How do you choose Compassion?

As I clicked the link I had no memory of what I was in for.  Truly, I had forgotten.  It hadn’t been years since I had done this so how could it have slipped my mind so easily?  Only 7 months.  It had only been seven months since we looked and welcomed the first.  Is that how long it takes to forget?  But when the next page flashed on the screen of my laptop it all came rushing back in on me.  A flood.  A deluge of emotion.  Ah, now I remember.  So many faces, so many stories. 

But these aren’t fairytales.  There are no knights saving fair maidens.  These stories are real and raw and deep like a wound left by a razor-sharp knife.  And it hurts to read them.  But what is my pain compared to theirs?  No, my tears can roll but they can also be wiped away.  I can walk away from this…or can I?  I have already opened my heart to them and it is gaping wide.  Ready to take them all.  Wanting to give them wings so they can fly high above what keeps pulling them down.  Nauseating filth.  Heartbreaking poverty.  Ravaging disease.  Choking addiction.  Collapsing self-esteem.

Each precious face, who I know only from their photos and reading about personal bits of their lives, says something different.  From “I don’t understand” to “Please…I’d like you to get to know me.” These are the faces of the children waiting to be sponsored through Compassion International.  Don’t misunderstand…they are not sad, sickly looking kids.  These photos show kids with clean faces and clothes, wearing a badge of dignity.  As I look I wonder how many have even seen a picture of themselves.

To be able to narrow down this sea of sweet faces to just one leads me to questions. And so I call Compassion and ask because I know they feel the same way, and they answer me with just what God wants me to hear.  The first time my family sponsored a child I chose the option “the one who has been waiting longest.”  We were then blessed with 5 year-old Jean Fernando from Haiti.  He’s a gem.

This time, as we again add to our family, I wanted to choose based on some alarming statistics.  Girls in India and Indonesia are often sold into prostitution at a young age by their own families due to extreme poverty.  Wanting to prevent that horror, I chose 11 year-old Bala.  Isn’t she sweet?  I’m so looking forward to getting to know her!

Bala at 11

So, you see, the hard part about sponsoring a child through Compassion isn’t filling out an online form or sending in a check or giving your credit card number.  It’s choosing just one child from the array of many in need.  Just one life in which to make a difference.

And this I add to my endless list of gratitude. I am so very thankful...
~ my family gets to know a child in need
~ I have added to my heart another precious child to love
~ my kids shop and write letters, doing for someone else
~ Bala now has more people praying over her and her family
~ this sweet girl will now be protected instead of sold
~ a family in need is getting some relief and assistance
~ Compassion is connecting children and sponsors, spreading the love of Jesus Christ
~ we can financially afford to sponsor another
~ God put this need on my heart, tapping me on the shoulder and turning my head to really see

What is on your heart that makes you spill over with gratitude?  Visit Ann for more of One Thousand Gifts.