Jim Rennie from Child Impact.
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Well, life has changed.
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The world has changed.
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And we at Child Impact
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are being
overwhelmed with requests
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from the country
that we operate in.
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Millions of
low-paid laborers in India,
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and millions of
low-paid clothing workers
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in Bangladesh have no work,
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and there is no government help.
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Some of them will go hungry.
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We are getting requests
from churches and schools.
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Yes, and sometimes I
feel a bit overwhelmed.
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And we do need funds.
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But I wanna say that
right now we have a bigger need.
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I want to challenge
that we stop and pray.
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And I wanna ask you to pray
for the work of Child Impact
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and other ministries.
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Pray for those
who have the virus
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and the families who
have lost loved ones.
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Please pray for
our doctors and nurses
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and they are first responders
because they are giving all.
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We need to stop and
become closer to God.
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Let's power our prayer.
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You can help us
at childimpact.org
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but you can also pray for
us and others from anywhere.
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And just to help us drive
with a better prayer life,
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we've produced a
special prayer guide.
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And if you go to our
website child impact.org,
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you can download
it and have a read
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and share it with your family.
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This is another program
about our work in Bangladesh.
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And I hope that you enjoy it.
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There are several
Adventist schools in Bangladesh
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that are making a difference,
but the smaller schools
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that normally aren't
heard of are also growing
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and expanding their influence.
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We drove out to see
one of the small schools
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who are not only making
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an impact in the
community they're in,
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but also spreading
the love of the gospel.
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Because of the struggle
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with religion and its influence,
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the gospel has a
harder time spreading,
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including these remote areas,
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but education is
serving to bring more
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and more families to God.
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This village is very remote.
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And the journey
itself was a good example
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of how difficult it
can be to spread the gospel
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in these countries.
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The drive itself
was a couple hours
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and had no direct access.
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A drive like this might
take 30 minutes in America,
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but was closer to three hours
to get there in Bangladesh.
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Aside from that, we
had to leave the car behind
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and walk deeper into the land
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in order to make
it to the school.
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So we've just come down a road
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and now we're walking
into this mission school.
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This is apparently
a typical Bangladesh
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Mission School,
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a much smaller
school than where we're at,
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and we're gonna
visit it this morning.
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Aside from how deep we
went and how remote it was,
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there always seemed
to be a lot of people.
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The density of Bangladesh
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is the 10th
highest in the world.
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This has a side effect.
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People are always
struggling for food,
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especially families
with a lot of children.
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As a result,
sponsorship has a second impact.
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It allows students to have food.
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That helps the families
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not have to work as
hard to find money for food
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and helps children
not grow up starving.
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This village
school has a lot of help
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for the children
within the village.
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They are able to
educate the children
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and have a place for the
kids while the parents work.
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The children don't
live at the school,
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so they still stay at home,
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but they are
served food at the school
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which helps them be healthy
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and most
importantly not have to work.
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These small villages
cannot make enough money
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if only the parents are working.
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A lot of the time
these young children
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will need to begin working
in order to help the families.
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This keeps them uneducated
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and they have no
chance of leaving
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and improving their lives.
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The village school
is very old and rundown.
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They mainly use the
school for living and cooking
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while the actual
education takes place
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at the small
church by the school.
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Here they're able
to teach the children
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and give them a
safe environment to grow.
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The fact that
they get sponsorship
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changes their entire future.
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When we finally arrived,
a warm welcome awaits us.
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The teacher at the
school sat down with Jim
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to talk about operations there.
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So, tell me your name?
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My name is [].
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Okay. And how long
have you been here?
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Four years.
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So you've been in this
village for four years?
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Yes. Yes.
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I'm working here four years.
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And tell me what you do?
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You are the teacher?
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Yeah, I mean, I am teaching
also and preaching also.
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Preaching. How many
students do you have?
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Twenty-one students. Twenty-one.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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And where do these
students come from, just nearby?
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For some students,
their house is near
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and some student house is far.
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Right.
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But they're all day students,
they walk here every day?
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Yes. Right.
