Your sponsored fundraising can help poor and persecuted Christians come out alive from lockdown
“This is not meant for Christians”
An Indian pastor and some of his congregation went to collect the food rations provided free by the Indian government for poor and needy families during the coronavirus lockdown. But local Hindu extremists and police violently attacked the small Christian group and threw them out, telling them that the food was not meant for Christians.
Many Christians in India earn their living in low-paid jobs, without regular salaries. These “daily wage earners” are paid only for each day’s work they do. When lockdown began, they lost their income. Too poor to have savings, they soon finished the meagre food stocks in their home. If they are prevented from getting government food aid, they have nothing. Lockdown for them is not about boredom and frustration – it is about real hunger, and the prospect of starvation.
Save lives while you stay home – give your time, energy and skills
Many Christians in many countries are in this situation right now. But you can feed them, even if you have no money to spare and cannot leave your home. Ask friends, relatives and neighbours to sponsor you. Get your children to join in.
Rev. Mary Barr in the UK cut off her curls with her husband’s hair clippers. She raised £700 from 30 people in 7 days by her “lockdown buzzcut”.
Here are some more sponsorship ideas that you could try (but be careful to stay within the lockdown rules wherever you are):
- Walk – in your garden, on your balcony or round your living room. Choose a distance to suit your health or the length of your children’s legs. Could you walk seven miles (11 km) from Jerusalem to Emmaus like Cleopas and his friend on the first Easter Sunday (Luke 24:13)? Or there and back again as those two disciples did in their excitement about the resurrection (Luke 24:33)? That would be 14 miles (22 km). Do another four miles (7 km) and you would have walked from Jerusalem to Jericho like the Good Samaritan in the parable (18 miles, 29 km). Or run on an exercise treadmill if you have one.
- Climb a mountain – by going up your stairs again and again. The Mount of Transfiguration is 575 metres high. That would be 3,018 steps of a typical British staircase.
- If you have an exercise bike you could cycle round the seven churches of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. “Stay a night” at each city and divide the distance over six days.
- No space to walk and no exercise equipment? What about sponsored push-ups?
- Or “grow a beard for Barnabas”. Go without shaving for a month and ask friends and family to sponsor your effort.
- Organise a sponsored Scripture-thon. Gather a team of likeminded Christians to read the Bible aloud on video conference (e.g. Zoom) for a period of 24 hours without stopping. Or read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 – that is 1,189 chapters. If someone sponsors the team at just a penny a chapter, they will make a donation of £11.89 when you get to the final “Amen”.
- Alternatively, you could make it an online singalong of favourite hymns and songs.
- For those with nimble fingers and balls of yarn in the home, what about a knit-athon? Ask your friends to sponsor you by the hour, or by the square or by the inch of scarf length.
- If the weather is good, your children could do a “sleep out for the suffering” and ask friends and relatives to sponsor them to camp in your back garden.
How to get started
Simply click on the link here to our Just Giving fundraising page where you will be able to start your Covid-19 lockdown fundraiser. When complete you can send out your fundraising link to your church, family and friends via email, text, whatsapp or social media.
If you are on Facebook and would prefer, you can also start a Facebook Fundraiser by clicking here.
Finally, we’ve also prepared a sponsorship form that you can download here.
Sponsor our staff
Barnabas Fund staff around the world will be undertaking some of these challenges. Let us know if you would like to sponsor one of them.
Simple giving
But if you want to make a simple donation right now to help Christians made destitute by Covid-19 lockdown, please click on the “Donate now” button below.
Thank you and please pray
We are so grateful to the many supporters who have already given generously and sacrificially, to help poor and persecuted Christians affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Thank you for your gifts and above all for your prayers.
