Compassion & A dream

When I was at the worship summit this past weekend, they showed a video on the compassion organization (www.compassion.com). What happens when you become a “sponsor” is you get to support a specific child. You can have a direct impact on their life, provide them with an education, basic needs, church resources, etc. also, the kids write letters to their sponsor! And you can write them back and send birthday presents. How cool is that? it gives them hope – hope that there is a bigger world out there that cares for them, hope that they can get thru their circumstance, hope in the Lord!

“whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed” Proverbs 19:17

I’m such a sap for videos like what they showed at the conference – its like when Jon & I went to go “look at puppies” what did we come home with? A puppy!!! I wasn’t even expecting it (I thought they were too young to be removed from the litter).

But now especially, God is teaching me about sowing and reaping – you reap what you sow, but more. To have the opportunity to financially & spiritually support a young girl from Africa is reward in and of itself.

So – Jon & I have made the decision that this is a good place for us to start impacting the lives of young children from impoverished nations. Ultimately, we’d like to have a much larger impact than this, but this is something that we can do here & now. So we are now sponsoring a 7 (almost 8!) year old girl from Togo (République Togolaise)– which is a small nation in western Africa. Honestly, I’ve not heard about the country until today, but Wikipedia tells me that it was inhabited by the French at some point and was turned into an independent nation in 1960. I picked it because the official language is French. I figure that way, there’s a greater chance of us being able to communicate – just have to dust off the old high school French! More info on Togo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo. Her name is Valerie Abla Ayawo, born April 10, 2001 she likes singing and listening to music (this is pretty much why I chose her). Updates to follow on Valerie if there are any!

How exciting!!! :)

Maybe someday, I’ll be able to do this: www.cwa.org !!! It has been a dream of mine for a long time to adopt a foreign baby girl. It all started in high school when a couple from our church adopted a little baby girl from china. I thought – what a neat idea! I love travel, seeing the world, experiencing new cultures, how about flipping that around & caring & nurturing for a baby that would otherwise be impoverished, cast out or abandoned? Plus, I think it’d be fun & educational to immerse ourselves in the culture that the baby is from – cooking the food, celebrating the holidays, visiting the country a few times (if possible).

Well, this is a ways off for Jon & I. we want to spend a few years married first and certainly have biological children first. Each country that the US can adopt from has different rules for prequalifications – like china has the most strict, you have to have a BMI under 40, be over 30 but under 45, married for at least 2 years with no divorces in your past, no major illnesses, and a net worth over $80K (at least that was what I read recently – they might have changed those). Life is an adventure, and if part of my adventure includes this, I’m excited!!!