My husband and I are very happy sponsors of several beautiful children. As a child, I remember seeing the commercials about starving children and a plea to sponsor one of them to provide food and shelter. When I started college, I signed up to sponsor a young boy from India. I don’t remember how long my sponsorship lasted but I loved receiving letters from him. Sad to say, I only wrote a few but he was very faithful in writing to me.
For the last several years, my husband and I have discussed getting involved in child sponsorship. Finances have been tight for a long time and we’ve been paying off debt in the hopes of eventually being able to give. In December, we started researching various child sponsorship organizations and praying about which child God would like us to sponsor.
Our first two girls:
Sun Kyung is going to be seven in June, lives in Korea, and is an orphan. When I was led to sponsor her, I didn’t know she was living in a children’s home. I received her information in the mail and was heartbroken to find that she has no parents. I have no children but I now I have the opportunity to love on a little girl who doesn’t have a mother.
Fill just turned 13 and lives in Thailand with her parents. Despite her parents’ lack of employment opportunities, Fill sounds like a typical early teen, enjoying hide and seek, reading, playing house, and swimming.
I share these girls with you because I’m so excited to have the opportunity to support them. They don’t have much in the way of tangible belongings but they are now involved in a program that provides them with nutritious meals, tutoring, the opportunity to learn life skills, medical care, and they are both being taught about Jesus.
My blessing is not only that of being a financial sponsor. I have the opportunity to pray for these girls, to love them, to send encouraging letters. They are blessed by the programs they attend and I am blessed by the opportunity to love “one of the least of these.”
Next Sunday is Compassion International’s Compassion Sunday. Sponsors are encouraged to share their story and to advocate for children currently available for sponsorship. Compassion is offering sponsors an incentive – if I can advocate for two children, they will send a $50 family gift to one of my children. It’s a great incentive but it’s not why I’m sharing my sponsorship story. I want to give others the opportunity to be a blessing to a child in poverty and to receive the blessing that comes with sponsorship.
After much prayer and searching, I was led to advocate for this little boy:
This is Angel, a seven year old little boy in Guatamala. He has the most adorable smile! His birthday is approaching and I can think of no better gift than to be told he has a new sponsor, someone who will pray for him, send letters of encouragement, and love him. Will you sponsor Angel?