"Suffer the Little Children ..."
International Child Care Ministries — Jesus’ Hands and Feet Reaching Out to Future Generations

Every day of the year, in 23 countries around the world, some 12,000 sponsors provide education, food, clothing and medical care for as many as 27,000 children — 17,000 of them in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. A child’s life improves the moment support begins, and children literally blossom in response to the loving concern provided through their sponsors’ generosity.

International Child Care Ministries (ICCM), a ministry of Free Methodist World Missions, began in 1966 in Hong Kong when Dr. Alton Gould started the first Child Care school. Today, sponsors contribute just $18 per month, an investment in a relationship that changes not only the life of a child but that of the sponsor as well. According to its director, Ann Van Valin, ICCM has one of the lowest sponsorship rates among programs aimed at helping needy children, with overhead running as low as 13.5 percent and absolutely no costs extracted from donations directed toward gifts and special funds.

The original Child Care school in Hong Kong no longer exists, but the children who first attended it have now grown to adulthood and are able to sponsor children themselves. In fact, the impact on — and through — children sponsored by International Child Care Ministries is nothing short of astounding. Numbers of them have reached adulthood and have become leaders and pastors. In India, for example, 50 current FM and parachurch pastors — 10 of them women — were once sponsored children.

Another facet of ICCM involves responding to definite needs that aren’t met through child sponsorship per se. This includes the Haiti Food Fund, Burundi Food Fund (the Busoma Factory), Rice for India’s Children Fund and Special Projects Fund. (The latter provides for such needs as surgeries, medicines and soap as well as the opening of new schools or classes in existing schools. The availability of this fund often makes the difference between life and death for a precious child.)

International Child Care is a very busy ministry, with a wide variety of activities taking place every day all over the globe. To understand a little about its activities and impact, we’ve chosen to highlight just a few of its locations and programs. Individuals and groups who would like more specific information about ICCM, and/or wish to sign up to sponsor a child or contribute to one of the ICCM funds, can visit www.childcareministries.org. ICCM can also be reached by calling 1-800-342-5531 and asking for International Child Care Ministries.

Child Care Schools
Hope Academy in Ikot Ekpe, Nigeria, opened in September 2001 on land donated by a clan chief. The school includes five buildings (a dorm, kitchen/bakery, administration office/library and two classrooms). The school sells bread baked in its kitchen to raise funds. A pig farm and garden are planned, to help provide food for students and teachers and additional income so that eventually Hope Academy will be a self-sustaining program. Hope Academy is one of 93 Child Care schools operating in nine countries today. There are 53 in Haiti alone — where all of the teachers were once sponsored children. One goal, says Van Valin, is to assist all of the sponsored children up through high school, and then to offer scholarships to Bible colleges for those who have the desire and aptitude for further advancement.

Training Latin Leaders to Win Children to Christ
A new endeavor for World Missions is a project headquartered in Chile under the direction of missionary Kay Stotts. “Some 85 percent of those who come to Christ are between the ages of four and 14,” says Van Valin. “And over 50 percent of the world’s population is under 16 right now. Kay is the fist-ever FM missionary whose sole job description is to train Latin leaders to win children to Christ.”

Stotts, who honed her Spanish for two years in the Dominican Republic, is excited about the prospects for this highly-targeted ministry. “Our Free Methodist Church in Latin America is eager to reach out with the gospel to thousands of children by equipping national Sunday school and Christian school teachers,” says Stotts. “Teacher training in various countries will give children’s workers the opportunity to become more effective in the evangelism and discipleship of their kids.” Initially, Stotts will focus on Uruguay, Nicaragua and Argentina.

"As we reach out to children,” she adds, “we give them the opportunity to know Jesus personally and for a whole lifetime! As Charles Spurgeon once said, ‘What a mercy it will be if our children are thoroughly grounded in the doctrine of redemption by Christ! If they are warned against the false gospels of this evil age, and if they are taught to rest on the eternal rock of Christ’s finished work, we may hope to have a generation following us which will maintain the faith and will be better than their fathers.’”

