Church Partnership

Just over 10 years ago we wanted to challenge our congregation to look up and make a difference both locally and globally. We contacted Compassion and the idea of a church partnership was proposed connecting us to a project in the north of Uganda in a town called Lira. We now have about 90 children sponsored.

A group from the church visited the Compassion projects in Uganda in 2010 and that had a huge impact on the whole church as they shared their experiences. This led to two of our youth spending a year in Uganda before going off to college. We have regular Compassion Sundays and it has changed the hearts of the congregation and we have loved sharing our lives with the children through letters and cards.

Compassion has been an amazing support to us and provided resources and encouragement along the way. It's been a fruitful partnership and we look forward to seeing more children sponsored, and lives changed here and in Uganda.

In 2016 I had the privilege of travelling to Nairobi to see the work of Compassion in Kenya. I already knew something of Compassion's commitment to help vulnerable children through working with local churches, but seeing the impact of projects first-hand changed everything. The scale of the poverty was overwhelming yet in the midst of that, it was deeply moving to see children being given hope. Their simple but profound faith in God lives long in the memory.

As a result of that trip, we made the decision to partner with Compassion. We didn't change overnight, but three years on our work with Compassion is deeply embedded in the life of the church. We now sponsor more than 120 children in Rwanda and in 2018 we had the joy of funding an intervention which has had a huge impact for our partnered church.

It has been our privilege to be able to partner with the great work Compassion is doing, make a difference in children's lives and reflect something of the loving kindness and mercy of God, the Father of compassion.

The impact partnership with Compassion has had on our church has been significant. It has meant that a high percentage of our people feel connected in overseas mission and that they are making a notable difference to the life of a child living in poverty. In fact, as a church, we've often viewed our sponsored children as an extension of our own church family in Coventry.

In addition to supporting child sponsorship, we've been able to fund two additional projects. Firstly, we provided the funds to build a playground on the site of one of the projects where we sponsor around 50 children. Secondly, we provided the resources for 40 families to start their own businesses. On top of that, we've taken around 30 of our own people on two trips to Ethiopia to visit their sponsored children and to witness all that God is doing in the local churches there. I can't speak highly enough of the work of Compassion, about how lives are being changed, and even how our own church has been changed as a result.