Sponsoring Children in Other Nations - There Are Options Other Than Compassion

The article Compassion International by A Servant gives some good information and motivation for people to consider sponsoring children though Compassion International. There are however, a few things and some other options that you should be aware of before you start sponsoring kids through Compassion.

Compassion International is a great sponsorship program, and one of the best ways to help the poorer nations of the world as it trains up the next generation that will eventually take care of the issues in there nations. At the same time, Compassion International does that great job of spreading the Gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission. It takes care of children physically, emotionally and spiritually. A Servant did a great job of explaining all of this and the article is excellent. However, with all these great things, there are a few important things that you should be aware of.

First of all, not all of your money goes to the child that you're sponsoring. Compassion International is very honest and clear about that. I appreciate that, but I don't think that most people realize that about Compassion. About 78-83% of the total money that Compassion International receives goes to the kids. The rest is clubbed under administrative and other expenses. As such, you will want to consider this while making the important decision of sponsoring a child. This is still way better than most other charitable organizations where the average is around 65% of the total incoming donations.

A suggestion that I would like to give is that of GFA's Bridge Of Hope ministry. GFA stands for Gospel For Asia, and I think that's a pretty self-explanatory name. The Bridge of Hope ministry helps sponsor kids in Asia. GFA is not as big of an organization as Compassion International, and maybe that's the reason that Compassion International has more costs. In any case, the entire 100% of your donation goes to the child with The Bridge Of Hope ministry. A greater emphasis is also placed on repentance and sharing the true Gospel while Compassion International's aim seems to be to battle the poverty that is plaguing so many of the poor people in the world today.

GFA is also has a much smaller number of countries that it targets and is right now available only for a small number of nations in Asia which includes India as the primary nation. This is probably because GFA was founded by Dr. K.P. Yohannan who is from India. Just like Compassion International, GFA also staffs the sites with only local people. However, since most of India is not friendly to the gospel and Christians, partnering with local churches is not easy here.

GFA also has a program for missionary sponsorship, and this is actually the primary aim of GFA - to sponsor native missionaries who can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people here. Most of the people in the Asian nations remember the white-skinned imperialists who came preaching the gospel with the intent of "civilizing" them and ended up reducing the nation to a colony of European nations. The hard truth is that more people go overseas for a good cultural and personal experience under the banner of being a missionary than actual missionaries. As such, GFA places a huge emphasis on sponsoring missionaries who are better equipped and cost way less than sponsoring foreign missionaries. The average cost of sponsoring an American missionary overseas is in excess of $15,000 a year while that of a native missionary is close to $400 in most cases. As such, you can help sponsor a missionary for $1 a day!

The central thrust of GFA and Compassion International are slightly different, but still, they are both great programs. Consider sponsoring a child or a missionary through either of these two organizations. However, both of these require regular, monthly donations that you can set on auto pay. At just $28 a month to sponsor a missionary or a child (this covers clothing, food, schooling and such for the child), you really shouldn't have a trouble doing this, but in case you can't do that, there are other options. You can always choose to give a smaller amount, at random times to get missionaries a bike so that they don't have to walk bare feet in scorching heat, build a church building, get Bibles, or get Gospel tracts.

All in all, there are so many ways to give, that most Americans should have no excuses whatsoever. Compassion International and GFA, in my eyes are both great ways to give and help the children.

GFA's site is gfa.org.