Put Feet to Their Faith - Involve Your Kids in Helping Children in South Sudan

As you begin your summer ministry to the children and families in your church and community please plan to involve them in an opportunity to help others . . . such as the children and families in South Sudan. Before I talk about some ideas you could use with the children and families in your ministry, I want to share an update on South Sudan from Samaritan's Purse . . . 

"June 6 marked one year since the Sudanese government began attacking its own people in the Nuba Mountains. The situation has become dire as unprecedented numbers of hungry and weary Nuban people arrive in South Sudan on a daily basis. For the past six months, Samaritan's Purse has been working to avert critical disaster. But the people arriving in Yida refugee camp today are in worse physical shape than before. They have run out of food. Predictions of mass starvation have become reality. 

Acute malnutrition is evident in many of the children arriving in South Sudan. Samaritan's Purse is providing outpatient therapeutic feeding programs for malnourished infants and young children, as well as 24-hour care for the most severe cases. In the month of May, 778 children were enrolled in our nutrition programming at Yida refugee camp. Nearly 11% of those under the age of 5 were classified as acutely malnourished, which classifies the crisis in the second highest level of severity according to the World Health Organization.  Each family who arrives represents a growing volume of needs: tarp, soap, jerry cans, water and new boreholes, food, therapeutic food for the malnourished, and latrines. 

As our team works around the clock to care for the influx of new arrivals, the rainy season has begun, forcing the closure of most roads. Ground transport is impossible and we will have to rely on flying assistance to the people, which presents greater challenges. One truck can easily haul 20 tons of food and supplies, while one plane is maxed out at 3 tons."

So . . . what can you do to involve the children and families in your ministry? Well, consider the following ideas -

• You can hold a fund raiser and have families make cookies for a church-wide bake sale  and donate funds raised to Samaritan's Purse to help with the situation in South Sudan
• You could sponsor a family ministry car wash and donate funds raised to Samaritan's Purse to help with the situation in South Sudan
• You could hold a family game night-a-thon and have families gather pledges for how long they will plan games at your game-a-thon! Of course you would donate funds raised to Samaritan's Purse to help with the situation in South Sudan

Samariatn's Purse also has some ways you can help . . . HOW YOU CAN HELP and they say, "We are in urgent need of support in order to continue to distribute food and other assistance to the growing refugee population. You can contribute when you:

• Support the work by giving: If God leads you to support the work of Samaritan’s Purse in South Sudan, you can do so here.
• Donate a Twitter or Facebook Update to raise awareness of the dire needs of these people. Scroll down for sample tweets that you can share with one click.
• Pray for the Nuban people fleeing into South Sudan, that God will continue to provide for their survival. Pray for our staff in South Sudan and for an end to the violence. 
• Donate a Tweet or Facebook Post -To donate a Tweet or Facebook post, copy and paste the following text into your Facebook status update, or click the Tweet button to raise awareness. Facebook: You can help Samaritan’s Purse feed refugees fleeing into South Sudanhttp://spsocial.org/yc0 Twitter: You can help @SamaritansPurse feed refugees fleeing into #SouthSudanhttp://spsocial.org/yc0 via @SamaritansPurse 

Whatever you choose, please do something to involve the children and families in your church in an opportunity to help the children and families in South Sudan!