I want to tell you a story about something that happened in the life of my mother. Back in 1983, she was teaching a sunday school class in southern Honduras. There was about 200 kids under a tree and it was very hot. Mom and Dad was called to be missionaries back in 1969 and they had planted many churches but they had never seen in all their years so much suffering and hunger. People were actually dying each day in Honduras of hunger.
Mom taught the kids how much Jesus loves them and that Jesus wanted them to be saved so they could live in a mansion in heaven. Mom had to explain to the children what a mansion was because they had no idea. They all lived in dirt huts and walked on mud floors. Many did not even have a bed to sleep on. After the Sunday School class, the pastor of the church gave my mom and dad a can of sardines and a hot pepsi to drink. They were really proud to be able to offer this meal to them. As they were trying to eat this, a little girl was standing about 20 feet from my mother eating a green grapefruit. She kept her eyes on my mother the whole time while she peeled that green grapefruit.
The Holy Spirit started talking to my mothers heart. Mom thought "I wonder if the little girl is thinking, why does the missionary get to eat sardines and a pepsi and I only have a green grapefruit. Why does the missionary have shoes to wear and I am barefoot. Why does the missionary have a stool to sit on and I have no where to sit." Probably none of these thoughts ever entered her mind but mom could not get that little girls look out of her mind.
The next week, mom went back to teach the Sunday School class and that little girl and two others had died of starvation. She was torn into pieces and she told my father that she could not do this anymore. How could she teach about the love of Jesus to starving children. Mom and Dad did not have any money and they did not know what to do. Mom decided to write a simple one page letter to some of their supporters in the states asking them to help feed these hungry children.
Just a couple of months later, people started sending in donations to help feed the hungry. Mom never imagined that 25 years later, we would be providing 120,000 plates of food every single day in 40 feeding centers in Honduras and Nicaragua.
One day, dad was supervising the feeding centers and it was school time and none of these children were in school. He told mom, "these kids are going to grow up poor and their kids are going to be poor, we have to do something about this". They decided to start a christian school but never did they imagine that 25 years later, we would have 6 Christian Schools with over 3,500 children receiving a christian education. Can you imagine how many graduations we have had in 25 years? Many of these children that was once poor are now Pastors and Evangelist. Many work in banks, stores, government jobs and one student who was extremely poor is now the secretary for the First Lady in Honduras. These children are taught that everything they receive is because Jesus loves them.
Aaron, Eliu and Harold from Samaritan Revival were also children at one time who ate in our feeding centers. They had no clothes to wear but one day a family in the U.S decided to sponsor them and look how the Lord has used them to touch many lives. That family who picked their picture off of a table we had placed during a church service many years ago never imagined the impact they were going to have in the lives of these three men.
So far, Samaritan Revival has found sponsors for over 350 children who are hungry and have no education. These children are now eating every day and they are now in school. They now know that Jesus loves them so much that He touched someone's heart in the U.S to sponsor them.
This is something that we offer in every concert we do and you can offer it also. One dollar a day will change a child's like. Sponsors can write to their child either by mail or email as much as they want and they can even visit their child on one of our 20 mission trips each year.
If you have a gospel group, pray about offering this opportunity to people during your concerts. The program is called "Opportunity of a Lifetime". Why? It not only gives the child an opportunity to survive and have a chance to grow up to be somebody but it also gives an opportunity to a family in the U.S to make a difference in a child's life. We are very small compared to World Vision and others but we do what we say we do and that is why the Lord has blessed this program.
If you would like to help us find sponsors for many children who need help, please call our office at 770-459-4058 between Monday thru Friday and ask for Rebecca or my mother Joan Tyson. We will send you pictures and bios of children that need to be sponsored. They will explain how the program works.
This is a great way that your group can make an impact and minister as you sing in your venues. The Bible says, he that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord and God will Repay. Do you want to make a loan to the Lord? You may not see rewards here on earth, but you will see them in Heaven.
Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival
