The Ease of Compassion
So I told you that last week I attended Travis’ Live CD taping at Woodstock. I’ll never get over the worship but that’s not just because the music was so fabulous, it’s because I brought worship home with me. By that I mean I committed our family to being a Compassion Child Sponsor.
Before the recording Shaun Groves (oh my gosh he is awesome..totally see why Sophie raves now) shared about the work of Compassion International. Now, if you read blogs AT ALL you are aware of the different girls who’ve travelled with this organization to bring awareness to their programs. I just love reading the Compassion blogs when they are on site. Word by word, you can feel the souls shifting of the ones ministering in these areas for the first time.
So why haven’t I sponsored before now? Truthfully? It’s because I’m a loser at follow-through. It wasn’t that I thought I couldn’t afford to send the money but rather I know how important it is to these children to have communication from their sponsor families. Ultimately I was afraid I would be a disappointment to the kid who was stuck with me. I thought I would need to send care packages. I thought I’d need to send cards for special occasions and since I have a stack of holiday cards for MY OWN HUSBAND that I never manage to deliver, oh lets say, across the room I just knew I’d fail at being the kind of sponsor a kid across the ocean deserved. And for those lame reasons, I just didn’t.
Well, after hearing Shaun’s appeal that Sunday I couldn’t stand it any longer. It’s like God was saying, “Lisa, how can you presume to teach the love and mercy of God when you don’t practice it?” And then there’s the passage in Isaiah 58:7-8ish(?) that I’ve heard many times but was the stake in my heart that day. It essentially says “True religion is caring for the poor.” True religion. If there’s anything I want more of, it’s that. So, I took an envelope and asked God to help me not to be the world’s worst Compassion Sponsor. Imagine being the first person ever booted from the program since the therapy the child would need as a result of my neglect would be more expensive than the other necessities.
With all that said, we are now sponsoring a 13-year old boy in India named Palivela. I received an email today confirming our commitment and I spent a while looking through the website. And y’all. Oh my gosh I’m still so excited.
I can email Palivela. RIGHT THERE ON THE SITE! AND A TRANSLATOR WILL GIVE MY LETTER TO HIM! Not that I don’t intend to send real letters to him (there’s that Intend word that always gets me in trouble) but an email letter is better than nothing, right? Y’all, I can do the email!
And guess what else!!!? They don’t even allow you to send care packages! I can make a birthday/special occasion donation through the handy dandy website and a location worker will make sure Palivela gets a needful gift from us! I can do the special donations!
So I guess I’m writing this to reach out to any of you who may be hesitating in sponsorship for the same reason as me. If I’m the only flake who struggles in this area, please make me feel better and keep it to yourself. You can make me feel even better than that though if you will check out Compassion’s website and see how easy it is to sponsor a child of your own.
The great people there have thought of everything to keep you from looking like a major loser.
Now that’s some true religion.
It blessed my heart when I saw you filling out the form that evening. We sponsor 3 children through another organization but I so wanted to raise my hand again. If I could I’d sponsor them all!!
Love ya!
Cheryl
We are sponsoring 5 at church. It has truly blessed my heart to read all the letters and see the drawings those children send. Get you a scrapbook and start filling the pages of what will be the best investment your family has ever made!
Way to go!!! Ain’t God good!!!
For my 40th birthday I gave myself a little girl in Honduras! I love getting her letters. And that inspires me to write her. What works for me, is that I have set aside a day of the month (the 1st) to sit down and write a short letter. Having it scheduled as a regular thing keeps me more accountable (at least most months, it is on my to-do list tonight! ;-))
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your blog. I’ve never been here before, but will definitely be back.
Compassion is such a great ministry. So glad you joined in!
We love our sweet Yongki. Noah prays for him. Every.single.night. We share letters back and forth and it’s been such a blessing for our family. I’m so glad you decided to sponsor a child!
Congrats!
