Vision Trips 2010 provides opportunities to visit mission sites, and Covenant Kids will fund scholarships for impoverished children around the world.
Participants on the vision trips will experience first-hand what God is doing through the work of Evangelical Covenant Church missionaries and their national church partners, says Karen Hallberg, CWM director of mission mobilization and connection. The trips are designed to build relationships and provide knowledge that participants can bring back to their congregations.
In the past, Covenanters have been able to visit mission sites, but those trips were arranged through the local missionary. CWM is providing a concentrated effort to coordinate the vision trips, Hallberg says.
Trips are being arranged for Burkina Faso, Congo, Japan, East Asia, Thailand, Europe, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. Most of the trips are observational, but participants in the trip to East Asia will have an opportunity to engage in ministry.
Click here to read more about both initiatives. People interested in traveling on a vision trip should complete an online interest form.
CWM also is working with Covenant World Relief and the Paul Carlson Partnership to sponsor Covenant Kids, a scholarship program for children in underprivileged communities. Covenanters can support specific ministry partners in Colombia, India, Congo, and Sudan.
Covenanters are asked to commit $25 a month to one of the scholarships. The programs minister to the educational, physical, spiritual and social needs of the children, Hallberg says.
CWM has had a child sponsorship program in Colombia for 22 years, but recently developed the scholarship program. Sponsoring the organizations is especially cost-efficient.
“We’re trying to make it as personal as possible and keep the overhead low at the same time,” says Hallberg. She adds that roughly $22 of every $25 goes to directly helping the children.
Sponsors will receive quarterly updates from the ministry partners and also will have the opportunity to visit the mission work, Hallberg says.
Click here to learn more about Covenant Kids. To download a copy of the Covenant Kids brochure, click here. Information on either program also is available by emailing Hallberg or calling 773-907-3318.