Compassion International

     I have always loved being around children.  At a young age I remember wanting to hold a baby and the mother cautiously hovering over me to make sure I didn't harm her precious bundle of joy.  I always knew that I wanted to be a mom and naturally wanted my career to involve helping children too. 
     When I was in 6th grade I went to summer camp to a Mission Fuge in Mobile, AL.  During our time at camp we had to choose between, at the time, 5 different areas in a mission field which included: carpentry work, children's ministries, and several others.  I bet you can guess which one I signed up for that week.  Our task for the week was to host a VBS for the area children.  It was a simpler form which worked out great.  This particular VBS was located in a very poor area of town and if I remember right we had around 30 kids.  However, there was this one little girl that I connected with, she was adorable and I carried her everywhere I went.  For that week we were inseparable.  At that moment though I realized that I wanted to make a difference in the life of a child. 
     With that always being in the back of my mind as I grew up, I wanted to make a difference not only in my community and nation but around the world.  Please don't interpret this as a look at all the good I'm doing because it isn't.  It's only through the grace of God that things like this are laid on our hearts and He always works out the details. 
     In October 2013, I went to a Beth Moore conference in Springfield and it was AMAZING!  If you ever get the chance go see this wonderful speaker, sign up immediately.  While at the conference they were advertising that Compassion International was in need of more sponsors for their children.  This organization has been around a long time and I had seen a lot of different people who had supported a child through Compassion.  With it weighing heavy on my heart that weekend, I called Chase to ask him if it was ok to sign up to become sponsors, which he replied yes.  I also didn't want to sponsor one child.  I mean how could I choose between a boy or girl, so the obvious choice was choose both a boy and girl. 
     Choosing to sponsor a child has been one of the best decisions of my life, aside from my wedding day.  Both of my children live half way around the world, but Compassion has provided me with so much material about their country as well as the child and their family.  The cost to sponsor a child is $38 a month and this takes care of food, hygiene, schooling and supplies, and any other needs.  It is also an option to send them an extra donation on their birthday or a holiday.  The sponsors through Compassion in their country use the money and make a purchase for the child from us. 
     The biggest blessing has been the letters that we have received twice a year.  Our youngest child we sponsor is not able to write yet, he will start school this January.  He has an adult from Compassion help him write his letter.  However, our girl that we sponsor writes to us and then someone translates it, seeing her handwriting in another language is so beautiful.  I love seeing what the children write to us.  Compassion provides a template for the children to use and on one side it has the children answer questions about themselves for example: do you have pets, the weather right now is, and many others.  It always makes my day to receive these letters.  The children always include a drawing, and not that I am partial but they are going to be artists some day.  As sponsors we are encouraged to write back to our children, which we take full advantage of writing.  We cannot send large items through the mail as customs will open and dismiss a whole stack for a suspicious looking package.  However, Compassion has a list of small items we can send such as: stickers, book marks, coloring pages, and a rather large list of items. 
     The purpose of this post is to bring awareness to a great organization, Compassion International.  God has blessed me with so much that I wanted to help someone else out in return.  There have been so many times when I have had a bad day and get home and check the mail to find a letter sitting in the mailbox from one of my children.  To the right side of this post is a link to Compassions website and it's so quick to become a sponsor I promise it will be one of the biggest blessings of your life.  One click and you will fall in love with so many sweet little faces of children who deserve a fighting chance.  Until next time always, Chasing Hope.