It all began last spring. I was looking ahead to my one year review at work, and I wanted to do something special to celebrate my first year as a college graduate. That's when it hit me--I was, for the first time in my life, financially stable, generally independent, and actually able to sponsor a child through Compassion International! I had grown up watching the commercials on TV of children in need, their empty eyes yearning for food, for hope. I had even spent a couple summers with the Continental Singers raising sponsors. I had always wished that I could do something for the poor children of the world, but I hadn’t had a steady income. Now I did! Now I could do something about it!
Excitedly, I logged onto the website, clicking through the photos. With so many children in need, how do I just pick one? Then I saw her, those brown eyes called out to me: Clemence Matano. ‘She’s perfect!’ I thought. A little seven year old girl (She’s eight now!) living in southern Kenya with her parents and two siblings, according to the little biography on the site. In her simple lavender dress and her shy smile, I couldn’t tear myself away. And she loves to sing! Bonus!
In our first correspondence I learned that her favorite subject in school is capital letters. I admitted that they are rather fun to write. “I LOVE TO WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS TOO!” I responded. I hoped she might giggle. After all, I don’t think email writing etiquette really applies when writing to my little Clemence. In the days that followed, she began drawing pictures of herself and her home to send to me; I continued to send photos, and not sure what to say exactly, I told her a bit about California: the geography, the scenery, the weather.
This fall I began thinking about how I could give more. I wanted to become involved in a ministry too, somewhere that I could really invest my time and try to make a difference. One afternoon when I was exploring the website, I first read about Compassion’s Advocates Network. “Become a voice for the voiceless.” I had heard the phrase before, yet it meant more to me now. I can’t change the entire world; however, Compassion is eager to show that you can make a difference in the life of one child, and that makes all the difference for her world. Shy as I can be at times, these dear children continue to live and die in silence. Rather, their cries for help are drowned out by our surround-sound home theaters and our blaring iPods.
Looking through the contents of my training material, another pair of brown eyes pierces my soul, Kabuye Sam, the first child for whom I am advocating. A little Ugandan boy, just seven years old, Sam is wearing his little tennis shoes, ready for the next soccer game. I can see him now: playing with his friends in the field, and then sitting in the school this afternoon learning to read the story of Jesus’ life. Without a sponsor this will not be possible. Without a sponsor Sam will become another sad statistic, another malnourished child, another uneducated laborer like his father, perhaps another victim of HIV/AIDS.
Won’t you consider partnering with Compassion? Join the fight! Together we can make a difference: Releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name! One child at a time!
No comments:
Post a Comment