If I were to choose one word to describe this year, it is the word "Go." I knew beforehand that this would be a year where I started traveling to visit children around the world, to love on them, hold them, and look them in the eyes and tell them how very valuable they are. Early in January, I went to Mexico on a missions trip with other employees from Family Christian Stores... my first "real" international missions trip, and in May/June, I joined a group of Compassion sponsors to visit our sponsored children and minister to many others that the Father would show us.
As I visited these countries, I had opportunities to love on fatherless children that I had never met before...
...my own sponsored girl whose father has died...
...friends' sponsored children who are orphans and who have been hurting both physically and emotionally...
and other precious orphans who have totally won my heart, such as Alondra in Mexico, and Teresa in Honduras.
As I did, I began to get a glimpse of the heart of our Heavenly Father for children around the world...
to feel His heart for each of these children.
The question has been asked, is it really worth the time, effort, and especially all that money to actually go? What really is being accomplished by giving so much of your money? of your time? of your energy? Wouldn't it be better to just give that money to them to help with their needs? What value is it to visit the children in their school classrooms...
where they eagerly run to the door to greet us?
and to see the conditions of their playgrounds where they are spending their childhood playing?
What value is there in visiting them in their homes...
where we saw the reality of their harsh living conditions in more ways than just the physical ones?
What is the value in using all that money to spend an hour or a day or a week playing with children...
providing learning activities for them...
and taking them on unforgettably fun outings?
I say the value is imparting incredible worth and hope
to each one that you allow your heart to touch.
Maria is an absolutely transformed child from when
Jonathan & Kim saw her last year. She was beaming the whole week every time I saw
her, and she knew that she was incredibly valued and loved by two very special somebodies in the
world... as well as by the rest of us on the team who were all loving on her too.
I watched children transform and blossom right under my eyes, such as
Irma here. When I first met her, she wistfully asked if I knew her
sponsor. She has never received a letter from her sponsor, and the
feeling of having so little value was written all over her face. She
couldn't even smile for me to take her picture.
As I talked with her, telling her that she was such a precious treasure,
and letting her know that it made me really sad that her sponsor had never written to her,
and that I would do what I could to help her sponsor know how important
letters were for her, hope began to come in her eyes, and a smile
transformed her countenance.
I saw children transformed by simple gifts, given with love...
I saw children transformed just by spending time together with them and in every way possible, to say that I loved them and that they were so very important...
Over and over I held children's faces, looked in their eyes, or hugged them, and told them that they were so precious... such a valuable treasure... that I loved them, and Father God loved them so incredibly much. We often say that if we were the "only one", that Jesus still would have left the glory and riches of heaven to come to earth just for us, that we are that valuable, priceless, and precious to Him.
That is true. He would. We are each that valuable to Him.
And that is how He feels about each of these precious children... some unloved by the people they live with... some are loved but are in very difficult circumstances... all of them are facing the effects of poverty in multiple ways.
Ask yourself, what difference does it make to you for one important person in your life to tell you that you are loved and a priceless treasure?
I know that it matters to me.
I met my sponsored children's siblings, and loved on them too...
and met my child's friends...
who became my own special friends as well.
I sat on the floor with orphans, talking with them, listening to them, taking selfies together with them,
hugging them...
and before we left, I loved this one like she was my own.
"Going" really isn't so difficult. It's the leaving the children behind that is difficult. I received far more than I ever expected when I went. My heart has been flung open to embrace many children, every child that I can, not just my own sponsored children. I can hardly wait to go back.
As I look over the photos of the children I sponsor as well as the children who are waiting for sponsors, many times I have caught my breath in awe of them... "They are so beautiful..." It's not so much about any kind of outward beauty as it is about glimpsing the Father's heart to see them for how He values each one.
Priceless.
Treasures.
If you haven't written to your child recently, or have never told them what a valuable treasure they are, write them now. They need to hear it from you.
If your heart is being stirred to go, get ready to go!
And if you are willing to open your heart to another child in need of a sponsor, do whatever you can to make this a reality. We have so much.
Seriously.
We have so much that we could use to invest instead in the life of a priceless child.
This sweet 5 year old boy,
Antony, is in the same project that we visited for a week... I walked up and down those stairs behind him many times! I know that you would be so very blessed to sponsor him, and you could make such a difference in his life.
Antony is one of many children in need, but will you embrace this one? Tell him that he is valuable? That he is not just one face among many in the crowd, but that you personally SEE him, and will love him, in Jesus' name?
We are the Body of Christ... Will you extend His hand of compassion, to share His love in every way that He gives you to do?
Blessings,
