Park Church & World Vision

Chosen Follow-up

We are incredibly overwhelmed by the response to Chosen. Between Wednesday, October 26 and Wednesday, November 2, 199 children in Morungatuny, Uganda who were sponsored by families and individuals at Park Church got to choose their sponsor. Family, this is wonderful.

So what’s next?

YOU CAN STILL PARTICIPATE

TEXT PARKCHURCH to 56170

Even if you missed Chosen this October, you can always make the life-empowering choice of sponsoring children through World Vision, you just may be chosen by a child from another area! Text ParkChurch (capitalization doesn’t matter) to 56170.

Connecting with a Sponsored Child

The “My World Vision App” is an excellent portal for learning about the child(ren) that chose you, getting updates on their lives, getting updates on their village, and sending messages back and forth. If you sponsored a child on Sunday, October 23, there’s probably a letter from your sponsored child already in the app for you. If you sponsor a child later, you may receive that later.

Download for iOS Download for Andriod

Ongoing Updates from Morungatuny

At the page linked below, you can read ongoing updates from World Vision’s ongoing work in Morungatuny, Uganda. Updates include almost 10 years of videos, photos, statistical reports, and prayers from Morungatuny community leaders throughout the history of the partnership with World Vision.

Morungatuny Updates Page

Chosen

On Sunday, October 23, we hosted World Vision to invite us into the Chosen program and a practical, ongoing partnership with Morungatuny, a village in Uganda.

First, a little background… The Chosen program is a re-writing of the traditional child-sponsorship model for humanitarian aid. This model—where donors choose a child to sponsor on a monthly basis—is an imperfect system with great impact.

Replay Launch Sunday for Chosen:

A NERDY SIDEBAR…

In 2011, the University of San Fransisco partnered with two other universities for research into the effectiveness of the child sponsorship model since the 1980s (the link above is a good read). In short, the leader of the study, USF economics professor Bruce Wydik, summarized the results this way: “It’s exciting to see something that, when subject to a rigorous empirical test demonstrates an unequivocally positive impact on life outcomes in a number of areas.”

Chosen significantly improves on this model by having the child choose who will sponsor them (as opposed to the other way around). This approach preserves the child from the vulnerable place of “being chosen,” restores the dignity of choice to the child, and reflects back to us in a small way that we did not choose Christ, but that He chose us (John 15:16). We are not the saviors here.

Many will have thoughtful questions about all this, and these questions are encouraged. To kick off these conversations, we’ve shared a video from Gary below and would also recommend reading World Vision’s article, “How We Work.” As always, with any questions, please contact elders@parkchurch.org.

THE CALL:

Please join us this Sunday as we share more info, sign up as we feel led (it’s $39/month to sponsor a child), and have our photos taken for children in our partner village of Morungatuny, Uganda to choose from.