You Can Save a Child's Life

Follow this link to change a life today:  Compassion.

Waiting . . .

This is four-year-old Wilfredo in Nicaragua.  Don't you just want to squeeze those cute cheeks?

Wilfredo has been waiting 515 days for a sponsor.

Five hundred fifteen.

I don't even start counting down to something that far ahead!  Wilfredo needs a sponsor.

But he's not the only one.  You can go here to view all the children who have been waiting more than six months for a sponsor.  Please consider sponsoring one today.  You will change the child's life.

And the child will change yours.

Sponsor a Child Today

When you walk into a 7-11 or other convenience store, do you ever think about how you could spend your money more wisely?  $1.69 for a 20 oz. Diet Coke (that's my vice)?  That's more than many villages in Africa average in a month.  An entire month.  Think about that . . . .

Can we even imagine?

When you look at the Big Bites and the Breakfast Bites and . . . to be honest, I don't even know what they sell back there because I stay away.  But what I do know is that we have SO much, and SO many have SO  little.  Why?  Why must wee keep it all to ourselves?

I cringe when I hear how much the people who are in line in front of me are spending on lottery tickets, cigarettes, alcohol, and horribly unhealthy food.  What I could do with that money to help those who can't even afford a $1.25 shot for malaria!

But I help a few.  I help those I sponsor.  I help those to whom I send money to Compassion for mosquito nets.  I help those who are sponsored because of my testimony.

So why not jump on board?  Why do we keep living in our small worlds, wishing, drooling over, hoping for the latest tech gadget (all Apple for me) when someone like my Francis finds it a treat just to have a glass of milk for breakfast?

I'm Marilu, and I'm 3 years old.

I waited for about seven years between the time I first heard about Compassion at a newsboys' concert to the time I sponsored my first child when I heard Michael Tait (now with newsboys) talk about how we should help our neighbors in Mexico.  How many children needed me in those seven years that I thought I couldn't sacrifice just $38 a month to help them go to school, get medical care for them, sometimes even save their lives?

Don't wait any longer.  Sponsor a child today by clicking here.

It will enrich your life beyond what you could ever imagine.

Felix Needs You!

I want so much for this boy to find a sponsor.

His name is Felix, and he lives in Uganda.  He is ten years old and has five siblings.

I just love his picture.  He looks so proud (in a good way) and confident.

Here's why I want someone to sponsor him--he lives in a community where the average income in ONE DOLLAR A MONTH.

Think about that.  Could you even live on one dollar a day?  I know we don't live in the same kind of society as he, but seriously, one dollar a month?  I can't imagine.   How do they eat?

Felix needs a sponsor.  Click below to be the one.

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-video-biography.htm?needKey=UG5290185

I Have Children for You!!

This is Benjamin, who lives in Nicaragua with his mom and dad and SIX other children.  Clearly, your sponsorship would make a huge difference in this family.  Most families in his community earn the equivalent of $80 per month.
Benjamin is 11 years old and likes ping pong, soccer (fútbol), and basketball--a sports fan!!  Yay!  He attends primary school and Compassion Project NI148.

This beautiful young lady is Iswerbhai.  Doesn't she look like a princess?  She lives with her mom and dad and 2 siblings in India.  She is 8 years old and likes playing with dolls and playing house.  (Aw.)  

Families in Iswerbhai's community earn the equivalent of about $33 per month.

She attends primary school and Compassion Project IN910.

Please let me know if you would like to commit to sponsoring one of these beautiful children and thereby changing their lives and yours.

If you can't support one of them, please pray for sponsors.

My Lifelong Goal

I don't think I realized it until lately, but goal for my entire adult life has been to help children, including teenagers, know that they matter, that they are beautiful, that they never need doubt themselves.  My parents never said those things to me.  Actually, they called me a troublemaker and other names I wouldn't repeat anywhere, especially here.  That's probably one reason I have always avoided cursing, not because I think I'm better than others, but because of those memories.  But I digress.
As a teacher, I try very hard (not always successful) to encourage students and never to say anything that would make them feel bad about themselves (my heart breaks when I think of the times I have failed).
This weekend, I went to Walmart.  I never go to Walmart for several reasons, but I was close on Saturday, so I went.  I saw one of the little girls who was in my Vacation Bible School group in July.  I was so, so happy to see her again, and she smiled at me the entire time I talked with her. She has such a sweet spirit.  I told her what a great person she is, although she has parents who tell her that daily.
On Sunday, I worked at our church at what we called "Oasis Place After the Race."  The Rock and Roll Half Marathon was held here in Virginia Beach on Sunday, and since our church is right at the oceanfront, we are prevented from having our first two services.  So we set up an "oasis" where the runners and their families--and anyone else--could get food, water, prayer, communion, music, and best of all . . . the children could make pinwheels.  That was my job.  For two straight hours, I helped children make pinwheels.  Nonstop.  We were quite popular.
With every pinwheel, I did all I could to encourage each child about the good job he or she was doing, and to compliment the children on their appearance and their skill at following directions (so different from high school students!  Ha.).
I asked one little girl if anyone had ever told her she was pretty.  She said, "Yes," at which her mother chuckled.  I said, "Well, that's good because you are, and I want you to promise me that you will remember that for the rest of your life, no matter what."  She was probably only about three years old, but I do pray that somehow what I said to her will make a difference in a dark and lonely time later in her life.  Because we all have those times, don't we?
So that little rambling story pretty much tells the reason I am passionate about being a Compassion sponsor and a Compassion advocate.  I want children to feel loved and important.  Because they are.

One of the little girls who made a pinwheel