CHANGE A CHILD’S story
HOW TO SHARE ABOUT NCM CHILD SPONSORSHIP WITH YOUR CHURCH
1. Talk to your pastor. Share your heart. Share your story. Ask your pastor to dedicate a portion of a Sunday service or other weekly gathering to share about the opportunity to sponsor a child with your congregation.
2. Set a date. Work with your pastor to identify a date and get it on your church’s calendar.
3. Order the materials you’ll need . All materials are FREE. You can order or download these materials from ncm.org/promote. If you need assistance, email cs@ncm.org or call 800-310-6362.
• Profiles of children available for sponsorship
• “Change a Child’s Story” video
• “Where do the Dollars go?” video
• Child sponsorship brochures
• Child sponsorship posters
• PowerPoint presentation
• Bulletin insert (for your pastor)
4. Prepare your presentation . If the time and setting allow, you may want to prepare a presentation to help share information about the child sponsorship program. Go to ncm.org/promote to download a sample presentation outline that can be adapted to meet your needs.
5. Set up a sponsorship table. Here, people can choose a child to sponsor from the profiles you requested, or they can pick up a child sponsorship brochure to learn more about the program and sponsor a child at a later date.
6. Mail in the sponsorship forms or sign up online. Each profile of available children has a pre-paid return postcard that can be completed and mailed to NCM to sponsor that child. For convenience, each profile also includes a QR code for the online sponsorship page for that child.
7. Thank your pastor! Let them know you appreciate their intentional focus on children in need.
CHANGE A CHILD’S story
SAMPLE PRESENTATION
As you work on your presentation, remember that you’re simply sharing from your heart about your own experience with child sponsorship. You will feel more comfortable sharing if you write out what you want to say ahead of time. Practice what you will say, and edit as needed if it’s too long. Most likely, your pastor or church leadership will give you a certain time period; be sure to respect the time limit they give you.
Here’s a sample outline:
• Show a child sponsorship video such as “Change a Child’s Story.”
• Introduce yourself and tell your congregation that you would like to share a little about your own experience as a child sponsor. Example: “Hi, my name is , and I’d like to share my story of being a child sponsor.”
• Use the PowerPoint presentation to share about the needs of children around the world and why child sponsorship is critical to giving vulnerable children the opportunity for a brighter future. You can edit the slides to meet your needs. You can also share the information without PowerPoint. There are additional resources with information, including Bible verses that show God’s care for children in need. You’re sharing from your heart, so there isn’t a script you have to follow.
• Share about your experience as a child sponsor. Talk about the child you sponsor (show their photo, examples of correspondence, their name, age and location, etc). Talk about the ways sponsorship helps the child you sponsor and how it provides hope. Sponsorship provides children with opportunities for a better future, including spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, and social nurturing. Share about your relationship with the child you sponsor and some of your prayers for them. Then, share about how being a sponsor has changed you or affected your life.
CHANGE A CHILD’S story
SAMPLE PRESENTATION
• Invite others to stop by the child sponsorship table to learn more or to sign up to become a sponsor. Example: “In Mark 9:37, Jesus says, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ Consider whether God may be asking you to welcome a child in need into your life through sponsorship. After the service, I’ll be at the child sponsorship table. You can learn more about what it means to become a child sponsor, or you can choose to sponsor a child and begin a relationship with the child you sponsor today.”
To learn more about the impact of NCM child sponsorship watch this video: ncm.org/sponsorship_watch
To learn more about how your donation will be used, watch this video: ncm.org/dollars_watch
WHAT THE BIBLE says
CARING FOR CHILDREN
There are more than 2 billion children living in our world. Each of them is valuable because he or she was created in God’s image. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries’ child sponsorship program equips local churches around the world to walk alongside vulnerable children as they become the people God created them to be.
In the midst of a culture that did not value children, Jesus made it clear that he values them and wanted them to draw near to him. Jesus laid his hands on them and blessed them. Through child sponsorship, children have an opportunity to learn about God’s love for them and to learn about faith in Christ.
When we love children in need, we are living out our faith in Christ and showing others who God has called us to be. These are a few passages in the Bible that speak to God’s love for children and God’s call for us to care for children living in poverty:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind. … So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:26-27
Then little children were being brought to him [Jesus] in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way. Matthew 19:13-15
But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”
Luke 18:16
WHAT THE BIBLE says
CARING FOR CHILDREN
Then he [Jesus] took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Mark 9:36-37
Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:10
Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. … Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. Matthew 25:34-36
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 1:27
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? James 2:15-16
How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. John 3:17-18
WHAT THE BIBLE says
CARING FOR CHILDREN
You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. Exodus 22:22
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:17-18
Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:9
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4
Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
CHILD SPONSORSHIP PROFILE CARDS how to use
Using child profile cards is one of the best ways to share about child sponsorship with others. Each child profile card includes information about a child in our program who is waiting for a sponsor. You can order child profile cards at no cost through our website at ncm.org/promote, by emailing cs@ncm.org or by calling 800-310-6362.
Each profile card includes a photo and information about a child in our program who is waiting to be sponsored.
