The Presentation Party!

When you meet or learn about a person or people group that is significantly less fortunate than you are you have two options .  1) You can distance yourself in a futile attempt to avoid their pain and preserve your comfort, or 2) You can join their struggle and figure out ways to turn your compassion into responsibility.

This past Friday our 6 student Africa runners chose the latter….

After Michael Chitwood came and spoke to our kids about global poverty and the work of World Vision two weeks ago our group immediately started thinking of creative ways in which they could help their peers in South Africa.  They were each charged with finding child sponsorships (through WV) for 3 of the kids who live in area that we will be visiting on our trip.

Our students from the West side of Chicago came up with the idea of having a “presentation party” where they would tell people about the program, the trip, and child sponsorships!  After putting a presentation together and rehearsing their specific parts and speeches the night of the party finally came last Friday, May 13th.

We got to our hosts’ house (thanks Hovey Fam!) early to rehearse the presentation one last time and as the first people started showing up I started to get a little nervous.  As an adult it is hard to make presentations in-front of people you don’t know and present them with a big “ask”, let alone as a teenager in a new and uncomfortable environment.  But yet again our Breakthrough kids proved my worrying ways wrong!

After our runners floored their new audience with a flawless and tear jerking 2o minute presentation we opened it up for some Q&A.  Our kids proceeded to answer amazing questions about both their own situation in Chicago and those of the kids they were going to meet on the trip!  It was obvious through their answers that they had a genuine concern for their South African friends, and they made it known that they understood their responsibilities toward these kids who had so much less then they did.  We then had our students individually spread throughout the room and invited the adults to continue the questioning on a 1 on 1 level.

Saying that I was “blown away” is an understatement.  At the end of the night everyone of our kids got a World Vision child sponsored, and some even got two which brought our group total for the night to 10 Child Sponsorships raised!  However, it was not the total number of sponsorships that brought me to tears, but it was watching our kids from one of Chicago’s most under-served neighborhoods speak and act boldly and passionately on behalf of children who have even less fortune than they do.

Beautiful.

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*I added a few more pictures to the gallery from this awesome night.

**Our kids are still trying to reach their goal of 18 total kids sponsored so if you are interested in hearing more contact rfunk@breakthrough.org.