Great Story

I want to introduce you to Heather, a sponsor from the United Kingdom who years ago decided to sponsor a little boy from Uganda . What she didn’t know about this little boy at the time was that his father had been shot dead in front of his mother, causing life as this family had known it to deteriorate quickly into hopelessness. The little boy watched as his mother suffered health problems with her heart. She had to move her eight children from their decent home to the largest slum in Uganda . It was a place of immense poverty, with much disease and no water. “The death of children was something that doesn’t surprise,” the boy now turned man recalls. Living in a small boxed shack, the boy ended up wandering the streets in search of food. “It became a lifestyle,” he said, recalling a time he jumped onto the back of a truck carrying bananas just to snatch a few so he and his 6-year-old sister could have something in their bellies.

Then, the boy’s mother heard about Compassion and, so, she approached the church. Four and a half months later, a lady named Heather decided she was going to sponsor this little boy in Uganda . “I can’t tell you the joy that filled my home at that news,” the man said as he recalled when the news came nearly 18 years ago. “(It was) rejoicing that went for days because I finally had a sponsor. I was able to go back to school. I was able to have a decent meal. We were able to access water…all by the gift she was giving.”

There was far more happening through Heather’s words. “To begin with …I was released from poverty. Poverty tells you that you are worthless, that you don’t matter. Poverty isn’t just a lack of food and water. Compassion released me from that (poverty),” the man said.

He continued, “Because my sponsor loved me so much, I was able to accept the love of Christ. I kept telling my friends that my sponsor loved me to Christ.”

The boy accepted Jesus as his Savior on June 3, 1996. The Ugandan explained how his four brothers who weren’t registered in the Compassion program, were included, nonetheless, in the Compassion activities at the church. All four came to accept Christ as Lord. So did the mother and the rest of the siblings.

It all began with Heather.

The sponsored child learned various skills while at the project, but there were greater plans for his life. He was accepted into the Leadership Development Program and learned valuable leadership skills while earning a degree in finance and accounting. He took on a youth pastor role in his church and as he connected with pastors he realized how many pastors in Uganda were in need of discipleship and learning to understand Scripture.

His studies didn’t end at the university in Uganda . The man applied and was accepted as a recipient of one of the three scholarships to Chicago ’s Moody Bible Institute, one of the finest institutions for the training of pastors. You see, this little boy from Uganda now possesses a passion for pastoral ministry. He has a calling to return to Uganda to train other pastors, helping them in their church ministries.

Richmond Wandera’s story is a powerful one about how God works. It involves a sponsor, Heather, whose decision to sponsor Richmond has far-reaching results as the above story proves.

Do you sponsor a child?