2020 Vision Update: December 2018
Last December, ICCM launched our 2020 Vision campaign, believing God for a major step forward in our ability to impact thousands of children’s lives. Our faithful sponsors and donors have gotten us off to a strong start. Thank you!
We thought you’d like a brief update as 2018 draws to a close.
2020 Vision is a three-year focus to strategically invest in three key areas:
01: Developing Our Global Team
02: Leveraging Our Technology
03: Completing Our Capital Projects
Developing Our Global Team
In 2018, three groups of leaders gathered for vision casting, team building, learning and strategic planning. Southeast Asian leaders met in the Philippines, seven Regional Coordinators from around the globe met in the U.S., and Latin American leaders met in Colombia.
When our leaders experience the power of being on a unified team, they are energized for the sacrificial work of administering the program and blessing the children. Equipped and motivated leaders end up benefiting the children in much greater ways.
Leveraging Our Technology
Thanks to your 2020 Vision gifts, we’ve finally upgraded from our 19-year-old database and website to a much better software and website, connected to each other.
You can create an account, view your child’s photo, birth date and other data and write a letter to your child. You cam make an online contribution and check to see your prior giving. You can also browse our new website with its many informative pages, one for each country. If you have friends or family members who don’t yet sponsor with ICCM, you can send them to the beautiful new site to find a child who desperately needs their support.
Completing Our Capital Projects
Buconyori Boys Boarding School in Kenya, now in it’s second year of operation, has added classrooms and dorms for its growing enrollment of students.
Davao City, the Philippines, Door of Hope Project had experienced a tragic fire in which a beloved young woman was killed. A memorial gift accomplished the first phase; 2020 Vision funds are being used to build a second story and make the space useable for the wonderful Holistic Child Develoment program at Door of Hope.
In Paraguay, an adjacent property to our Juan Wesley School became available to expand our preschool and outdoor play space. We were able to seize the opportunity to purchase and renovate this strategic property.
Alem Tena, Ethiopia now has a functional high school for the first time ever. The bright young learners are excited!
Will you help use finish strong for our first year of the 2020 Vision?
A generous year-end gift will keep the 2020 Vision on track and position us to face the New Year’s opportunities and challenges. These investments are bearing fruit all over the world. Through child sponsorship and ongoing gifts, children who had no hope of an education are thriving and growing. Vulnerable children are protected. Hungry little ones are being nourished. Thousands of them experience the joy of learning, hope for living and the love of Jesus.
Thank you for caring!
Thank you for investing in children through ICCM.
God bless you!
– International Child Care Ministries Staff
God Answers Prayer
This photo taken by Phyllis Sortor shows the groom, ICCM Nigerian National Coordinator, Pastor Odu Nkanang with his beautiful bride, Mfoniso. We prayed for the Lord to provide Odu with a wife, and we celebrate with them this answer to prayer.
— ICCM Staff
October Receipts
We apologize that in the transition to our new database, the mailing of October receipts has been delayed. They will be sent very soon. You don’t need to wait for your receipt before you mail your November check. Just include your sponsor number on the check and mail it to:
International Child Care Ministries
770 N. High School Road
Indianapolis, IN 46214
If you are sending something other than your regular sponsorship donation, please enclose directions for those extra funds. Thank you so much for your patience while we fine tune our new database.
— ICCM Staff
Brazil News and Events
In late October the government inspectors visited our school in Monte Santo, Bahia, Brazil. One of them is holding the more than 300 pages of documents required to make the final application.
The inspectors were satisfied that the documentation can now be submitted to the State government. It may then be approved, or there may be physical modifications to the school or other changes required before they can begin offering 10th grade. So far as we know, 10th grade in February is still a possibility. It is urgently needed. It’s still difficult and relatively rare for children in in the Monte Santo area to complete high school. Pray for this process to be accomplished to God’s glory and for the benefit of the children.
Khmer New Year – Cambodia
The people of Cambodia celebrate Khmer New Year, a three day holiday in April. We spend time with family and friends. Most non-profit organizations set aside time for staff fellowship. ICCM teachers, house managers and other key leaders eat lunch and fellowship together.
The children who attend programs at the different houses (Love, Joy, Peace) get together to play traditional games. They have a lot of fun and sharing over a simple, delicious meal.
