Through Her Eyes – Why I am excited about being a Compassion Blogger

Do you notice anything different about my sidebar? I’ll give you a hint, it looks like this:

While I have partnered with some awesome organizations, I am probably most excited about this one. You see -back when I was in high school I was convinced I was going to be a missionary. I spent most of my summers on missions trips. I have been to Mexico, Peru (twice!), New Orleans, and Panama. I spent anywhere from two weeks to a month on these trips. While my friends were laying out at the beach, going to the movies, or going bowling I was having the time of my life serving these small, and often desolate, communities. At the age 15 I even decided to sponsor my own child through Compassion International. Her name was Gloria. She was a beautiful little girl from Peru, probably around 7 or so when I was sponsoring her. I was actually lucky enough to meet up with her on one of my missions trips to Peru. We spent the day playing at the park, having lunch, and laughing at my broken spanish. Her eyes were filled with hope and innocence. I’ll never forget that day.

As time passed I returned to my high school life and the chaos of it all left me with not a lot of time to work and no money to continue the sponsorship. I moved on to my internship program, falling in love, getting married and eventually found myself drawn to a different child sponsorship program where my husband and I sponsored a child for 3 years. Just recently they closed down the project where our sponsored child was and it left us sad that we would no longer be able to connect with her. Shortly after that I noticed Maggie from Gussy Sews talking about her trip to Tanzania with Compassion. And once again I remembered Gloria. Then I saw a tweet about signing up to be a Compassion Blogger. I was in. My husband and I sponsored a new child through Compassion and here I am now blogging about it.

This month (September) is Blog Month at Compassion. They are trying to raise awareness for the children in need through blogging. Their goal is to have 3108 children sponsored this month and as of 9/24 they had 2297. If you want to make a difference in the life of a child go to Compassion now and find a child to sponsor. Just $38 a month provides your sponsored child with nutrition & hygiene education, medical screening, bible teaching, tutoring, & materials needed for school.

The writing prompt for this blog is supposed to be for us to write a post from the view of a sponsored child. So, here goes.

I wake up to a loud grumbling noise. My stomach is growling again. I think about the last meal I ate, lunch yesterday at the church. The only time I know for sure that I will eat is when I’m there. We have small meals at home, but those are never guarunteed. If dad got a job for the day we may have some rice, but work has been slow lately… so those days don’t happen too often. I slip on my shoes, they are worn out and my heels hang off the back, but this is all I own. I see a few children in the village preparing to go to the local school house, I want to go but mother says we cannot afford it. Plus, they need my help. My job is to walk to the well and carry buckets of water back to the house. This takes up most of my morning. When it is time to head to the Compassion Church I get excited. The people there are so nice and welcoming. They teach me about a man named Jesus. They make me feel important. I am thankful that my sponsors send me letters and even sent a Bible so I could read about Jesus! They feed me and help me if I’m sick. Without them I wouldn’t have gotten the medicine I needed for my infection last year. Someday I hope to meet my sponsors, but until I do I will keep writing them letters and sending them pictures.

Have you ever sponsored a Child? If not, what are you waiting for?