Providing for the needs of the children of CLM

Thank you for reading this and for considering what role you can play in the ministry of CLM. All of the children of CLM have experienced very difficult circumstances. Many have suffered from malnutrition, and a quite a few have been abused. Others have lost their parents to death or have been abandoned by their relatives. These children need as much prayer and care as possible.

Canaan Land Ministries is an Apostolic Christian Church mission in southern Brazil. It was founded more than twenty-five years ago and has been growing ever since. Originally, CLM accepted only girls, but soon there were boys who also had no place to go. There are generally 35-40 children at CLM, and the number changes often. They are like a big family, with children ages 1 to 24.

There are several ways you can make a difference in these children's lives. These do not take very much time or effort, yet they can make a big impact in a child's life. Please pray about helping in one of the following ways:

First, you may choose to be a Prayer Pal. This involves committing to write to a child at least four times a year and to pray for the child regularly. This is an extremely important ministry, since most of the children have experienced rejection in their lives and need to experience committed unconditional love. If you choose to be a prayer pal, we ask that any gifts you send are small, so as not to create jealousy among the children. For example, a matchbox car, a coloring book, or a hair clip is an appropriate gift.

You may also choose to be a Financial Sponsor. Financial sponsorship involves making a commitment to send a fixed amount of money (at least $10 US, $15 Canadian) to the Apostolic Christian Church Foundation each month. Earmark it for CLM. Any money you send goes into the CLM general fund to help provide for your child's needs; it does not go directly to a specific child.

The ministries described above have also been extended to include the missionaries of CLM and their children. As of right now, there are five single missionaries, three missionary couples, and nine children of missionary couples who have no prayer pals or financial sponsors. The difference with financial contributions for these people is that they should be earmarked to go directly to the missionary or missionary family for which you are a financial sponsor. Since the children of the missionaries live, play, and go to school with the rest of the CLM children, they would probably appreciate having a prayer pal, since all of the other children do. These families could also use donations to help pay the costs to have routine medical or dental work done. If members of these families had prayer pals and/or financial sponsors, we might be able to contact those people to ask for help if a family had a crisis financial situation (hospital stay, surgery, etc.) Please pray about the possibility of participating in a ministry to a missionary, missionary couple, or missionary child.

Whether you choose to be a prayer pal, a financial sponsor, or both, you will receive a picture and history of the member of the CLM family that you are writing to. If you choose any of the above options, you will be contacted approximately once a year about whether you want to continue this ministry.

Another role you can play in the work at CLM is that of an E-mail Prayer Warrior. Mary Gibson's sister receives an e-mail prayer letter from Mary each week and forwards it to many people. It includes recent happenings and current prayer needs.

If you are interested in any part of Operation Prayer, please fill out the information on the commitment form, indicating the ministry or ministries you want to commit to. Thank you for sharing in the ministry of CLM.