Kids on mission: Families raise money for clean water project – The Daily Reporter

By Maribeth Vaughn | Daily Reporter

WILKINSON — From bird houses to lemonade, golf balls to hay bales; local families are hustling for a good cause.

Kids on Mission through Wilkinson Church of Christ launched a Clean Water Fundraiser, with local families working on several different projects this spring to benefit Compassion International.

Families are selling golf balls with Scripture printed on them; hand-made bird houses and flower planters; and even grass and hay bales. Lawnmowing and yardwork services are available for donations. And a lemonade stand is opening up in May to raise money toward the project.

The church’s mission team will match up to $5,000 for the project. Compassion International’s mission is to “release children from poverty in Jesus’ name” through sponsorships and health projects.

The enthusiasm for the program has been outstanding, said Jessie Newton, children’s minister.

“I was blown away,” she said. “One family has a 7-year-old servicing lawn mowers. One family that’s making planters have already gotten over 40 orders. It’s a blessing to see the creativity. What’s really awesome is the parents that are excited to do it with their kids.”

Newton said the church often talks about missions, and it’s important to her that children understand that there is more to the world than their life in Wilkinson, Anderson or Greenfield.

“I thought, let’s show them that even at their age, they can make a difference in the world around them” she said.

According to Compassion International, 2.1 billion people worldwide have no safe water, and 800 children die daily from unsafe water. Every 88 seconds, waterborne diseases kill a child.

When she shared those statistics, Newton said kids were heartstricken. They went home and started praying together with their families about how to help.

Wilkinson mom Jessica Miller said her boys Adam and Jacob had already been servicing lawn mowers with their dad, Sam, to raise money for materials for a new hunting shack in their back yard. When they watched YouTube videos about Compassion International, Adam, 7, decided to start giving some of their proceeds to the project.

“I just starting crying; it was pretty awesome,” she said.

The homeschooling family enjoys teaching life skills like oil changes for lawn mowers, but they’re also excited about giving back.

“The money that we receive — it’s not ours. It’s all God’s money, and we do what’s right with it,” she said. “It’s not about hoarding the money, but giving back a percentage of that. We’re just teaching them, ‘This isn’t us. God gave us these skills, and we have to give that money back to help others.’”

The Clark family in Wilkinson is selling golf balls with Proverbs 3:5-6 printed on them. The Scripture about trusting in the Lord will hopefully be an inspiration to those who purchase the balls, or even those who find a missing ball on the golf course, dad Jeff Clark said.

Levi, 9, plans to promote sales through YouTube and social media.

“He was like, ‘What do you mean they don’t have access to water? What do you mean, they don’t have clean water?’ That kind of baffles him a little bit,” Jeff said. “We have so many things, so many blessings … We decided with Father’s Day coming up, it’s just a fairly simple thing to put a Bible verse on a golf ball. We go golfing every now and then; I said, ‘You know when these things get lost — we lose golf balls all the time — it’d be nice to put a Bible verse on there for someone to find.’”

The Miller family in Knightstown is partnering with friends to build planter boxes — something that would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift for a good cause.

Ethan and Michelle Miller are building the boxes with Cohen, 10; Brenley, 7; and friends Amyah, 7, and Cheyann, 6.

“The kids were so excited to get to do any sort of project, but when they learned that we were raising money for a great cause they were even more excited,” Michelle Miller said. “We hope it teaches the kids that we need to realize how blessed we are for the things we have and take for granted like clean water. We also hope that they learn with a little teamwork a lot can be accomplished.”

Between several services and outreach programs, Wilkinson Church of Christ reaches more than 100 local children. Newton said since everybody has different talents and abilities, it’s exciting to see how they are using their gifts to raise money and benefit others in need.

“No matter the age, we can’t fix every problem, but everyone can do something.”