Kids multiply gift for Africa famine relief
JACKSON, Tenn. — Michael Elliott was deeply moved when he heard 29,000 Somalian children under age 5 had died in three months. He knew his church family had to replace their “business as usual” Christmas mission project with a more visionary approach that would make a life-saving difference for children suffering in the Horn of Africa famine.
For several years, Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tenn., had participated in a Christmas shoebox project that provides Christmas gifts to needy children around the world. Elliott, who is pastor of families with children at Englewood, was beginning to plan for another year’s campaign when he began seeing news reports about famine in the Horn of Africa.
He was convinced God put those news stories before him for a reason.
While the shoebox effort is a great project, he said, the fact “there are children who are starving without food” meant he and his ministry team needed to do something to help.
With more than 500 families with children counted among the membership at Englewood, Elliott and his team decided to mobilize the children to help raise funds.
Thus, “5 for Famine” was born.
The team came up with the idea to provide $5 to each child in the church who wanted to participate, and challenge them to multiply the money through various means.
“Children will rise up to the challenge you give them,” Elliott observed.
During an Oct. 5 “Launch Night,” Elliott presented provided an “object lesson” to show the children what it would be like to have no breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner like they are accustomed to. “We tried to create the need and urgency in their minds and to build enthusiasm for the project,” he said.
Each child was given an envelope that contained instructions and a $5 bill.
Among the suggestions given for multiplying their $5 bills were buying soap and washing cars or pets, buying candy and selling it, buying a rake and raking leaves, making cookies or cupcakes to sell, having a garage sale and using the $5 to buy signs to advertise, selling lemonade and refreshments and many more.
Elliott said they passed out 260 envelopes.
“It’s been phenomenal to see how the families got on board with what their children were doing,” he said. “Parents have told me their kids are excited about missions.”
Elliott said they chose a project that involved more than just kids collecting money for missions because “we wanted the kids to take this seriously and to understand that it would take effort and work.”
The 5 for Famine project more than met expectations. “It’s been awesome to see how creative the kids have been and the excitement they had,” Elliott said. “It’s also been an encouragement for the parents. It has made them see they need to be more excited about helping other people.”
Elliott observed the effort took kids away from their TVs and video games so they could put their faith into action. “My daughter (Anna) got excited about selling cupcakes. That was exciting for me,” he said. “She understood what she was doing and what the funds were going to be used for.”
The entire project “has been a real blessing, even more than we anticipated it would be,” Elliott said.
The church held a Dec. 7 “celebration night” so the children could bring forward the money they had multiplied. When the final tally was announced, 142 kids had taken $5 each and turned it into $12,902.93 -- almost 10 times the amount initially placed in the envelopes.
Elliott noted some of the kids raised more than $1,000 while several raised $400 or more. In addition, the church had gotten behind the effort as well. The Women’s Ministry contributed $2,160.71 and the church added another $8,556.05 for a total contribution $23,619.69.
Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response, was at the service to receive the donation and shared about the continuing need in the Horn of Africa and how the funds would be used. He told the church it only costs 50 cents to feed one person per day in the Horn of Africa relief effort -- meaning their contribution would provide a day’s worth of food for 236,197 people.
“Everyone was excited to hear about the impact they had made due to their hard work,” Elliott said.
Englewood Pastor Ben Mandrell said 5 for Famine has “given missions a fresh fire in our church. As our children were strategizing, planning and hoping to multiply their little resources, it was challenging us all to think afresh about better investing our own!”
The project made a difference in his own family, Mandrell noted. “My daughter has been painting canvasses, my son has been raking leaves and my wife and I have been watching with joy,” he said. “I am so thankful to see them thinking beyond themselves.”
Mandrell said the project has “caused me to rethink how we do our annual missions offerings. It has caused me to consider how we might get greater involvement across the church rather than a few to foot the bill for missionaries.
“I’m excited to see where this is going,” Mandrell said.
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Written by Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the Baptist & Reflector, newsjournal for Tennessee Baptists. You can make a difference in the Horn of Africa famine crisis by donating to BGR’s relief effort.
