Back to school! After two years of virtual classes during the pandemic, kids are finally heading back to school… in person! Most are overjoyed and have long awaited for this moment. So for Christmas, through the loving donations of sponsors, we sent the COJ children and youth backpacks to carry their books and school supplies when they head back to school in March. In addition, we also sent each COJ child’s family a special Christmas food basket. A little different than previous food baskets, this time around we included panettone, a popular dessert widely enjoyed by Peruvians during the Christmas season, along with hot chocolate. Our hope and desire is that each child realizes the love of the Father through the generous gifts of their sponsors and that they have already received the greatest gift of Jesus Christ!

I remember a little rhyme I learned and recited as a child while doing the hand motions that went along with it. “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.” During the pandemic, we were no longer able to “see all the people.” Even as the country slowly returns to a form of normalcy, we are now presented with the question, “where are all the people?” Churches all over the world, including the US, have experienced a loss. And this is not only in the number of people gathering to worship. Many churches had to close their doors for good. But the sad truth is that this was a reality even before the pandemic. In 2014, an estimated 4,000 Protestant churches were planted, while 3,700 closed in a year according to Lifeway Research. In 2019, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in the U.S., but 4,500 closed. Currently, more churches are closing than being started. A Barna Group study reported that non-practicing Christians have grown from 35% to 43% from 2000 to 2020. During the same time, practicing Christians declined from 45% to 25%. Practicing Christians were identified as those who strongly agree that faith is very important in their lives and have attended church within the past month. The term, non-practicing Christians, is interesting as this is incredibly self-contradictory. Can one be a Christian without practicing one’s faith? Yet, we see there are those who don’t seem to find this a contradiction. Of greater concern, however, is that the church is losing its future, the next generation – the Millennials, who were born between the early 80s and mid to late 90s, and Gen Z, who were born between the mid to late 90s to early-mid 2000s. According to another study done by the Barna Group in 2019, over 60% of young people raised in the church leave it before adulthood. According to the Pew Research Center study in 2018 and 2019, only half of Millennials (49%) describe themselves as Christians. While this may not seem like an alarming or surprising statistic at face value, when you look more closely at the further breakout of this number, only 2 out of 10 of those who profess to be Christians regularly attend church (Chart 1). There have been fewer surveys conducted with the Gen Z generation as most were not yet 18+, but we don’t expect the statistics to be more optimistic. Data from Barna Group surveys from 2016-2018 showed that in terms of priorities for the future, most, including churched Christians, prioritize either their personal interests or money. This is our reality. Our next generation is becoming unchurched before our very own eyes, no different from the world. Though attendance does not directly translate to one’s personal relationship with God, it is a valid indicator that makes us question how many of those who profess to be Christians are living as true disciples of Christ. In addition, worldly ones are becoming prioritized and replacing biblical ones. The forecast for the future of the church seems bleak. But it doesn’t have to remain this way. There is always hope in Jesus. Let us intercede for Holy Spirit fire to fall afresh on our next generation so they will be transformed into a mighty one that is no longer lost to the world but claims their identity as children of God and lives boldly for the name and kingdom of Jesus.

We’re back with updates! In the August newsletter, we shared with you about the food baskets that were being prepared for the COJ children and their families. By God’s grace and with all of your prayers, the pastors were able to safely buy, prepare, and deliver food baskets to the COJ children and their families! Since the delivery of the first food basket, we requested feedback on what other specific grocery items would be helpful for families during this time. We noticed that many churches were requesting the addition of beans, which are indeed a good source of protein, fiber, and many essential vitamins. With your ongoing support, a second distribution of food baskets - including beans! - has been made this month. Please pray for Peru’s economy to fully recover and for the love of God to be relayed to the COJ children and their families through these food baskets.

Tears roll down my face. I am sitting in front of my computer at the mission center office, translating a letter from a sponsor to their sponsored child. I start thinking about why I am crying. The letter is not written to me. I am simply responsible for delivering the original thoughts of the writer to the recipient, without anything getting lost in translation. But though I am not the intended final destination of the words on the pages, I find myself personally comforted by them. There are hard weeks, and this was one of those weeks. Of course, no one besides God knew the ins and outs of my personal struggles. Yet it is like the sponsor who wrote this letter knew. They seem to be speaking directly to me, acknowledging my struggles, and giving me a pat on the back, encouraging me to continue moving forward. But that is not the entirety of why I am touched. It is like I can tangibly feel the weight of love the sponsor has and wants to deliver to their child, a child they never even met in person and yet endearingly call them “My dear beloved daughter…” I can almost picture the sponsor as they carefully consider and pray about how to respond to what their sponsored child shared with them regarding the harsh reality and giants they face. This isn’t an ordinary love. It is a love that knows no bounds and cannot be constrained; it is the love of Jesus. And the thing is…we all are formed by our Creator to respond to love. I am blessed to witness the blossoming relationship between a sponsor and sponsored child within the love of Christ. The impact on the child is so evident in the following correspondences. Though this sponsored child doesn’t have much interaction with her biological father, God sent her another father who would be a channel of His wondrous love. And for the sponsored child, it is of far greater worth than anything else the world can offer. The impact you can have on the life of your sponsored child is likely beyond your imagination! There is a possibility that God will use you to even touch unsuspecting others. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God! What great love it is. If you would like to write a letter to the children you are sponsoring, you can write it on personal stationery or stationery we have provided. You can also write it online at www.coj.org. We ask that you be a messenger of dreams and hopes during difficult times.