Once your profile cards arrive, here is how to use them:
1. Each profile card provides three options for signing up to sponsor that child:
a. QR code to scan and sign up online (preferred method)
• Scan the QR code on the profile card and complete the online form
• Payment information is required during the online sign-up process
b. Pre-paid return postcard to sign up by mail
• Complete the form and drop the postcard in the mail
• An NCM staff member will contact the sponsor with details on how to make their first payment and initiate the new sponsorship
c. Call to sign up by phone
• Call the toll-free number on the profile to sign up by phone
• Provide the Child ID # from the profile card of the child to be sponsored
You do not need to collect payments at your promotional event. Let new sponsors know they will be asked to provide payment information if they sign up online, or an NCM staff person will contact them regarding their first payment if they sign up using the postcard.
2. Whether they sign up online or by mail, the new sponsor may take the profile with them so they have a picture of the child they are newly sponsoring until their new sponsor packet arrives.
how to use
CHILD SPONSORSHIP PROFILE CARDS
3. People interested in sponsorship who are not ready to make a decision may take a child profile home. Should they decide to sponsor a child, they may complete the sign-up process at their convenience. Two important things to note:
a. Children available for sponsorship who are “on hold” for promotional events are held for a set period of time—typically two weeks after the event, at which point they are made available to everyone. Remind interested sponsors that if they wait too long to sign up, the child may no longer be available for sponsorship.
b. When someone takes a child profile, it means the child on the card is temporarily unavailable to be sponsored by others. So, encourage people to take a profile only if they are serious about sponsorship.
4. Share these talking points:
• Child sponsorship is a relationship between a child in need and a caring sponsor. A sponsor can be an individual, a family, a group, class, congregation, etc.
• Sponsors can write to the child they sponsor and will receive letters, pictures, or updates.
• A commitment of $30 USD per month provides a child with the opportunity for spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, and social growth.
• Sponsorship is an ongoing commitment until a sponsor decides to end the sponsorship by contacting Nazarene Compassionate Ministries.
2024 CHILD SPONSORSHIP
New Child Development Centers
Countries with Child Development Centers
Number of Child Development Centers
211 40 11
Staff serving at Child Development Centers
1,272
Children Sponsored
10,056
Staff and volunteer hours per week
12,671
CHILD FAQ sponsorship
Q:
A:What is NCM’s holistic child development model?
NCM’s holistic child development model seeks to simultaneously address key aspects of a child’s life through learning opportunities and age-appropriate interventions. Children gain skills and opportunities to interrupt the cycle of poverty, dream about their futures, and grow into the people God created them to be. This model helps children in five key ways:
• Physical: To ensure healthy development, children need support such as supplemental nutrition, hygiene education, health care, and safe spaces.
• Emotional: Many children live with the scars of emotional trauma as the result of poverty, war, abuse, or natural disasters. Connections with caring sponsors, counselors, and local church families offer a path toward healing and growth.
• Relational: Learning to work and play with other children, along with discovering wisdom through committed sponsors and local staff and volunteers, enables children to build strong, healthy relationships and to love and serve God and others.
• Intellectual: Gaining an education helps children develop their minds and provides opportunities for future employment and well-being that will benefit children throughout their lives.
• Spiritual: Local churches seek to help children understand that God loves them, they are valued, and they can experience salvation through a personal relationship with Jesus. Churches walk alongside children, providing support, encouragement, and opportunities to grow and mature into faithful disciples.
CHILD FAQ sponsorship
Q:
How long does my sponsorship last?
A:
The goal of NCM child sponsorship is to help children grow, learn, and mature into healthy young adults. In light of this goal, many sponsors prefer to sponsor through the end of a child’s secondary education. Occasionally, a child is not able to complete his or her program. In those situations, we will help you find another child to sponsor. Although we encourage sponsors to support children through graduation, sponsors may discontinue their sponsorship at any time.
Q:
How is my monthly gift used?
A:
At least 80 percent of all funds received are spent on direct services and developmental interventions that provide your sponsored child with support and resources to achieve a brighter future. No more than 20 percent of funds are used for program administration or fundraising in our international and regional offices.
Q:
How does NCM Child Sponsorship ensure that my support benefits the child I sponsor?
A:
Child sponsorship uses the accountability structures within the Church of the Nazarene to ensure that children receive the promised support and participate in a church-led holistic child development program.
Q:
May I communicate with the child I sponsor?
A:
Yes! Writing letters and sending cards and photos is a great way to build a personal relationship and offer encouragement to the child you sponsor. You can do this through your online account or by writing and mailing it. You will receive instructions upon beginning your sponsorship.
CHILD FAQ sponsorship
Q:
A:Will I receive letters from the child I sponsor?
Sponsored children, with the support of their families and program leaders, commit to meeting the participation requirement of writing and updating their sponsors. However, when certain conditions compromise the security of children and their families, they are unable to send or receive letters. Our office will notify you if this type of situation arises with the child you sponsor.
What are other ways I can be involved in the church’s work through NCM?
• Go to ncm.org to learn more about the work of the Church of the Nazarene through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and how you can participate.
• To subscribe to NCM email updates, visit ncm.org/connect
• Stay connected through social media @nazcompassion.
• Sign up for a free subscription to NCM Magazine on our website.
For additional FAQ resources visit: ncm.org/sponsor-faq