The children from the House of Joy had a field trip. This adventure included a trip to the Royal Palace, to the Killing Field, a tragic period in the history of Cambodia, and to the Mall, a big market. They were really excited to see a lot of new things, especially how the people in the city live.
Bun Chandara, a holistic child development teacher at House of Joy says, “My students learned a lot about our country’s history. They can learn and know new things in Phnom Penh. Praise to the Lord for the trip. I love my ICCM students!”
The children at the House of Peace were so excited to play games with ICCM teachers. We have planned programs before, during and after the holiday for the students to keep them safe. Too many times teenagers and youths have died in accidents when they go out somewhere on Khmer New Year.
The ICCM Cambodia team and children are thankful for the many sponsors who give to help children in Cambodia to grow up holistically and learn a lot from new things in life.
Giving and Working Together as a Global Family
Linda Adams, ICCM Director
As the director of International Child Care Ministries, I get to watch God work through people. It will happen soon. Some people will learn about a need and be moved to direct their donation very specifically. Maybe a photo will grab someone’s heart, and they will respond to the need.
I love people’s passion when they give in this way. Gifts to special projects or for “where needed most” often show up in the nick of time, in exactly the right amount.
Some of the most amazing of these gifts come from wills and trusts established long ago. The donors never saw the precise situation where the need arose, but they gave in faith and their gift was perfectly timed, many years later.
You can read about this more fully in my December Light and Life magazine article. (Click here to read it online.)
The story illustrates the unity of our global family — Free Methodist World Missions, ICCM, national leaders, sponsored children and the Free Methodist Foundation. We work with one purpose, toward common aims. … Givers partner with God for the good of the world.
I begin with thanksgiving, thanking God that I was raised in a Christian home with two good parents and was introduced to God at a young age. I don’t remember a specific day when I first accepted Christ, but it was probably in one of our camps when I was 12 years old that I fully understood the gift of salvation.
I grew up as a PK (a pastor’s kid). Growing up, I watched my parents undergo a lot of sacrifices and hardship in their ministry; God was real and was doing something real in their lives. I was challenged and inspired to taste and see, so I become a pastor like them.
My papa died when I was 14. I am sure he’s proud of us for the legacy that continues in me and now in my brother. Being a PK has given me the privilege to avail ICCM sponsorship and scholarship. ICCM has afforded me an opportunity to be who I am. My life has been changed and helped through ICCM.
I’m so happy I’ve been able to give back as one of the staff in an ICCM project, the Door of Hope. What I do is amazingly challenging yet rewarding. Being a Project Director was really a huge responsibility for me and at the same time, I am a part-time Assistant in the National Office. My first thought was not to accept that job, but God assured me, “I can do all things THROUGH HIM who will strengthen me.” Indeed a challenge was given and accepted. There may be some hard times but there’s also great joy in serving God by engaging in the lives of the children. I also learned to improve my communication and leadership skills every day with everyone I meet. I learned to be a cheerleader, an encourager, and a listener. I love the fact that I did it! Thank God! It was far from my personality — I was a shy and a silent one. He is really a God of Transformation.
What I like most being part of this is all the people I work with and the friendships I have developed. The atmosphere of working together is one factor that encourages me, and to have that heart and vision to help these young ones succeed. Being here year after year was a humbling experience with the best and expanding friendships. The respect and trust have always had an indescribable and positive effect on me.
What I am most grateful for is to be one of the workers here in ICCM. I am proud of it. Most of all I am so blessed and thankful for the guidance of all the people I look up to, my mentors and co-workers. Their availability and support has truly made a huge difference and made me feel not alone.
Thank you ICCM Family, for the gift of being there, for the trust given to me. I thank God every day for these wonderful experiences I have and will be ahead. There will be millions of more children to be touched and changed and shared God’s love through ICCM. Cheers!! Blessings.
Note: Nova wrote this two years ago. On Dec. 6, 2015, she tragically died in a fire. She is missed throughout the Philippines and by all of us who knew and loved her. She was an amazing and gifted young woman. Nova is pictured at left with a sponsored child and at right, second from the right, with her ICCM co-workers in Door of Hope, Davao City