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How many of your children
are sponsored, all of them?
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No, except two.
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Two. Yeah.
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But you,
sponsorship is very important.
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Yes, yes.
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Sponsorship is very important.
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Without a sponsorship,
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we cannot
provide the foods also.
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Right.
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So this is true
village operation very small,
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but this man and his
wife are very, very committed.
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And Bangladesh has a
lot of these mission schools
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and they're really having
an impact on these villages.
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And it's real privilege to
be able to visit here today.
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He lives in the
school's original facility
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which is deteriorating,
he gave us a tour.
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The building behind me
serves as the residence
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for the pastor teacher.
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And in the corner,
they have the classroom.
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The classrooms are a
bit small and a bit rough.
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And so the children
also meet in the church.
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And we're gonna go over
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and have a look at
that church shortly.
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All these children
come from very poor families
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mainly they're all,
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their parents are farm laborers.
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And so life is a struggle.
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And so being able to
have their child in a school
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with a daily meal
makes a real difference.
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This is a different
example of our sponsorship
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impacts in this
part of the country.
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And this is []
and he is a sponsored,
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Child Impact sponsored child.
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Now his father and
mother are rural labors.
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And that's not a
big income at all.
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They have a very simple
home and he has one brother,
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and so being able to
come to this mission school,
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the parents are really proud
that he can have an education.
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The family do struggle.
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And so to have his
education paid for,
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he gets a lunch meal.
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And he was just telling
me through the translation
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that he likes to
play football and cricket.
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Now being from New Zealand,
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I understand
the game of cricket.
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So I can relate a little bit
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of where I'm from
when I'm in Bangladesh.
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So when you're here
in a mission school,
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you get a different perspective
of what sponsorship can do.
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And so Child
Impact is really excited
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that it can sponsor children
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at this
Bangladesh Mission School.
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Then the children
assembled for lunch,
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washed their personal dishes
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and were served a balanced meal.
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An elderly man
approach the facility
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during lunch, and
asked to be served as well.
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It was a testament to
the difficult conditions
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there despite the
idyllic pastoral setting.
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In places like this
feeding and educating children
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makes all the difference.
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Sponsorship makes that possible.
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Even though only 22
children attend the school,
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the change in their
lives ripples outward.
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So just earlier we
introduced Shardene.
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And now we've come back
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behind the school to a
village and his parents,
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this is his house,
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and his mother and
father are laborers.
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And this is his mother.
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And they are very
appreciative of sponsorship.
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And that has a big
impact on their lives,
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that he can be sponsored
in the local mission school.
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And there's just
thousands of villages like this.
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This is where life has
seemed for these people.
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It's a delight to meet
them. They're very welcoming.
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This is a big outreach
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for the church
in this community,
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but it also gives these people
who are mainly farm laborers,
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a big opportunity
for their children,
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they have an education.
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So they live a very basic life,
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they probably don't
travel out of this village,
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but having a school
is just ideal for them,
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and then also a
church to worship.
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Before we left,
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a woman offered a
performance of thanks
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for the assistance
being brought to her village.
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Before we can leave
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a command
performance of the drone
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was a must for the villagers.
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While we were there,
00:10:06.40\00:10:07.74
the villagers were
excited to see the camera,
00:10:07.77\00:10:09.67
the drones and even
see themselves on camera.
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It's not
something they're used to
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because it's just not
possible for them to buy
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or even be aware
00:10:16.44\00:10:17.78
of what happens
outside of where they live.
00:10:17.81\00:10:19.21
The difference between
00:10:23.92\00:10:25.25
the two schools is considerable.
00:10:25.29\00:10:28.56
At the rural school,
00:10:28.59\00:10:29.92
the children are
taught inside a small chapel
00:10:29.96\00:10:31.66
for want of a
better school building
00:10:31.69\00:10:33.13
and eat their meals outside.
00:10:33.16\00:10:34.93
At KMMS multiple
buildings worth of classrooms
00:10:34.96\00:10:37.40
and a covered dining hall
are the standard experience,
00:10:37.43\00:10:40.50
but the unifying factor
00:10:40.54\00:10:41.87
is the impact
the children receive.
