Festival Con Dios Crosses Boundaries for Child Sponsorship
Bolivia trip unites concertgoer with sponsored child

Festival Con Dios recently collaborated with a charity on a trip to Bolivia as part of a larger vision to bring child sponsors to the children and communities they help support.

Festival Con Dios, a pioneer among Christian music tours, is no stranger to big ideas. The traveling festival has become a cultural event, combining a carnival atmosphere -- complete with inflatable games and stunt shows — with top artists and a passion for ministry.

Back: Mark Hoover & Van Hohe; Front: Felix, Mark’s sponsored child.

They raised the stakes with an unprecedented offer: to take a sponsor on an all expenses paid trip to visit his or her child overseas. The eventual plan is to make similar trips a regular event to give concertgoers at Festival Con Dios opportunities to meet the children they sponsor.

Van Hohe, general manager of Festival Con Dios, says he proposed the idea for the trips because he wanted to "make sponsors part of the solution in person, not just through their dollars." Working closely with a child sponsorship organization, Hohe says he "found a group of loving people who genuinely desire to help the hurting." He wanted to give people the chance he had -- to get to know Food For the Hungry and its work for themselves. According to Hohe, "Once people meet their sponsored children, they will experience the reality of the need and where their money is going."

The trip this August provided that opportunity. Hohe traveled with a child sponsor to Bolivia to visit communities. They played with kids at schools, met with local pastors and visited families in their homes. "I feel like my life has been changed forever … in some ways this is a culmination of my vision for what we can do through Christian music to impact people’s lives," Hohe says.

For Hohe, one of the highlights of the trip was watching Mark Hoover, a youth pastor from Texas, meet Felix, the boy he sponsored with his youth group at Festival Con Dios. "When we were at the child's home, Mark was able to present him with a sweater and two pairs of new pants. That little boy -- all shyness and all reservation left his body. He jumped up into the air and planted this giant kiss on Mark's face," Hohe exclaims. "Mark will never forget this child. Mark will forever remember to pray, he will forever share the story of his sponsored child. … He will never question whether or not his few dollars a month are doing something in this child's life."