Compassion International

Are you familiar with an organization called Compassion International? We first learned about it through a girl at our church. She and her husband had been sponsoring a child through this organization for quite a while and she did a presentation for our congregation.

Compassion is an organization that helps children in impoverished countries through sponsorship to be able to obtain education and other means to better their lives. After hearing about this we decided we’d like to sponsor a couple of children ourselves but how do you choose? You can literally see pictures of these precious little ones and pick a child. We didn’t want to pick a child based on physical appearance because honestly we figured most people look at them and pick the cutest little faces they see. (not that there is anything wrong with that) We decided to sponsor children with the same birthdays as our kids and narrow it down that way. We chose a little boy with the same birthday as Benny’s, but much younger and a girl who is literally the exact same age as Katie, sharing the same birth date. These children are allowed to stay in this program until age 21. (I think that’s the oldest they can be)

We had the opportunity recently to visit a local church and see a mock up in the form of several semi-trailers made to look like the home, school and compassion center where these children might live.

We were each provided with headphones and an ipod where the story of a child was narrated through his voice.

It was about 100 degrees outside on this particular day and pretty warm going through these little rooms which probably added to the authenticity of the circumstances these children likely live in.

At the end you are of course given the opportunity to sign up to sponsor a child.

We correspond with our “kids” through letters a couple of times a year. We are able to write to them and it’s translated for them and then in turn the write back to us and we are sent the original and a translation. Both of the children we sponsor have families but without funding might not be able to go to school. You can also designate extra funds to be given for their birthdays and Christmas. We received a letter from “our girl” thanking us for one of the monetary gifts and telling us she had bought a goat. Definitely not what a 19 year old here in the states would probably buy.

I think this program is such a great one and would be a really wonderful family project for people with younger kids. Kids would be able to write letters, send pictures and develop an appreciation for all the things they have that these children in other countries don’t. It’s such an easy way to know you are making a difference in the lives of others.

If you’ve been looking for a way to do some good in this crazy world, I’d encourage you to look into Compassion International. This is not a sponsored post, but a love post.?

Happy Thursday!

Lisa

XOXO

❤️