International

Awana International relies on the donations of clubs and individuals to reach children overseas. One way that you can be a part of their work is through a program called Adopt-a-Club (AAC). If you were familiar with the AAC program a few years ago, then you will want to read this as the program has gone through some changes to more effectively reach more children with the Gospel. This is a great opportunity to reach more children than ever before with the Gospel! I asked Awana International the following questions about the AAC program and Arlene Johnson (Sponsorship Development, Marketing and Donor Care with Awana) provided the answers. Here is the "interview":

How does the adopt-a-club program work?

The Adopt-a-Club (AAC) program is a sponsorship opportunity for an individual, groups of individuals or a church in the US to sponsor a church in a foreign country to start an Awana club usually for an average of 60 kids.  The sponsorship amount of $30/month or $360/year will train leaders to start club and sustain it to continue even after the sponsorship year concludes.  The donor can them sponsor another church while the one they sponsored earlier continues to grow in # of clubbers.  As an Adopt – a Club sponsor, you will bring the gospel message to kids all over the world.  Your monthly gift will allow more boys and girls to hear the good news of Jesus Christ!

Are we sponsoring a specific club? If not where do the funds go, how are they used?

No – you do not sponsor a specific club but rather the start of clubs in certain churches within the country of your choice.  You will be assigned one of those churches for prayer and communication.  The funds are used to train leaders from many churches in a particular country and provide them all the materials to be able to start Awana clubs 30 days after training.  Your funds are also used to follow-up on all the leaders once the clubs have started and give them continuous training.

With the old Adopt-a-Club patches, you received a new patch (different color) for each year you participated. How are the new patches with the regions to be awarded/earned?

Every clubber that participates in the AAC program will receive a patch from the region of the world they supported.  If they support another country that is in the same region then they will continue to earn that same patch.

Why the name “Adopt-a-Club”?  (Basis for the question: I had someone who was adopted comment that an adoption is a lifelong commitment, where as people can “un-adopt” a club and stop supporting them, not truly adopting them – also, with the new strategy, one really is not adopting a specific club, but supporting a region)

The AAC brand has been around a long time – the previous program sponsored churches to help with awards, hand books and uniforms.  With this old AAC model – if you or other sponsors stopped giving – the church may not be able to function and would close their Awana club   especially if they were dependent on your funding. With the new sponsorship program - you are adopting the club that you helped start. The end result with the new program is that once the club has started, it will only grow in number of clubbers and will not need any more sponsorship dollars to sustain the growth of its club.  Therefore, the donor is free to sponsor or adopt another club to start.  If you did this for 10 years – you would have adopted 10 clubs with conceivable 1,000 kids.

Please share anything else that clubs should know about the Adopt-a-Club program

The new AAC program multiplies the growth of clubs by training the leaders who are the ones reaching the clubbers and teaching them God’s Word. This is not a dependency model.  The # of children impacted by the new model of AAC is immeasurable unlike the old model where you would support a club with 20 kids and if you continued for 10 years – you could only support the same 20 kids.  There was a limit to what your dollars funded.  With the new model you would be supporting 10 different Awana clubs totaling 1000 kids in the same 10 year period! How exciting is that!

This is just a general overview of the AAC program. I encourage you look at the AAC Web Page as well as "like" their FaceBook page to keep up on what is happening internationally. You can make a faith promise to participate in the AAC program and support a region as well as download a pdf file to be used with the T&T Passport service booklet by going to the AAC Web Page.