About us - CFCA 25th Anniversary

25th Anniversary Sacred Ground

Read the 25th Anniversary Sacred Ground Click below to download a printable copy of the cover of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Sacred Ground in order to make a keepsake photo print of this art. The photomontage was created with approximately 500 photos of CFCA sponsored children, aging, staff, board members, volunteers and preachers. The primary photo shows a mother and daughter, Suman and Preeti, 8, walking in the Kolhai slum near the Taj Majal in Agra, India. Download a souvenir photograph of the cover

Twenty-five years ago, a group of lay Catholics from Kansas City agreed the world could benefit from a personalized sponsorship program based on Catholic social teaching and true friendship across borders. Brothers Bob, Bud and Jim Hentzen, their sister Nadine (Hentzen) Pearce and their friend Jerry Tolle founded Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, which was incorporated on Nov. 20, 1981.

Today, thanks to the generosity of sponsors from all 50 states and 60 countries, CFCA provides vital benefits such as food, education, medical care, clothing and training in income-producing trades to more than 310,000 children, youth and aged in 25 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

“God has deeply blessed CFCA on its journey across these 25 years,” said CEO Paco Wertin. “CFCA has been shaped by those we have reached out to serve. Grounded in Catholic social teaching, we dedicate ourselves to life-giving relationships that will, over time, transform our world."

Nov. 20 kicked off a series of commemorations of milestones for the organization, which is based in Kansas City, Kan. The first child was sponsored in the Bogota, Colombia, project in 1982. In 1984, CFCA added sponsorship of the aged to its program and is the only major sponsorship organization to do so.

In 1988, CFCA hosted its first mission awareness trip to Guatemala. Mission awareness trips provide an opportunity for sponsors to travel to CFCA projects in other countries to meet their sponsored friends and witness the program in action. In 2006, CFCA hosted 492 travelers on 28 mission awareness trips to 13 countries.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Kansas City, Kan., archdiocese is CFCA’s Silver Jubilee sponsor. Archbishop Naumann sponsors a third-year seminarian in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Besides children, youth and the aged, CFCA offers the opportunity to sponsor candidates studying for religious vocations in developing countries.

Co-founders Bob Hentzen, Bud Hentzen and Nadine Pearce remain active in CFCA. Bob Hentzen is the organization’s president, overseeing CFCA’s international operations from his home base in Guatemala.

“I pray that with God’s blessing, we will continue our shared struggle to build communities of compassion, offer an outstretched hand to those in need and help God’s humble people live with dignity,” he said in reflecting on the 25th anniversary.

Bud Hentzen, a resident of Wichita, Kan., and Nadine Pearce, who lives in Leawood, Kan., are directors emeriti, or non-voting members of the CFCA board. Jim Hentzen died in 1993, and Jerry Tolle died in 1995 in an automobile accident in Spain on his return home from project visits in Africa.

The values the co-founders brought to the organization were formed as children. Bob, Bud and Nadine frequently speak of the example set by their parents and extended family. The Hentzens grew up across from Redemptorist Parish in Kansas City, Mo., and their values were reinforced by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who staffed the parish school.

For Bob Hentzen, these lessons were further honed by the Christian Brothers, his teachers at De La Salle High School in Kansas City. Jerry Tolle’s strong faith foundation was reinforced at Rockhurst High School, where his legendary intellect garnered many academic honors.

"The vision of the co-founders is being realized today through the mutually beneficial relationships developed over time between sponsors and their sponsored friends," said Larry Livingston, CFCA’s director of U.S. Outreach.

“CFCA provides a grace-filled way for people of good will to feed their spirits while doing something good for another human being,” he said. “It is a grass-roots movement of people from all cultures and walks of life, trying to transform the world one relationship at a time.”

Anniversary greetings from CFCA projects around the world

Read how sponsorship has touched the lives of CFCA sponsors

Read more CFCA history

Sponsor a child or aging friend