RECONNECT CHRISTMAS

About

Why did WSC get into this “Reconnect Christmas” idea in 2008 and why would we do it again in 2009? The rationale we started with in fall 2008:

What happened to Christmas?

It’s supposed to be a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord, the dawning of redemption, the good news of great joy to the entire world! But what do we experience? The overload of stress, the anxiety of buying the right gifts for one another when we already have so much stuff, more consumer debt to pay off, and the gnawing sense that we’re not so much giving and receiving gifts as we are giving in to the pressure of “Christ-mess.” Worst of all is that somehow in the midst of the celebration we feel like we may have missed the whole point.

Jesus himself was pretty clear about what his arrival meant for the world: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) There isn’t a word in there about sales or online specials, right?

We started thinking about how we might reconnect with what God had in mind all along in the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. How could we worship Jesus Christ through the gift of compassion rather than the frenzy of consumption?

The plan we came up with helps connect our faith with our practices in a way that honors Christ during a season in which our culture isn’t quite sure what to make of Jesus. Here’s the simple plan:

• Calculate what you are planning to spend for gifts this Christmas.
• Hold 25% – 50% of that for a special offering to do something specific and tangible in Jesus’ name along with the rest of the WSC family.
• Bring it in on the designated Sunday (cash or check, no pledges)
• 100% will be forwarded to the project selected by the Missions Leadership Team.
• We expect to see the “fruit” of the offering within 12 months

The result in 2008 on a goal of $80,000 was an offering of about $148,000. The Community Center in Kigoma is nearing completion. We established a micro-site on the web to keep up with progress. (www.reconnectchristmas.com).

Why do this in 2009?

• We still have the need to connect our faith with our practice in the celebration of Jesus at Christmas
• Missions is a core value for our congregation
• The reconnect Christmas focus seemed to resonate especially well with children
• We may be able to extend the network of other congregations involved with a focus like “Reconnect Christmas”
• There are still needs that we can address.

What is the proposed project for this year?

Construction of a school for the children of rural villages in the Mahbubnagar District of Andhra Pradesh.

The situation:

The rural villages of the Mahbubnagar District are very poor. The children of the villages are oppressed in ways that are largely unimaginable to the people of our congregation. Many children, beginning at age 6, are put out to work by their parents for about 75 rupees/day (about $1.50 USD), making any schooling for them nearly impossible.

A number of children are sold by their parents as “bond servants” to landlords in the area for something like 7,500 rupees for a period of up to seven years. The parent can buy the child back after the seven years, but with interest charges buying back (“redeeming”) the child is very rare. For the most part the decision to sell a child means a lifetime of servitude for that child.

With the advent of the National Highway through Mahbubnagar, some parents are making their way to the city for day labor jobs. They take their children along to beg in the streets. A number of children are “let out” or “rented” to other beggars and, since injured or maimed children are thought to receive more “charity”, some of the children are purposely injured to make them more profitable beggars.

Those children who remain in the villages are often recruited into anti-government gangs (“factionalists”) and become involved in crime and violence.

The government’s public education is very rudimentary and inconsistent. It rarely leads beyond about grade 4.

The opportunity:

Hope for Today, Inc. (HFT), the ministry founded and led by Rev. Peter and Esther Pereira, is extending its work from Hyderabad into Mahbubnagar. Already they have six pastors serving in the district and have developed over twenty fellowships, prayer groups, and churches. These pastors are unanimous in their contention that the best way to break the cycle of poverty and oppression for the children is to provide free, English medium school on a continuum from “lower kindergarten” through “high school”. This education prepares the children to succeed in national tests that open the door to further education and participation in other sectors of India’s growing economy.

In addition the pastors report that since hard-line Hindu factionalists hold most of the political control of the area, direct open air preaching is fraught with difficulties and confrontation. The villages, however, are very receptive to “deeds of mercy” followed by “the word of the gospel.” They see the school and its ministry as an effective side door means of evangelism within a hostile environment.

The challenges:

At the moment, the HFT leaders and staff have a dream and a track record of success in developing ministries. They have been successful in reaching the rural poor in other areas of A.P. (notably Warangal District) with the construction of churches, provision of clean water wells, development of women’s empowerment (generally sewing centers and social networks), health education, and the Alpha Schools for children.

They have a dream of a free regional school (both day school and residential school) to break the cycle of poverty and oppression most commonly experienced by children in this area. This school would be part of a larger development that would anchor other HFT ministries in the area (such as water filtration systems, nutrition programs, public health education, a medical clinic and church leadership training). This is a project larger in scale that anything HFT has attempted to this point.

Our WSC team did visit several potential sites for the school, but at present a site has yet to be purchased, the building yet to be designed, development costs yet to be fully detailed, and ongoing operational costs to be supported.

We believe that WSC can play the catalytic role in helping this dream become a reality through a phased approach to development. The phases will include securing of appropriate management to lead the actual development work, land procurement, design and construction of the first unit of the building, cultivation of a network of churches/individuals beyond WSC to help carry the costs of construction and operations, and the possible development of alternative revenue streams to assist in funding the operation of the school on an ongoing basis.

Will you help us break the cycle?