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Church's efforts can help children change lives in an impoverished area in Zambia

IS SIDES Journal Times RACINE - As the Elder for Christian Formation at Covenant Presbyterian Church, one of Maureen Potter's responsibilities this year was finding a mission project for the children in the congregation.

Potter says she found many worthy projects and causes, but something drew her again and again to the Change 4 Children project, sponsored by the Alliance for Children Everywhere.

Alliance for Children Everywhere is a nonprofit Christian organization founded in 1969. Its headquarters is in Tucson, Ariz.

The Change 4 Children project was launched in January, and after introducing it to the church's pastors, a decision was made to involve the entire church instead of limiting it to children, Potter said. The project's goal is to help orphaned children in Zambia.

Under the program, church members use handcrafted baskets made by women in Zambia to collect change. The baskets were gifts to the congregation from the women.

For 10-year-old Holly Neubauer, the baskets turn the collection into a special occasion.

"I'm glad they made the baskets for us to put the money in, because they're really nice, and it makes it special," Neubauer said. The last collection will be Sunday.

To Nick Scholzen, 9, "the baskets are really neat - mine is shallow but wide. They're a link to the people in Africa."

The women are from a village called Limulunga, near the town of Mongu.

"Mongu was once a very rich area producing premium quality rice and cashew nuts," Potter said. "However, over the past 20 years, long-standing drought has led to crop failure, and the resulting change in the area has been dramatic and devastating. Now the area's three biggest concerns are poverty, AIDS and the lack of education.

"Most of the people in this area are trying to survive on less than $1 a day Death from AIDS has already left 13 million orphans in this region and by the year 2010, that figure is expected to reach 25 million," Potter said.

Each family in the congregation received a basket.

Approximately once a month, the church has a Change 4 Children Sunday, where church members and their friends bring their baskets to church filled with the change they've collected.

There is a Time for Children during the regular service which is reserved for the pastor's message to the children. On Change 4 Children Sundays, Potter invites the entire congregation to come forward with their baskets during that time. Everyone who wishes files to the front of the church where they deposit their collected change into one large collection basket, she said.

After the collection, the children stay in the sanctuary seated around the collection basket.

"I then give a special message geared toward the children about the mission work we are doing and the results of our efforts in Zambia," Potter said. "In addition to collecting their change, the children also have been learning about the challenges facing children in Zambia."

The project has made the children involved more aware that all children aren't as well off as they are. Neubauer thinks Change 4 Children is a good project for young people to be involved with, and she would "recommend it to other kids my age."

Scholzen is happy to help others, because "it's a really good cause and I know they appreciate what we're doing, because once the teacher showed us a movie."

When he's in the sanctuary, Matthew Steege, said he thinks "about the people in Zambia, and all the people who die each year, and I feel really good about helping them."

His favorite part of Change 4 Children Sundays is the collection.

"I really like it when we put all the money in the big basket and it's really overflowing. It makes me happy when I see that, because the money goes to people who really need it."

In all he's contributed about $20 since the project started, the 10 year-old said.

"I'm really proud because our church set a record for donating the largest amount of money in one week," he said.

More than $1,000 was collected at the church's first mission offering in January and, according to Potter, because of the generosity of their subsequent donations, Alliance for Children Everywhere said Covenant's donations have broken records.

Steege thinks other churches and organizations should set up their own Change 4 Children projects. "I think that would be neat."

Potter hopes the project will spread to other congregations and organizations, as it has to a local Kiwanis Club, and she is willing to introduce the program to any group that is interested in it.

Covenant member Owen Davies introduced the Change 4 Children program to his Kiwanis group and the members now collect change at their weekly meetings.

"Once we showed them what we were doing, that we were doing really great things for the kids, it really brought tears to their eyes," Davies said. "I put the basket out every week and they respond."