Global Partner Highlight: Compassion International
Reese’s peanut butter cups are so amazing because two delicious, individual flavors, combine to create an even greater treat!
10 years ago Stadia and Compassion International did this exact thing.
Stadia’s expertise is in church planting while Compassion’s expertise is caring for kids. But they only do it through a local church. And the poorest communities often have no local church able to host the program.
Stadia said, “what if we help you plant more churches so that you can care for more kids in those communities,” and a new partnership was born. This combining of expertise has created an even greater impact in Latin America.
Working with U.S. congregations and individuals, currently, Stadia starts churches in Latin America through this strategic partnership with Compassion in 7 countries in Central and South America.
This model is two-fold. First, the model begins with funding an $87,000 project that includes a church building that acts as a child development center during the week. As this building is being built, the pastor and volunteers go house to house sharing the good news of Jesus and information about the church coming to their community. They give the opportunity to enroll children in the program that the church will host.
The second part of the model starts here, with sponsorship of these children. Your church has the opportunity to sponsor kids enrolled in the child development center. This provides the funds each child needs for consistent services from the development center in the church. These services focus on cognitive, spiritual, socio-emotional, and physical development. They eat good meals, get medical check-ups, learn spiritual and academic education, and are able to be part of a healthy community with a group of friends.
Stadia and Compassion will help you host a child sponsorship event. When you sponsor children you help give credibility to the in-country pastor, you care for the child, and you give your US church the opportunity to make an impact and grow in generosity; it’s triple transformational. One Colombian child said, “I really like the Childhood Development Center because they give us a delicious meals, they teach us songs, and the teacher tells us stories of Jesus. When I grow up I want to be like my caregiver Xiomara and teach the other children about God.”
You can change hundreds of children’s lives. Our model here is wholistic and we’d love to help you make an incredible impact in this way!
Passionate about the church and the people she’s been called to serve, Andrea has spent the entirety of her professional career in ministry. As a director at Mosaic Christian Church, she built the missions program into a sustainable, focused endeavor and developed the Kids Ministry into a thriving environment for children to encounter Jesus. From leading trips across the world to leading pre-k volunteers, Andrea has seen the very real impact of the local church on a given community, and it has only stoked her passion to see God’s lost children come home. In addition the her role at Stadia, she helps lead Gail’s Girls and is intentional about building others up to be all that God designed them to be. If she’s not at hip coffee shop working, you can find her at a spin studio, exploring Baltimore’s freshest restaurants with girlfriends, or in Pennsylvania spending the day with her family.