Henry and Sue Klassen were both poor growing up. They understand the hardships sponsored children face.

The couple met as teenagers in Ontario, where they were married. They later settled in Steinbach, Manitoba. And though they didn’t know each other as children, they had similar experiences growing up, spending part of their childhood in Mexico. Both also had to work in the fields in Ontario picking cucumbers, tomatoes and tobacco to help meet their families’ needs.

They learned first hand the value of education.

Because they had to work, Henry only achieved Grade 8 and Sue only completed her Grade 3. “Even as a little kid, I always worked the fields. We would always start school late because we had to work,” Henry explains. “I was always behind in school. I got my Grade 8 and then I had to go out and work permanently.”

Later, when their own children were in school, Sue went through Employment Canada to finish her primary education. “When my kids were in junior high, I went to the local high school and got my Grade 12. I worked for a while and then I went to nursing school,” she says. Meanwhile, Henry’s career in the trucking industry took off with great success.

Sue recalls a time in her childhood when her family was completely out of food. “My mom served the last bit of bread we had in the house. We didn’t even have a meal,” she says, adding that often a meal would consist of pouring a bit of coffee into a bowl, adding some sugar and dipping in bread. Sue also understands the generosity of strangers, as someone came to their aid when they ran out of food. “They left a 100 lb sack of flour on the porch,” she says.

The couple’s personal life experiences have shaped their generosity toward ChildCare International and other organizations, to help children living in extreme poverty get an education and basic necessities.

“We just had a lot of compassion when we heard about how poor these children were. We know how it feels to be that poor and get your clothes from either the dump or from the second-hand store. We wanted to help people in similar circumstances,” Sue says, adding their giving is also rooted in the couple’s strong Biblical principles.

“By caring for the poor, we get to participate in doing God’s work,” she says.  

“You can’t outgive God,” Henry agrees. “We tithe and we give, and God has proved very faithful. He has never allowed us to outgive Him.”

The couple now sponsors five children through ChildCare International and they support three more at an orphanage in Africa. They chose to sponsor one child for every member of their growing family. With every new grandchild comes a new sponsorship.

Henry and Sue want to impart the importance of giving back on their children and grandchildren.

“We are supposed to give back, and we couldn’t see the kids doing it, so we figured we would take over a little bit for them and give on their behalf,” Henry says.

“We’ve been blessed with so much. We want our children and grandchildren to learn the importance of reaching people who don’t have much,” Sue says.  

“I keep all the pictures of our sponsored children, and our grandchildren like to look at them,” she says, adding that when the grandchildren go to bed at night, they are thankful for their beds because they know some people don’t have one.

With a mission to break the cycle of poverty one child at a time through Christ-centred education, ChildCare International appreciates sponsors like Henry and Sue, who help every child to feel cherished, be educated, and be inspired to live with purpose and joy.