Written by David Chan, missions pastor
Hillcrest did not have a standard Hope Sunday but instead we used the five Sundays in December to place an emphasis on Covenant Kids Congo (CKC). For the past three winters now, we have challenged our congregation to participate in an Advent Conspiracy of “spending less, giving more”. The first year we selected a water project in Africa, and the response was overwhelming. The next year we focused primarily on four local ministries, plus encouraged people to give of their time and talents through service hours. In December of 2012, our Advent Conspiracy focus was on CKC. Reesheda Washington, project leader for CKC, launched the emphasis with a challenging sermon that first Sunday in December, and after that people streamed to our table week after week to sponsor children; even multiple ones per household. We had two young ladies, Rebeca and Sofia, who came to Hillcrest through our new Spanish language ministry, be the chief spokespersons for the project. They produced videos and power points to highlight the multiple facets of the project so our congregation could see what sponsorship holistically provides. Their motivation stemmed from having attended CHIC 2012 where they were touched by God to do something significant for children in Africa!
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We set our goal based on the overall effort of CKC to sponsor 10,000 children. We figured with over 800 churches in the ECC, if each church sponsored around 12 children, we could reach that goal. We decided to add a “0” to that and aim for 120, and the response from our congregation was tremendous. We picked up over 120 sponsorships and are planning to send a couple of members on the Congo Vision trip this summer. We are excited about being part of this new movement!
