Lifelong Relationships “Partner Parents” Make an Unforgettable Impact

“I’ll never forget my sponsors...”

Victor shook his head, vehemently denying the possibility that childhood sponsors who helped him go to school could ever stray from his memory.

“You must understand,” he said, “that they changed my life. They loved me enough to help me — even though we lived on opposite sides of the world. Why would they do that? It was because of their love for Jesus that they could find love for me.”

Victor paused, thinking back. “I’m 38 years old. But I pray for them. I pray for them every day.”

The family of five lived in Pennsylvania. They chose to sponsor Victor when they met at a church concert. Victor was traveling that year with the India Children’s Choir, a ministry of Bibles For The World that introduced thousands of people across the United States and Canada to the plight of children in poverty in India. Victor was eleven years old.

“They cared for me,” he says now. “They made it possible for me to go to school. I had my books, my uniform. We would write back and forth, sharing pictures, telling what was happening in our lives.”

Victor pulled out a gilded photo album from a place of honor on a bookshelf.

“I have their pictures here. And all the letters they sent to me. I keep them here and look at them almost every day, to remind me to pray for them and their family.”

A sponsor/child relationship is a unique and special way to impact a life with the love of Jesus. Such relationships often go on for years — for Victor and his Partner Parents, it has now been 28 years since their first meeting.

“I work in the Sielmat Christian Hospital, now, for Bibles For The World,” Victor said as he replaced the album. “I went to optometry school and now I give eye exams and make glasses for people. They come for help and many are too poor to pay. I make them glasses anyway, because that’s what Jesus would do. And I let them know that Jesus loves them.”read more