Melany knows my name!

Today is an exciting day for me because I received an email from Compassion informing me of an important event in Melany's life - that she was recently told she has a sponsor and she knows my name! Therefore I should be receiving my first letter from her shortly! *cheer*

I was also provided the link to this great blog post that explains how the children learn they have a sponsor. I had no idea it was such a long process!

1. Melany's parents signed her up to be in the project.
2. Staff in the Columbia country office and her local church partner pray for her and that she finds a sponsor. 
3. I see her adorable picture and sign up to sponsor her at an event.
4. My information is mailed to the Compassion offices in Colorado.
5. They process my information.
6. The Communications Department in Columbia receives a list of new children that have sponsors.
7. That department prints the list out and gives each child an age-appropriate letter template and puts this in "pigeon holes" for each project in the country.
8. The individual center workers then visit the country office to pick up this information and take it back to the center to inform Melany and her family.
9. The center worker files the information at the project.
10. The center worker goes to Melany's home to inform her and her family of this great news!
It might look something like this:

11. The center worker then gathers information about the family so Melany can write her first letter to me (which will probably be written on behalf of her by a center worker because she is so young).

We can talk about the journey letters take another time.

It's cool to think that this is happening right now all over the world and it just happened for this sweet little girl! Can't wait to get my first letter from her and from Melina!

Friday Feature!! - Hendry, Chlief, Andre, Lia, & Fina

There are currently hundreds of children that have been waiting for sponsors for 477 days. That is means they have been patiently waiting for one year, three months, and 22 days!! Please end the wait for one of these children today and give them the best Christmas present ever, the gift of hope.

There are 99 children in Indonesia alone that have been waiting for 477 days so I am going to focus on them.

Meet Hendry! Check out that little smile of his :)

Hendry is six-years-old and lives near Bitung, Indonesia. He lives with his father (sometimes employed) and mother. Most adults in this area work as day laborers and earn the equivalent of $52 per month. Hendry helps his family by running errands. For fun, he enjoys bicycling and playing with cars. End his wait and change his story today!


Meet Chlief! Turn that frown of his upside down today!

Chlief is seven-years-old and lives near Bitung, Indonesia. He lives with his father (sometimes employed), mother, and two siblings. Most adults in this area work as day laborers and earn about $56 per month. Chlief helps his family by running errands and caring for children. He enjoys rolling a hoop and running. End his wait and change his story today!


Meet Andre! I love how tall and straight he's standing!

Andre is eight-years-old and lives in Tondegesan, Indonesia. He lives with his father (sometimes employed), mother, and two siblings. Most adults in this area work as day laborers and earn about $67 per month. Andre helps his family by caring for children and running errands. For fun, he enjoys playing with cars and playing group games. End his wait and change his story today!


Meet Lia! I love the little smile on her face too!

Lia is nine-years-old and lives in Musaima, Indonesia. She lives with her mother (sometimes employed) and three siblings. Most adults in this area work on plantations and earn about $42 per month. Lia helps her family by carrying water and washing clothes. She enjoys playing with dolls. End her wait and change her story today!


Meet Fina! And turn that frown upside down today!

Fina is nine-years-old and lives in Batu Putih, Indonesia. She lives with her father (sometimes employed), mother, and three siblings. Most adults in this area work as farmers and earn about $22 per month. Fina helps her family by carrying water, helping in the kitchen, and cleaning. For fun, she enjoys singing, playing house, and playing with dolls. End her wait and change her story today!


As always, if none of these children speak to your heart, I invite you to please find one that does. Like previously stated, there are currently hundreds of children that have been waiting for sponsors for nearly a year and three months. Make this the best Christmas ever and give them the gift of hope this year.

If you are unable to sponsor a child, I invite you to pray over these children and that they will receive loving sponsors soon.

Compassion Success Story: Enrique

I apologize for the blog silence. The last couple of weeks have been crazy with dead week (which is the week before finals when everything is due), finals week, and then taking some much needed rest and relaxation time at home.

