HEIDELBERG, Germany - In 2002 while working at Calvary Chapel in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jeanette Rhyne decided to sponsor children in developing countries through the Compassion International program.
Seven years later, she and her 14-year-old daughter, Sydney, were on a plane to Uganda to visit Rachel, one of their three sponsored children.
"We planned the trip for a long time," said Rhyne, now a Compassion International advocate who lives in the Heidelberg military community. "I didn't know much about Uganda, and I had expected to see children with flies all over them and who are very sick - I was expecting to see a lot of poverty."
But instead, Rhyne and her daughter saw flourishing and thriving children.
"They were poor, definitely, but they had light in their eyes," said Rhyne as she explained that they went with a group of 12 other Compassion sponsors to visit the Ugandan Compassion office, and spend time at a child survival program, a school, and an orphanage during a five-day stay in and near Kampala in September.
Compassion International, founded in 1952 from the despair of the Korean War, started by helping and nurturing 35 orphaned children in South Korea. Today, Compassion helps more than 1 million registered children in nearly 5,000 child development centers in 25 developing countries.
"It's been a really great way for our family to learn about what life is like in another country - to get a little glimpse of life outside of what we live here in the developing world," she said. "Being in the military and moving so much makes you become a little bit numb to the needs of the people around you. We've enjoyed the ability to be able to reach out and make a difference and get a little bit outside of ourselves through this ministry."
The Christian child development ministry works strictly through local churches, which are trained for up to two years to be able to work with children in their communities. The organization focuses on releasing the poorest children of a family from their spiritual, emotional, social and economic poverty and provides opportunities for them to be healthy.
"Instead of just maybe fixing their water or putting a playground in, they are working at the heart issues of the child," Rhyne said. "Many organizations work to build maybe a playground, but that doesn't ultimately change the heart and mind of someone who has no options in life."
Every Saturday, sponsored children go to a center, where they can play and they are trained certain skills. The center keeps a file on every child, documenting his social skills, health, measurements and weight, immunizations, school performance, and other things that affect the child's life.
As the child grows, he will learn to step out of the cycle of poverty that is passed on from generation to generation.
"If you have one child that has a uniform and can go to school, the whole family is benefitting from this child learning to read and to write, and becoming stronger with their self-esteem," Rhyne said.
While in Uganda the Rhynes spent three days with a group of Ugandan college students, who previously were Compassion-sponsored children and are now working with the organization and its leadership program.
"One of the most impacting things was to meet the grown college students that were now giving back to their communities - planning to do so as they graduated (from school)," Rhyne said.
A few students shared their "horrible" family stories and how Compassion helped them to overcome poverty while Rhyne and her daughter helped them to build a kitchen of mud in the house of a sponsored child.
"I realized that being a sponsor is the easy part," she said. "The people who work in the country with the children within the communities, they are the champions."
As a sponsor, Rhyne provides $38 a month, writes letters to her sponsored children, and sends additional money or small gifts on special occasions to the respective Compassion office. In return, she receives updates on her children's development and letters from her children.
In addition to the Rhynes, Chaplain (Capt.) Griffith, Protestant chaplain at Patrick Henry Village Chapel, said there are other families in the community who also serve as Compassion sponsors.
"God has blessed many of the members of our congregation with steady finances even during this time of economic instability," Griffith said. "It is part of our service to the Lord Jesus Christ to show compassion to the needy. The PHV Protestant congregation feels this program is one more way we can show the love of Christ to someone in dire circumstances."
Because of support from these members of the Heidelberg community and sponsors around the world, Compassion is able to work with mothers of infants and pregnant mothers through a child survival program. They help women with prenatal care, care for their baby, and provide nutrition and hygiene assistance.
"When we went to (the child survival) project, we were greeted by a group of women holding babies that looked healthy and clean," Rhyne said. "You could tell, they knew we were coming, and they wanted to be proud."
Before Compassion came to that village, it was a slum area and many children were dying. Since Compassion started supporting these mothers, 41 babies were born and only one was lost.
"What was impacting to me that day is that these mothers are not feeling so desperate," Rhyne said. "They are feeling hopeful for their children."
On day four of the Rhyne family's intended nine-day stay, violence broke out near their hotel. Because of the danger, they had to stay in a Compassion-assisted orphanage overnight. According to Rhyne, the children were thrilled to have visitors. Rhyne and her daughter slept together with all children in the dormitory.
"The whole time I realized that perhaps I was getting a little taste of what it feels like to sleep in one of these metal beds and to have a mosquito net over my bed and to be concerned more about the details of what these children and families are dealing with on a regular basis (than what will happen to us tomorrow)."
The violence caused Rhyne and her daughter to depart earlier, which also did not allow them to meet their sponsored child, Rachel. "Although we couldn't meet our sponsored child, we came back more encouraged about what we are doing with sponsorship," Rhyne said.
With the support of her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 4 David Rhyne, executive officer with U.S. Army Europe's Army Flight Operations Detachment, she plans to go back to Uganda in the near future to finally meet Rachel.
One thing Rhyne realized during her trip is that "being poor is more than a lack of food and a lack of clothing - it's a lack of options."
She hopes by giving some of what her family has to help these children will provide them with more options.
"I appreciate the work of the folks here in the (PHV) Chapel in supporting these children," Griffith said. "It has been a hallmark of this congregation that they try to find new and unique ways to reach people with the Gospel of Christ, and certainly demonstrating the love of Christ through compassionate giving opens that door."
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