Yesterday I posed a question, how does one "choose" from children in an orphanage? How do you change one child's life and leave the rest behind? Yesterday, God led me to the beginning of the answering of that question, in order to prepare me for the day I travel to a Russian orphanage and am forced to make a choice of a human being from amongst many in need.
Meet FJ. She is my new "child" and Ari's new sister. After agonizing over how I would ever make a choice in children to "save", I began checking on all the blogs I follow. Some I follow daily, others from time to time. I was led back to Kelly's Blog and low and behold she had posted the most amazing story and photos regarding Compassion, a Christian organization that helps children living in extreme poverty go to school and find faith in the teachings of God. I must have spent 2 hours looking at her site and the Compassion site. Finally, there was no way I could just turn the computer off without looking through the many, many children's photos whom are waiting to be sponsored. I really did not intend to sponsor a child at that time, especially since I have just enough money in the bank to get to my next check, yet something stronger than myself pulled me towards answering the call to give a child a chance at a better life. So, I did it, I chose one from THOUSANDS, and just by clicking a mouse, made a big difference in the life of a chidl. Later that day, before I really had time to stress and worry about where that $38.00 was going to come from this month, praise the lord, I went out and got the mail and there was a check that had been lost in the mail for about a month! It was enough to cover the sponsorship this month with a little extra! God never fails you when you answer his true calling.
In any event, looking through the pages and pages and pages of waiting children and then reading their stories was hard. Then I thought back to Kelly's story and the video of her meeting her sponsored child. I began to think of ways for me to make a connection to a child. I mulled over the issue of African children and how to me, they seem so much more needy than others, but then I also thought that there would likely be a slim to none chance that I would ever get to Africa to maybe meet my child. Then I went back to thinking well, I am African-American, maybe I should sponsor a child in Africa, and the debate raged on within my head for about another 10 min. until I came across a photo of a young girl in a blue dress. There was a heart on the left side of the photo, meaning she had been waiting for a sponsor for more than 6 months. I clicked on the details of her life. She lives in Hati (hmmm, I have always wanted to do a service mission to the Haitian orphanages), her parents are both teachers (hmmm, I'm a teacher), and so it was decided, FJ became my sponsored child, and I made the pledge to sponsor her until she is 18 years old. I calculated it, and the cost to do so will be about $6,000.00. To me, that is a pittance to save a child, change a life, and to ease some of the burden her parents feel in not being able to provide the basic needs for their children. I know in my heart that I will meet FJ one day, and I cannot wait to write to her. I think I am most happy about the approach that Compassion takes, as everything is centered around faith and love. I always think that to have a strong faith as a child, one does so much better through life, having the strength, knowledge, and belief that God is always at your side.
And....praise God! Kelly reports that because of her blog and story on her sponsorship and travel to meet her child, 78 children have been sponsored so far this week! Wonderful news!
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