Be the change
Have you ever thought about children other than your own? Children who have less than yours? Typically our lives are so chaotic as parents doing things for our children that we don’t feel we have extra time to think about children other than our own. I get it, we are constantly pouring out all of our energy and love for our own.... as we should! Have you ever had a minute to think others that have less than you? If you have a few minutes right now (maybe your kid is napping.......maybe) imagine with me what it would be like in a different scenario.
This past week I went on a missions trip with Compassion International to Brazil. I’m sure you have heard of organizations where you sponsor a child. For however much money a month, they provide children with their basic needs like food, clean water, health care, schooling, teaching them about Jesus, etc. Along with the financial part, you and them create a bond through letter writing. Compassion International is one of those. Do you know that many children in the world go to bed hungry at night? I’m not talking about our children who cry out in “hunger” at night because they don’t want to go to bed. I’m talking about kids who have skipped several meals because their parents or parent don’t have the means to provide them with food. While on this missions trip I got to meet one of our family’s sponsor children, Jose. He’s 5 years old. Any of you out there currently have a 5 year old? Think about them and imagine this situation being theirs and yours. Jose’s mom is a single mom with 3 boys. Jose’s father passed away from being unable to get medical care when he became ill. His family lives in a tiny and quite frankly an unacceptable living space. Their neighborhood is so full of drug related crime, Jose is rarely allowed outside. Before being accepted into the Compassion project, Jose had an even tougher life than you could ever imagine. Here comes the joyful part!
Now that Jose has been accepted into the program, he gets nutritional meals, he has access to schooling, he has a safe place to play at the center, and most importantly he has hope for a future! We often block out the needs of others because we feel helpless about how large the problem is. But a small sacrifice on our part brings one more child out of poverty. It takes one person to start a movement. Be that person to start it and inspire others to do the same! If you are ready to take a step to remove poverty from the world, head over to Compassion International, sponsor a child and be ready for your life to be changed forever!