00:10:41.90\00:10:43.61
So this morning,
00:10:48.61\00:10:51.01
the reality of
life here in Bangladesh,
00:10:51.05\00:10:53.55
and I guess what we experience
00:10:53.58\00:10:55.88
really sort of hits your heart.
00:10:55.92\00:10:59.39
You suddenly are faced
with the struggles in life.
00:10:59.42\00:11:03.56
You're faced with the poverty.
00:11:03.59\00:11:05.86
And I think it's things
we fully don't understand.
00:11:05.89\00:11:10.43
And so we left the school
00:11:10.47\00:11:12.20
and we brought
those two children
00:11:12.23\00:11:13.94
to visit their mother.
00:11:13.97\00:11:15.64
She's a widow, she
really can raise money.
00:11:15.67\00:11:20.28
She does menial jobs in houses.
00:11:20.31\00:11:23.98
And the reality is
sponsorship gives her hope.
00:11:24.01\00:11:28.25
Sponsorship is the
only answer for her,
00:11:28.28\00:11:32.02
for her children
to have an education,
00:11:32.05\00:11:34.62
and for her children to be fed.
00:11:34.66\00:11:37.53
And just meeting
here, such a happy face,
00:11:37.56\00:11:41.50
such a pleasant personality,
00:11:41.53\00:11:45.23
although we couldn't
understand each other,
00:11:45.27\00:11:47.50
the reality is that
00:11:47.54\00:11:49.07
she would not be able
to feed these children
00:11:49.10\00:11:52.07
and she struggles day to day.
00:11:52.11\00:11:54.31
So you get to really understand
00:11:54.34\00:11:56.75
that sponsorship is
just not an education,
00:11:56.78\00:12:00.12
it's giving that family hope.
00:12:00.15\00:12:05.39
Inside the village, this
poor, there is a beacon of hope,
00:12:05.42\00:12:09.16
something that shows
00:12:09.19\00:12:10.53
the
possibilities for other people.
00:12:10.56\00:12:12.36
Many families
want their children
00:12:12.39\00:12:13.73
to be educated there,
00:12:13.76\00:12:15.10
but it all comes
down to sponsorship.
00:12:15.13\00:12:17.60
We are growing our support,
but we don't want to stop.
00:12:17.63\00:12:20.67
Each visit is proof of
how much more there is to do
00:12:20.70\00:12:23.77
and how much of a
difference it keeps making.
00:12:23.81\00:12:26.37
This is just
another school in a village
00:12:26.41\00:12:28.44
and the others
have the same story,
00:12:28.48\00:12:30.58
one of hope, but
also of opportunity.
00:12:30.61\00:12:32.95
I'm Shawn Boonstra,
00:13:04.68\00:13:06.01
Speaker Director for
the Voice of Prophecy.
00:13:06.05\00:13:08.55
And I've been involved
with Asian Aid for many years.
00:13:08.58\00:13:12.29
I'm excited that they're growing
00:13:12.32\00:13:13.66
and helping
more children in need
00:13:13.69\00:13:15.32
and very excited
with their new name,
00:13:15.36\00:13:18.33
Child impact International.
00:13:18.36\00:13:20.96
Voice of Prophecy continues
to partner with Child Impact
00:13:21.00\00:13:24.30
both in rescuing girls
from trafficking in India,
00:13:24.33\00:13:27.44
and with outreach in Myanmar.
00:13:27.47\00:13:29.70
My family
continues to sponsor Sheila,
00:13:29.74\00:13:32.21
the young lady
we sponsor in India.
00:13:32.24\00:13:35.41
Child Impact International
is going to have a big impact
00:13:35.44\00:13:38.85
on the lives of
thousands of children
00:13:38.88\00:13:40.98
in Adventist Mission
Schools and other projects.
00:13:41.02\00:13:44.39
And we at Voice of Prophecy
00:13:44.42\00:13:46.25
are really
excited to be a partner.
00:13:46.29\00:13:48.76