Friday, March 12, 2010

compassion sponsorship

in 2001 i went with a bunch of my friends to creation fest. it's basically a christian music festival with lots of bands and speakers. it was the first time i had ever been and i had a lot of fun. the creation festival has partnered with compassion international and every year they try to get as many kids sponsored as possible. my friend and i both felt like we were supposed to sponsor a child so we walked over to the compassion tent and started browsing through photographs of hundreds of little kids. i didn't feel led to choose a specific country, but i did know i wanted to sponsor a little girl. then a photograph caught my eye. it was a 4 year old little girl from haiti named eveline. she had the same birthday as my sister katie- april 5th- and i thought that was special. so i chose her.

a couple years later i was back at the creation festival and when the speakers on stage would talk about compassion and sponsoring a kid i kind of zoned out. i knew the routine. i was already doing it. and then the speaker said, "some of you are tuning me out because you already sponsor a child with compassion. maybe God is calling you to sponsor a 2nd one." immediately i perked up and i felt that tugging in my heart. i could afford another $32 a month (at the time that was the cost, it's up to $38 now). i was working full time, making good money, had very few expenses. it wouldn't even be a sacrifice for me to sponsor another child. so once again i found myself walking to the compassion tent staring at all those photos of precious little children just waiting to be sponsored. this time i was more purposeful about who i chose. i wanted another child from haiti and i wanted a little boy. i figured if i ever got the chance to visit my compassion kids it made sense that they be from the same county. so that's how i found little denol.

i'll be honest... there are months that go by where i don't write... where i forget to pray for them. i get so used to seeing their picture in my room that i walk past it without taking time to really look at it. i move on with my life and the automatic withdrawl happens every month without a second thought. these days my life is in a different place and now it actually is a sacrifice for that $76 every month, but God provides and i still have all i need.

on january 12th when that earthquake hit haiti i thought about them. and i prayed for them and their families. i wondered if they were alive. were they suffering? did they have food to eat? what if they ended up in a mass grave like so many others? i knew it would take compassion time to find out the answers to all these questions.

last week i got the call. there was a blinking red light on the answering machine. a voice on the machine told me that both my children were alive. their homes suffered damage but they were ok. i felt such relief. i am so thankful for the work of organizations like compassion that are providing hope to children and families around the world who need it most. i've been keeping up with mckmama's posts while she was in kenya with compassion international and it's been amazing to hear her stories.

i pray that someday i will have the chance to go visit eveline and denol... to hug them and tell them how special they are.

to let them know that the sacrifice was worth it.

that they are worth it. because everyone needs to know that.




Sponsor a Child in Jesus Name with Compassion
Sponsor a Child

3 comments:

Katie @ Loves of Life said...

I hope we BOTH can go visit our kiddos...maybe I can be one of those bloggers and do the trip sponsored by them ;) That would rock!

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

That's so great that your two kids ended up being ok!

Anonymous said...

I need to take the time to write to my sponsor child Josue in Peru. I just never know what to say. Wonder why I find it so difficult.