Reaching Street Children in the Philippines
In Davo City, the Philippines, Free Methodist volunteers are operating a school on wheels — bringing education to the many children who roam unattended on the streets of this large urban center. Dubbed Hope Street School, the cart (like a merchant’s cart) unfolds so the workers can teach street children on the spot — about their relationships with God, self, others, creation and the like. As a secondary aim, the “school” will cover health-related issues and reach parents through their children — bringing young and old alike into the kingdom.

Cambodia’s House of Joy
In the Buddhist nation of Cambodia, on an island of 5,000, International Child Care’s House of Joy — sponsored in part by the Pacific NW Conference and Shoreline (WA) FMC — offers children an alternative: life in Jesus Christ. Students who attend school in the mornings receive breakfast at House of Joy before they head off to classes and then a hot lunch, followed by Bible lessons and tutoring when they arrive “home.” Afternoon students receive the same in reverse, with a snack before heading to their family homes for the night.

A similar ministry, House of Love in Prek Thei, Cambodia, recently caused a stir when 56 of its children were baptized. “They weren’t allowed back into school the next day,” says Van Valin. Eventually the situation worked itself out, but the children’s lives have been eternally impacted by the faith they found through this ICCM ministry.

Feeding the Children
The Haiti Food Fund allows International Child Care Ministries to feed 10,000 children daily who are not yet sponsored. These children receive an education and school uniforms as well, and are cared for through the exchange the ministry makes on U.S. funds as well as contributions to the Haiti Food Fund. In recent months, Haiti has seen an inflation rate of 100 percent — which rendered the ministry temporarily unable to feed children five times a week at school. As a result, some children were eating only three meals a week, but, thankfully, donations have increased and the Haiti Food Fund is once again feeding children five days a week. In fact, the number of those assisted has risen to 17,000.

The Burundi Food Fund (the Busoma Factory) is another ICCM ministry — this one meeting a desperate need in Burundi, a tiny central African nation experiencing severe hunger. Some people in FM churches there have already starved to death, and the possibility of widespread famine is a constant threat. At Kibuye Hospital in central Burundi, under the oversight of FM missionary Dr. Frank Ogden, International Child Care funds a food production area called the Busoma Factory. (Busoma is the name of a cereal containing corn, soybeans and sorghum — cooked in big ovens on the hospital grounds.) ICCM has been giving the cereal to malnourished children who come to the hospital, and, since the cereal is typically cooked in water, powdered milk has been added during the famine to make it a “complete” food — one that can sustain life. Also during the famine, ICCM has increased production at the Busoma Factory to four tons per month, much of it distributed through FM churches — where people receive the gospel as well as the cereal. It takes $2,500 per month to produce four tons of cereal. Any additional amounts donated help purchase manioc flour, rice, beans, sugar and soap for the children. “The Scripture says to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked,” says Van Valin. “Contributions to the Burundi Food Fund are a fulfillment of that Scripture.”

Early each morning in India, the cooks arrive at the ICCM hostels (boarding schools), and soon the smells of frying onions, curry and cooking rice begin to waft through the rooms. Once the children have dressed for school and completed their morning devotions and chores, they each take a plate and sit down in a circle on the floor. A cook spoons a heaping pile of the rice on each child’s plate. The children smile and joke while they eat — and after they finish, each one washes her or his plate. Many of these children would receive little food or care at home, but in the hostel, ICCM sponsors provide them with food, clothes, school and hope. “With the great number of needy children in India, we’ve allowed more children into our hostels than we have sponsored yet,” says Van Valin. “While waiting for sponsorship, donations to the Rice for India’s Children Fund allow us to feed them.”

Sponsored Children
A core component of International Child Care Ministries is its sponsorship program — which pairs children with individuals and/or families, who then become an integral part of their child’s life. To learn more about sponsorship, see the three sidebars included in this section and the ICCM advertisement on the inside back cover of this issue (which contains a sponsorship form).