Back a number of years ago I attended the "Women of Faith" conference in Oklahoma City. There, I was introduced to the idea of child sponsorship and I walked away from the conference with a little boy, Mpundu. I will admit to being a poor communicator. I did all the things WorldVision sent me to keep in touch with him and let him know he is thought of and loved from afar. But I didn't so much extra.
Fast forward to our time in the Azores. I had been wanting to sponsor a second child for a while, but I guess I was being lazy or holding back and had not set it up. I also wanted to look into another organization, Compassion International, that works in third-world communities through child sponsorship. During that tour in the Azores, we had a miscarriage. I was so sad, but this seemed like the right time to add a sponsored child into our family, so I picked a little girl from Peru, Natalia. Had our baby been a girl, we would have called her Natalie and I wanted this little girl to be blessed in honor of our little one.
Now, our sponsored children include one boy, Sanzya (who took Mpundu's place when WorldVision completed their work in his community), Natalia, who is now 7 years old, and more recently we added a 17 year old girl named Rosalande, from Haiti. Older children have a hard time finding sponsors, but it can mean so much blessing in their lives when they do. I think since I don't have any daughters I am drawn to the girls. I also think, what a difference we can make in the world when we give girls a chance! In many third world countries women are the sole providers for the children and they need help.
Sponsorship is so cool because you know you are making a huge impact in these young ones' lives. They are able to go to school, be dressed in appropriate clothing, and have access to food and clean water because of your generosity. You can send extra gifts (of $$) for birthdays, Christmas, or whenever. I have done this and received back pictures of our kids so happy with the things they were able to purchase with that money. Sanzya actually bought a bed roll with one of our gifts and I had to explain to Jackson and Max that not all kids live in houses like we do. Some of them do not have access to running water and have to walk long miles to get to it and bring it home. And most of the times, when they do this, the water is not clean. Many of them live in a house that has a dirt floor and no windows. Probably almost none of them have flushing toilets. What an eye opener for my kids. I hope as they continue to grow up that they never take for granted the blessing of living in America. And that they use the blessings that come with living life here to bless others.
Most recently I decided to participate in Compassion International's Speak Up campaign, in which I got the name of a little boy who needs a sponsor and I would pray over who might be the right person to ask to be his sponsor. I had a couple people (and their families) in mind, but then I thought I would write about him here as well. The little boy is Abdoulaye Kabore and he was born 10/17/2009. He lives in Boromo, Burkina Faso, a country in Africa. Would any of you reading this feel led to sponsor this young boy in need?
And if not this boy, another child in need? Compassion has so many to choose from. You can make it special by aligning something about that child with something special in your life: a birthday, anniversary, special achievement... You can just look through their pictures and see which one speaks to your heart. You can just click on the first one you see.
If you have questions about the process or more about my/our personal journey with sponsorship, feel free to comment or write to me personally or give me a call, whatever. I want to talk about it!! Being a part of something like this is super exciting and a blessing to both that child and I know it will be to whoever steps up.