I’m glad you decided to go ahead and do it! I love getting letters. It’s so cool to see them actually written out in their language, then somebody translates it to English on the same paper. I have every letter my “child” has written……and I’ve be a sponsor for 6 years!
You will be so blessed!
p.s….still doing the bookclub, I just haven’t had a moment when I could think straight in the last day or so…whew! maybe tomorrow!
“I’ve BEEN a sponsor, not BE a sponsor….
….see, no thinking straight over here! haha!
Lisa and all,
Last May I had the opportunity to spend a week in El Salvador seeing the work of Compassion, International up close. I was a believer in the ministry before…but I’m passionate about it now. If you’d like to see my blog posts and pictures from my trip you can find them at http://www.jillsavage.com—just click on the “My Compassion Trip” picture on the right side of my blog. I’m so glad you joined the Compassion family Lisa!
When my youngest daughter was about 9, she was campaigning for a baby sister in a BIG way. Since there had been, um, measures taken to prevent that from happening :o), we sponsored her a “baby sister” instead. It was such a great experience for her and all of us. That little sister is now grown (18) and doing great!
Wow, I don’t feel so guilty now..hahaha
I also sponsored a child that night, took the packet home and it is still sitting where I left it…I have looked at it…while walking by…but thinking the same thing about failing to do what I needed concerning writing, or sending something other than my monthly commitment! (that was a horrible run-on sentence, but oh well)
My hesitation in the past is the thought of it being a scam. Was I really sponsoring a child or am I just sending money to some corporation who gives them a dollar of the thirty something I commit to???
Anyhoo, I was also convicted the night of Travis’ concert. Hearing Shaun’s passion in this sparked a passion in me to help. We have so much and take so much for granted!
I’m very excited to know we can email and that I don’t have to stress myself out on what to send him! (We also have a boy from India)
It’s a wonderful ministry.
Just stopping by to say congratulations for being one of the Internet Cafe’s Top 100 Christian Women’s Blogs of 2008!
Hey there Lisa!
My husband and I are going to be sponsering one too. I’m excited about it!
I’m with you.
Email is in my can-do zone.
On an unrelated topic, I just read your comment on the LPM blog about the slanket. Girlfriend. I wrote on Melanie’s blog yesterday about my 11 yr old saying this to me Monday night:
“mom, since I didn’t get everything I wanted for Christmas, do you think I’ll get the rest of it for my birthday?”
HUH?!
(I really thought he had a pretty derned good turnout under the tree, so what was I missing?)
He said, “you know, I didn’t get that snuggie that I wanted. The one that comes with that booklight”
…and all this time I’ve anticipated these preteen years would be 11 going on 17 what with liking the girls and cars etc etc.
Instead, I’m guessing I should anticipate stocking the cupboards with geritol and preparation H.
??
Hey, Lisa! That’s awesome about your child sponsorship through Compassion. We sponsor children through another organization and I also do some volunteer work for them. I’m headed back to India in a few weeks and will be making periodic trips there….consider going with me sometime!!!
We used to sponser. Time to re-anty!
We have a precious little girl named Sofia and yes its with an “f.” :) She is in uganda and we LOVE her. And, I’m also quite fond of the email too.
Love ya girl. You’ll do just fine.
Hugs,
Fran
You crack me up!! Headshot…cute…you’re a natural!!
Hello fellow blogger, I stopped by your site and thought maybe you would like to swap links with me, after adding http://voiceofbragg.com with the title “Blog Till Death” to your site, message me and I will add yours…have a great day
I loved this post, Lisa. Very practical.
And seeing as I’ve been all about Compassion this last week, I linked to you here.
Thanks for sharing about Compassion! My husband and I sponsor a little boy from Ethiopia. We love getting letters from him that we proudly display on our refrigerator. Lord willing, in a few years when we live overseas we will be able to visit him. I cannot wait! When I think I am too busy to write I try to remember what would it be like if that was the only piece of mail I received in months. That usually helps me put my busy life in perspective. Best of luck to you!