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Thrive Kenya leaders Yvonne Mtafuta and Lillian Kanji were excited, eager and a bit nervous in the weeks leading up to their first international mission trip. They had the opportunity to travel to West Africa where they would share about Thrive with the FMC in Lomé, Togo. Yvonne and Lillian loved the experience of “international travel.” Flying for the first time is always exciting – right? But there was so much more that made this trip an unforgettable experience for them and others!
All of the above is the reasoning behind our Freedom Sunday 2022 projects:
“Chiyembekezo” is the Chichewa word for hope. ICCM’s Chiyembekezo project seeks to care for the poorest of the poor in their community. More than half of the children sponsored through ICCM in Malawi are orphans. While some live with guardians or members of their extended family, the caretakers face difficulty in meeting their needs without help. Sponsorship through ICCM makes it possible for these children to receive holistic care.
Irene knew she wanted to go to university to pursue a teaching degree after graduating from high school. What she didn’t know was where she would get the funds. A year after finishing high school, she met and married her husband, and over the next 10 years, they had three children. Still, Irene’s desire to go to university remained.
Winda was raised an orphan on an island near Haiti. There, in a faith-based orphanage, she was groomed for a life of exploitation. At age 15, Winda was adopted and brought to America, where, despite her hopes for a family, the exploitation continued. When telling her story, Winda recounts how the opportunity to escape aligned perfectly when her wealthy pimp and perpetrators were all inebriated beyond coherence; she took the opportunity and ran, never looking back.
While at school, her dad’s words of abuse often rang in her ears, and she struggled to focus on learning due to her lack of sleep. Yvonne was an ICCM-sponsored child. She was thankful for the opportunity to go to school and prayed for her sponsors every day, and she knew they were praying for her.
International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) is in a Great Commission partnership with pastors’ families around the world. In countries where pastors have significant income limitations, ICCM is helping. Sponsorship provides pastors’ children with school uniforms and fees and supplemental food. Pastors are able to care for their families and focus on ministry.
In 2015 a group of young women came together to form the Thrive Ladies discipleship group. Their original purpose was to encourage one another and carry each other’s burdens. As they grew, their vision also grew. They became advocates for those younger than themselves, providing a safe place for girls to share about their challenges. The Thrive Ladies participated in several training programs to educate and equip themselves to effectively minister to others.
Human trafficking in your community? Most likely. Human trafficking takes many forms.
Josh Avery, a campus pastor and Set Free Movement leader in Canfield, Ohio, didn’t feel he could sit by and do nothing when he saw the injustices happening in his local community. After spending time in prayer and learning about their community, Josh and his Set Free Movement team felt called to move forward in three distinct ways: prevention of human trafficking, mobilization of the community and rescue work.
In the imago Dei, the image of God, this was how God created us, male and female. Transformational churches around the world are reaching out to men, women, boys and girls in their communities with the good news that all are created in the imago Dei.
So what does this look like in practical terms? For SEED Livelihood Network, the Set Free Movement and International Child Care Ministries (ICCM), it means we work for equity for all people. Many times, and in many places, this means intervening for disadvantaged women and girls.
