.Waiting for You.

Poverty is all she has ever known. She was born into it, and as far as she can tell she will die under it. Falling asleep on a cold, hard, dirt floor with a hallow belly and no hope for change in the morning is normal for her. Working laboriously from dusk to dawn to help meet the needs of her little family, she has never been given the privilege of attending school. Until one day when the most wonderful thing happens, and she hears a church nearby has joined with Compassion International. Her mother quickly hurries to the church and signs her up for the sponsorship program -a program that could change the life of her entire family and release them from the bondage of poverty. A program that offers the unthinkable -educational opportunities, health care and health-related instruction, nutrition, life-skills training, and most importantly opportunities to hear about and respond to the Gospel. She stands outside the church, heart racing as she nervously smiles for the camera. Papers are filled out, and she is told that all that she must now do is wait for a sponsor to choose her.

And she waits.

And waits.

And waits some more.

At first she would wake up hopeful that today would be the day she would learn that she was chosen, that a sponsor had picked her. But as the days roll into weeks and then roll into months, she loses hope. As she lays on the dirt floor in her little home with a belly aching with hunger she thinks to herself,

Did I not smile big enough? Am I not worthy to be chosen? My life will never be different than this.

 

Right this moment as I pluck out this post on my keyboard there are children all over the world anxiously, desperately, longingly waiting for you. Children with a heart, a soul, a name, and a hope that you can help fulfill.  Children that fall asleep every night praying that you will say yes to them and end their months of waiting. These 1.2 million children in 26 different countries are not mere statistics. They are boys and girls made in the image of God; boys and girls just like the ones we tuck into bed every night in our homes. The only difference is that these 1.2 million children are not safe and warm with full bellies, they are imprisoned by poverty.

The beautiful, wonderful news is that Jesus died to give these children a hope, and He wants to use us as His hands and feet for these precious little ones! Compassion International is an amazing ministry which allows normal, everyday people - like me - to participate in global ministry and the expansion of the kingdom of God. And we get to do it from the comfort and the safety of our own home. Compassion's Sponsorship is a unique program in which a sponsor will be connected with one child in the program, providing an opportunity for personal, long term connection, with the blessing of exchanging letters of encouragement and receiving updates and photographs as the child grows and develops.

A child sponsorship through Compassion is simple and beautiful. When you say yes to one of Compassion's children, you change their life forever! You will be impacting eternity and helping to care for the poor and the needy. All that is required of you is $38 a month, a few encouraging letters a year, and a heart tender to what breaks the Father's heart - children living in poverty when His church has the ability to do something about it. Yes, possibly a sacrifice, but surely we can all cut away our budget enough for $38 and the opportunity for a child to hear the Gospel and be given a new life. For the sake of a child to be given the opportunity to respond to the Gospel, $38 is nothing. I cannot think of many other things that we can better spend our money on, and I can think of a lot of foolish things I have spent $38 on every month.

There are hundreds of children, just like the fictional child I wrote about above, who are real and have been waiting for a sponsor for at least six months. That is 180 days wondering when you were going to pick her or him and say yes, I will be the hands and feet of Jesus for you. 180 days thinking he or she was not worthy of a sponsor and that their life was never going to change, that poverty was always going to enslave them.

There is a child waiting for you.

There is a child that has been waiting for at least 6 months for you.

Imagine the joy when that child wakes up in the morning and realizes that after all of that waiting and dreaming  and hoping, she has a sponsor!

Please go find the child waiting for you here.

I would love to hear all about the child that you choose and rejoice with you, so please share!