As I read through some of my old Compassion magazines as the first real snowfall blows around outside, I wanted to share some amazing true stories of how lives have changed through Compassion.

This story comes from the Spring, 2006 issue of the Compassion Magazine and was written by Ovetta Sampson.

"Lima, Peru - As a young boy, when Enrique Reyes knelt down on the dirt floor of his home to pray, he didn't ask God for money. Riches would have been a righteous request for this child who lived with his mother, father and three siblings in a one-room lean-to perched upon the sandy hills in the slums of Lima.

"Money would have been the practical plea of a child who missed meals each week because $14 a month just isn't enough to feed six people all the time.

"But when Enrique took the precious moments he had to pray, he asked for peace instead.

"In 1999, Enrique was a five-year-old boy terrorized by turmoil.

"'He was a child who cried all the time,' says Blanca Misayauri Grandos, Project Director at Solidaridad (PE-400) in Lima.

"That's because Enrique's father Walter thought escape was his peace and he found it in alcohol. His mother, Paulina, sought peace by moving with her husband from a desolate mountain village in the Andes to the city slums of Lima.

"Enrique glimpsed peace intermittently - each day he went to the Compassion project. Peace filtered in the way Blanca and other project staff nurtured him, offering him meals each day. Peace flickered in his project tutor's encouragement, spurring Enrique's interest in math. Peace floated from the pages of his sponsor's letters, a blessing he says other children in his neighborhood missed.

"But just as every day he went to the project to gain peace, each evening he came home to turmoil.

"At home there was fist against face as his father abused his mother. At home there were tears on cheeks as he and his siblings hid from their father's anger and their mother's desperation. Enrique's time at the Compassion project was a welcomed escape from turmoil, but still the litle boy prayed for peace at home.

"Sometimes in death there is new life. When Enrique was eight years old, he learned that difficult lesson. It was May 5, 2002, and the turmoil that reigned that day enveloped his teenage brother. Enrique's brother decided to go to work with his dad at the tire repair shop. There was an accident. The teen fell, hit his head and died. But in death, hope was born.

"Enrique's father, Walter, craved solace after his son's death. But the drinking buddies, with whom he spent more time than his family, disappeared. Walter's other so-called friends in his world walked away. In the end, it was the care and encouragement from Blanca and others at the Compassion project - from paying for the funeral, feeding the children, offering clothes, to praying - where Walter found his comfort. 

"'The Lord touched my heart,' Walter says. 'The people from the church just started helping a lot. People in the world, in the streets, they don't help. When my son was in the hospital, nobody went to help except the Christians.'

"Walter realized the Lord, not alcohol, offered him the comfort he desperately desired.

"'In all, in every way, I changed a lot,' Walter says, after accepting Christ into his life. 'The way I live, the way I do things, my behavior...now we are Christians...now we live in peace.'

"Today Enrique is a 10-year-old dynamo - smiling, engaging, playing soccer with his newfound friends, getting good grades and dreaming of becoming a lawyer. The one-room home is now three rooms, including a kitchen with a new refrigerator - all results of Walter's new economic and social commitment to his family.

"'Everything changed when my father received Jesus in his heart,' Enrique says. 'He began to take care of us, not to drink alcohol. Now he doesn't do bad things. We are happy now...everything is improving...everything is better.'

"But having a healthy family relationship - mother talking to father instead of crying, son helping father at work instead of avoiding his wrath, loving him without dread - these measures of peace the family will treasure for a lifetime.

"'Sometimes money i snot enough to be happy,' Paulina says. 'To have a good husband, to have a good father for my children...only the Lord knows that we have these needs. He is the one who gives us peace.'"

If you would like to help a child in a similar situation as Enrique, please click here.
There are currently a dozen children in Peru that have been waiting for a sponsor for over a year. Help one of them today!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Thanks for reading!