Subscribe RSS 2.0When you Sponsor A Child, you may not know how dramatically God will use your gifts and prayers to change a child’s life. Here, Nikon Lechoe tells how spirit worship, hunger, and the murder of his father affected his childhood, and how everything changed the moment a sponsor like you entered his life.
“I am from the Akha people group in Thailand. Both of my parents worshipped spirits. My father was a wizard who was well respected by the villagers. Since our youth, my four elder sisters, younger brother, and I followed our parents in worshipping spirits. But, at the age of five, something happened; it is something hard to forget.
“My grandfather was quite well to do, and he left behind a huge amount of possessions. My uncle wanted them all to himself so he put a cursed talisman on the opium pipe my father used to smoke, and my father was killed.
“My mother brought me and my siblings to Mango village. When we first arrived, we had a difficult time, for the family was supported solely by my mother. Over time, my sisters got married one by one. My mother continued to work, and my brother and I learned to take care of ourselves. We ate whatever was available at home. When there was no food, we just drank water.”
The Day Everything Changed
Soon after Nikon and his family arrived at Mango village, they met Pastor Lee from our partner Christian Nationals Evangelism Commission (CNEC). Pastor Lee was greatly concerned over the poverty of Nikon’s family. Pastor Lee applied for sponsorship for Nikon, and soon both Nikon and his brother no longer had to worry about school fees or food. “As a result of sponsorship, both my brother and I could go to school,” Nikon said. He was 10 years old when he started the first grade.
“Under Pastor Lee’s guidance, my mother accepted Christ,” he said. “I began to attend church every Sunday. From then on, I started to know God. I learned how to pray, how to read the Bible, and I grew in my spiritual life. When I was fifteen years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I was baptized.”
Pastor Lee continued to mentor Nikon, encouraging him to commit his life to full-time ministry. With his sponsor’s support, Nikon completed secondary school. He later graduated from Bible School and has served as a church planter, pastor, and youth leader. He has even earned his Master of Divinity degree.
Today, he and his family live in Taiwan, serving a community of 70,000 unreached Thai laborers who have never heard the Gospel. “When I recall the past, the fact that I could be a missionary and be able to serve the Lord is solely by the grace of God,” Nikon said. “All that has happened in my life would not be possible without my sponsor’s labor in the Lord.”
We praise God for Nikon’s life and for his sponsor who set him on a path of opportunity that has resulted in many lives won to Christ. You can give that same opportunity to a needy child. Right now, we have 150 children waiting for sponsors. Would you consider becoming a sponsor today?