Some of you may know that Bailey and I sponsor a little girl in Haiti. Yesterday we decided to sponsor another one. I'm so excited about these little girls. My heart breaks over the children all over this world who live in constant poverty while I sit on my couch wrapped up in a blanket.
A friend of mine from high school, Tracey Wages, always posts about Compassion.com on her facebook page. So I sponsored through Compassion. I received a magazine from the company. I barely made it half way through a particular story before I started crying.
The president of Compassion, Wess Stafford, tells us about how some children grow up where no child should ever have to grow up-near the dangerous environment of the big city garbage dumps, scavenging for survival. He once took a group of Compassion supporters to Guatemala. He wanted them to experience the poorest of the poor, so he took them to the local dump. Everyone got out to talk to the children...all but one man. When asked why, he replied, "you told me Compassion's ministry is about hope and dreams. Then you bring me here. There is no hope. No dreams are possible. I see only tragedy and despair. Nothing good could ever happen here."
Later that evening there was a small banquet held with formerly sponsored children. The guy who saw no hope at the dump, was in tears when Wess approached his table. Wess asked if everything was ok. The gentleman said yes, that his was the best table in the place. At his table sat a young woman named, Aury. When she told her story it was amazing.
She grew up at the very dump site they had visited earlier that day. She had been accepted to attend the university as a business major. Wess asked Aury, "what do you know now from having grown up in that awful place?"
Her response brought tear to my eyes. And as I read it out loud to Bailey, my mom and my grandmother, I got so choked up I could barely read it.
Aury replied, "I know two things. First, I know what it feels like for people at look at you and think you are garbage. When I was very small, the dump trucks wouldn't even swerve to avoid hitting me--the drivers thought I wasn't worth the effort. If I had been killed out there among the dogs and vulture, probably nobody would have even dug a grave for me. I was already where I belonged-- garbage in the trash heap."
Aury told of the second thing she knew. "I know that NOBODY is garbage. We are all loved by God and He has a perfect plan and purpose for every life. That's what I know."
Sometimes I feel so convicted by my needs and wants. Like buying a car last week. Granted its not a new car. And I paid cash for it. But I sit here and think of what that money could have done in a country like Haiti or Guatemala. How many kids and families could I have feed for that price?
Then I realize, they don't need a lot of materialistic things to get by. They need hope. They just need a chance. And that's what I, as a sponsor, can do for them. I can't build them a new church. Or a new hospital. But I can love 'the least of these' like God has called us to do. And show them the love of a Savior.
Let them know us by our love.
