.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!

.Her Name is Gerlie.

It will be two years ago this March. That was when I first saw her face - those big beautiful eyes, the solemn expression with pouty lips, the brave way her shoulders squared on her teeny, tiny body. She had a red heart on her picture. This indicated that she had been waiting for at least six months for a sponsor. Six months while I sat in my comfortable home, oblivious to her needs in the Philippines. She seemed to jump out of our computer screen, bigger than life, and beg for us to sponsor her. It was Cadi who ultimately put her finger on her photo. That's her she said. And she was. She was the one that God was pointing us to.

She is Gerlie; a sweet little six year old from the Philippines. She was waiting for a sponsor through Compassion International. She was waiting for someone to choose her, for someone to care about her needs, for someone to show her the love of Jesus in a tangible way. Compassion's tag line reads "releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name". But what they failed to mention is what would happen to me - the sponsor. Gerlie was instrumental in releasing our family from materialism. We were blinded by it, sucked into the insatiable desire for more, bigger, better. But she was one of the first people that God used to open our eyes to the world and the needs around us. Through Gerlie we began to understand things in light of eternity, and our material greed slowly began to fade. It's not completely gone, shamefully, we continue to need God to place "Gerlie's" in our path - we probably always will. We are slowly learning that the only "thing" we can take with us to heaven is people - people we have reached for Jesus Christ. Gerlie taught us that many times the first step to sharing Jesus with someone is to meet their physical needs -nourish their body and then their soul.

We sponsored her for over a year with about a dozen letters between us. Gerlie was too young to write to us, so she would color pictures, and her mom would write to me. Gerlie's mom was a young widow with a tremendous amount of courage, who had recently lost her husband. She worked very hard to support her little family. I am certain that I have no idea or true understanding of how hard she really worked. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be a mom with the survival of your children literally hanging in the balance. We got word from Compassion early this year that Gerlie and her mom were moving out of Compassion's reach. Her mom was actually given the opportunity to start a business, which she believed would better sustain her family. She was counselled by Compassion, and I do believe from what they communicated with us made a wise decision. We were devastated to lose contact with this precious little girl who had changed so much of our lives, but we are hopeful for their future. We quickly chose another little girl to care for through Compassion, but there is not a day that goes by that Gerlie's name is not lifted up in prayer in our home.

I am passionate about Compassion International and the wonderful ministry they have with children and their families. Recently a team from Missions in Action visited a Compassion project in Valenzuela City, Philippines - north of the capital city - Manila. The families who call this area home are living in flooded villages. The poverty in this area is devastating, and yet the joy of Jesus is clearly evident. It brought tears to my eyes to see this place so near to where our Gerlie lived. Take a few moments out of your day and peek into what life is like for these precious people by watching this video.



A couple dollars changes a family and gives them hope. Christmas is a time to reflect on the hope we were given in the coming of tiny baby Jesus. Out of the overflow of our hearts this Christmas, perhaps God is leading us - you and me - to sponsor a Compassion child and give that child hope - hope found only in Jesus Christ. Go to Compassion's website and scroll through the children there. Children made in the image of God. Children beloved by God that He sent His precious son, Jesus, for. This Christmas give the gift of hope.

Subscribe in a reader