Guest Column - An Update on Project 500 Child Sponsorships
Posted
Pastor Tim Morbitzer-
I’d like to give an update on the Project 500 child sponsorships. I think this latest blog post from our daughter, Sarah Joy, with Challenging Heights in Ghana, Africa, says it best:
One of my happiest moments as a child sponsorship coordinator came the day I was walking home from school and saw Ishmeal carrying a packet of coloring pencils.
Ishmeal is a class 4 student who is also an amazingly good artist. We watched “How to Train Your Dragon” on Madam Grace’s laptop one Sunday afternoon. He showed up the next day with a drawing (To Sherea – we’re still working on the spelling side of things) of the dragon with three eyes (“the last killer!” in the words of Ema) and Hiccup’s (“the protagonist!” also in the words of Ema) black dragon. It was so good that it looked as if he might have traced it out of a book.
“Madam Sarah, I wanted to draw this for you but I couldn’t find a picture anywhere. So I had to use my head.”
This was not the first time I had received a drawing from Ishmeal, but it is the first time I really stopped and considered a) how talented he is, b) the lack of art classes, pencils, paper, paints, etc. for kids in Ghana, c) how unfair these two facts are in conjunction with each other, and d) that I should do something about it – at least for him.
Then a sponsorship came through for him and one of the first things he collected from Madam Brigitte and King George at the bookshop was a packet of coloring pencils.
If any sponsored child deserved to have coloring pencils, it was Ishmeal.
“Madam Sarah, I am coming to your house this evening.” Unlike some of the kids here, his statements always come across as timid suggestions. He’d like to come to my house, but isn’t sure I’ll want him to.
And then I say I’ll see you later and he doesn’t. I have a pretty good idea why. There are lots of little kids at his house – I’ve never been able to count exactly how many – and I usually see Ishmeal wrapped in a faded Ghanaian print cloth carting one of them around on his hip.
He loves his little brother Kobina so much. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen is Ishmeal sitting on a cracked white bucket with Kobina on his lap, both mesmerized by the cartoon on my laptop. In profile they look so much alike, Kobina’s nose and chin just a smaller version of Ishmeal’s.
Ishmeal is almost never able to stay to see the entire movie. By now we’re all used to seeing someone out of the corner of our eyes (he and Kobina aren’t the only ones who get mesmerized!) come up the steps of the porch to fetch Ishmeal to go get something from market or to hand off one of a never-ending supply of toddlers – all of them adorable, yes, but never-ending just the same.
He’s a great kid without a whole lot of time for himself.
One of the things I really want to do for the kids here is to encourage whatever vision they have for their future – even if it’s something simple, like becoming a hairdresser.
It’s why I let Mary bandage me up when I get hurt, even though I don’t really need a plaster and would rather save my rapidly diminishing supply for the kids at the school.
It’s why I let Emmanuel borrow my “How To Draw Animals” book and listen to him talk about being a veterinarian someday.
Or discuss ideas with Attipoe for rescuing kids from child slavery when he becomes a newscaster and has “lots of money to help Senior James.”
And ask Ishmeal to draw goodbye pictures for the volunteers when they go home from Challenging Heights.
And it makes me happy that each of these kids (along with 91 others) is sponsored and now has a school year’s worth of the pencils and paper and classroom time that makes their ideas about the future a little bit clearer and closer to their reach.
Our dream is to raise up 500 sponsors (one sponsor for each child in the school, most of them having been rescued from modern day slavery and human trafficking) from the Wabash County area. To learn more about child sponsorship and Project 500, or to sponsor a child, go to www.victorynm.org/Project500.htm, or contact Nikki at Victory Christian Fellowship (260-982-8357). On behalf of the children, thank you for your consideration and help.
