78: Child Sponsorship (with Maria Berezny)

It’s Child Sponsorship Month at TeachBeyond! Listen to the conversation with Maria Berezny as she discusses the pressing need for Child Sponsors and the impact that it can have on their life. Learn how not only are children's physical needs provided for, but their spiritual and education needs as well.   

• Child Sponsorship Website
• “From a young age, whenever somebody would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would answer that I wanted to be a Musician-ary, which of course is a word that I had made up. But in my mind, it perfectly encapsulated everything that I wanted to do. It combined my three main passions and loves, to combine music and children and ministry. And so in my mind, I just wanted to be a music teacher, missionary.”
• “I got to see firsthand that it doesn't matter how good of an education you provide a child if their most basic needs aren't being met, if they're hungry, if they don't have a sufficient shelter, if they don't feel safe, if they don't truly deep down know that they're loved and they belong, then the education is ineffective. They won't be able to receive and learn and apply all that they're being taught.”
• “What that does is, it shows the child you're seen, you're known, you're loved, you're worthy, you have potential, you have a future ahead of you, and you have a destiny and a God given purpose.”
• “…what really makes [TeachBeyond Sponsorship] unique is that although we, of course, recognize and meet the physical needs of our children, our focus is primarily education because we believe that students are made in God's image and they deserve an opportunity to be equipped and empowered with the knowledge, skills and tools that they need to become dynamic leaders within their communities and therefore to break these generational cycles of poverty that we're seeing.”
• “Beyond that, the kind of education which communicates to students that they're loved by God, gives them dignity. And of course, there's many reasons that we chose to focus on education. But I think kind of a nutshell reason is the potential for a long-term impact. We believe that by equipping and empowering these students, it's not only going to transform the children, but it's going to transform their families, and the families will transform their communities and their communities will transform their countries and so on. So, as we holistically train these students for life, we desire to instill in them an authentic vision of their calling within the Great Commission, and to raise them up to be ambassadors for Christ and reach their full God given potential. You know, the word says that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Swimming
• Maria: Her garden

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Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast 
Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/