Compassion

For awhile now, the orphans and children of poverty have been on my heart. I would love to do mission work, but right now that is not right for our family. I would love to adopt, but right now it is not within our means. That is OK. There will be a time. I believe that and I believe it is something impressed upon me by God. However, I wanted to do something NOW. We decided as a family to choose to sponsor a child through Compassion International. It is a child sponsorship program that provides food, educational opportunities, health and hygiene training, and medical check ups in addition to the message of Jesus. This program helps spread God's love to these children who many times feel as though they don't matter.

How do you choose a child?! There are so many. We poured over child profiles and pictures looking for a child to sponsor. We had decided we would like to sponsor a girl because we have all boys. Silly reason, sure, but it helped us narrow it down a little bit.  Then we asked the kids what age they would like. Doc said 4, Mr. X said 3. We looked and looked. We found about 6 different girls that stuck out to us to choose from. It was agreed upon to pick Genesis from Ecuador. She is 5 almost 6. A little older than we had originally planned but she has been waiting over 6 months. I just don't know how to choose from so many. I don't feel like I chose the right way but I prayed that God would lead us to the right child. Genesis means "birth" in Greek and is the first book of the Bible. To me, the name means a beginning. I hope that our sponsorship is the beginning of a new life for this precious little girl. Mr. X is so sweet. We placed her profile on our fridge and this morning I found this:

Mr. X wrote on it, "We all love you."

Mr. X just warms my heart. He is becoming more and more empathetic to those around him and I love to see it. I love that he is so sensitive to others and that the Gospel is so simple to him. Sometimes I worry that he doesn't really get it but then he will say something or do something that proves otherwise. Kids keep it simple. We, as adults, make it more difficult than it needs to be. Then at dinner, Mr. X prayed for her. He prayed that she would be able to go to school and that Jesus would remember to love her. :)

One of the six girls we chose from has really tugged at my heart strings. Oh how I wanted to sponsor her but it was not for me to decide on my own. This is as much for my children as it is for the child we sponsor. This little girl's name is Yuyun. She is from Indonesia and 4 yrs old. I prayed that someone would sponsor her soon since it was not for us to do. I just looked at Compassion's website and she isn't there! An answer to prayer I am sure of it. Someone sponsored that sweet girl. Oh how it makes my heart sing to know these children are being chosen each and every day! Will you pray for them? Will you pray that more children are sponsored and get the opportunity to hear about Jesus?