Dalit” means “those who have been broken and ground down deliberately by those above them in the social hierarchy.” Dalits live at risk of discrimination, dehumanization, violence, and enslavement through human trafficking every day. By all global research and reports, the Dalits constitute the largest number of people categorized as victims of modern-day slavery.
We sponsor a child through the Dalit Freedom Network to help him go to school. Rosemary first "adopted" a 4-year-old boy named Yash in 2005. We sponsored him until 2009 when he dropped out of the program due to relocation. We were sad to lose contact with Yash, but have since began sponsoring another young man named Vedant. His story tells of a hard life and an alcoholic father and his picture with a set jaw and unsmiling eyes remind us to lift him up before His Heavenly Father. We hope to begin a long-term relationship with Vedant, encouraging him from so far away.
You can help a Dalit child get an education too.
Compassion
Compassion International is one of the nation's largest Christian child sponsorship organizations, working with more than 65 denominations and thousands of indigenous church partners in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Since 1952, Compassion's revolutionary approach, through one-to-one Christian child sponsorship, has touched the lives of more than 2 million children. Compassion has been recognized for its financial integrity with top ratings and recommendations by several "watchdog" organizations.
We sponsor a little boy named Sam from Uganda. When we first decided to sponsor a child through Compassion in 2007, we looked through several pictures, waiting for the one that felt just right. I have a soft spot on my heart for Uganda, and Josh loves soccer. When we saw the picture of a tall, thin boy from Uganda, clad in a soccer tshirt, and a shy, solemn smile, we knew we'd found our boy. Sam was 8 years old when we began our relationship with him. It is wonderful to exchange letters and pictures with him. He draws pictures for us with every letter he writes, and each letter feels like Christmas. He asks loads of questions about our life here and proudly tells us how he's doing in school and what his favorite memory verses are at the moment. We love writing to him, encouraging his gifts and talents, speaking life into this young man. It's such a fulfilling relationship.
You can sponsor a child like Sam too.
Kiva
Kiva lets you loan to low income entrepreneurs. Their mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.
You can see the people we lend to in the badge on the right. We really enjoy helping low income entrepreneurs around the world get established in business through Kiva. It's a beautiful system; loan $25, after a short period of time you get your money back, and you can either pull it out or reinvest it into another entrepreneur's life. We love it.
Wanna help too? Put a few dollars on a micro-loan...
