The Attic

I’ve been writing and thinking about child sponsorship a lot since I got back from the World Vision Child Ambassador conference in October. Being a child ambassador, I have the privilege of matching children around the world with sponsors. Every time I get a new batch of picture folders I see those precious little faces and I just want to sponsor them all. My heart is big enough, but our bank account is not.

When I first interviewed to become a child ambassador, I felt fired up. I felt that it was what I was supposed to be doing. After all, if I can’t sponsor them all, the next best thing is helping to find them sponsors, right? I helped match quite a few children with sponsors in that first year, and then got pregnant for the second time, and this “ministry” sort of lost steam.

I kept getting little “messages” from God. I knew I should be trying harder. These children around the world have no voice to speak for themselves, but are so, so worthy of our attention. I knew I was supposed to be that voice. I was supposed to plant the seeds of hope. But I was busy. It’s not that I stopped caring. I just lacked confidence and urgency I guess.

In October, I went to the conference and came home reignited. Child sponsorship works, and I wanted everyone to know it. I wanted everyone to see these beautiful, precious children. I wanted them to be lifted up in prayer and love and hope. I started right away and I’ve helped match quite a few children with sponsors in the last couple of months.

But even within my new fiery motivation after coming home from the conference, I could feel myself moving back into my old comfortable ways. It goes against my nature to get out there and talk to people, even people I know well. But the point of God’s message for me was not necessarily to convince people that child sponsorship is the best thing ever. It doesn’t matter how many times I am told no, or how many times I have to feel a bit awkward in asking. If I don’t ask who will? The point is….why would God ask me only to do “comfortable things?” I wasn’t getting the message.

In the first batch of picture folders I had, there was a girl from Bangladesh. I looked into her eyes in the picture, and I just really wanted to sponsor her. All of the children are precious, but I just felt a connection with this one particular child. I stared at her picture folder every day wondering if I should sponsor her or not. Could we afford it? Meanwhile, I had written a blog post about child sponsorship, and a friend had contacted me about it. I met with her, and brought my eleven picture folders with those eleven precious children. She chose to sponsor a child that day, and guess which one she chose? Yup. The girl I had been considering. I was so happy that she was sponsored, and I moved on to trying to match the other children.

In mid-December, I received a new batch of picture folders. I had four folders, and again, there was one child who just called to me. I wanted to sponsor that child, but again, was unsure if we could afford it. I thought about it every day. Meanwhile, a friend at church asked me about child sponsorship (again after reading a blog post I had written). Last night, I shared the folders with her, and she chose to sponsor two children, one of which was the child I had been called toward. At first I felt disappointed. I know it seems silly, but my gut reaction was that I had missed my chance. Then I realized how ridiculous I was being, and felt elated that not only were two children sponsored, but their sponsor would also reap the benefits.

All this has finally helped me start to “get the message.” I can’t save all the children in the world. I am not called to do so. This is not about me sponsoring kids or “missing my chance.” What I am called to do is plant seeds. To share the idea that if we all change the life of one child, it will eventually change the world. If I put myself out there to connect children with sponsors, it does way more than just sponsoring one more child myself. I’m not saying I’ll never sponsor more, but I think I’m finally getting the message. My ministry lies in the realm of the uncomfortable. I must stretch myself so that children around the world can be heard and seen and brought out of poverty into the light of God’s love.

When I started sponsoring a little girl from Zimbabwe a little over four years ago, I had no idea where that would take me. Now, our family sponsors six kiddos across the globe, and I am a volunteer child ambassador for World Vision, trying to match kids around the world with sponsors in the U.S. I’ve learned a lot in the last four and a half years, and I can honestly say that the experience has changed my perspective on the world and on how I want to raise my children.

Now that Elias is four, he is really starting to show a more active interest in who these kids are that I talk about all the time. He wants to see their homes on our world map. He wants to know how old they are. He wants to know what they like to do. I pray for these kiddos every day, and Elias prays for them many days as well. I want him to have a worldly perspective, to feel compassion, to see how lucky he is, and to learn from these kids that we are getting to know through letters.

I decided that these kiddos need a more prominent place in our home so that we can think of them even more often. I saw a whiteboard for sale at Costco for only $19.99 and picked it up. My husband hung it last weekend, and now every time I walk through my kitchen I can think of our sponsored kiddos, and so can my children. Each time we receive a letter, I’ll post the new on on the board, and the old one can go in the binders where I keep all of the correspondence we receive. It’s been really great so far, and already opened up a lot of conversations with Elias.

If you’d like to sponsor a child today, you can go here:

http://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child?campaign=1235011996

Four years ago I made the decision to start sponsoring a child through World Vision. I’m not really sure anymore how or why I chose to start sponsoring at that point in my life, and I don’t even remember how I chose World Vision. Ever since then, though, I have become more and more passionate about child sponsorship in general, and about World Vision as an organization.

Our family now sponsors five children across the globe. There’s Ruramai from Zimbabwe. She was the first. Her mother exchanged letters with me in the beginning because Ruramai’s English was not strong enough. Ruramai’s mother and I were pregnant at the same time and we rejoiced together at the birth of our babies. I sent Ruramai a special gift of $100 for Easter. World Vision worked with her family to determine what they most needed. I was amazed at the pictures I received of them with their two new goats, school supplies and uniforms for Ruramai and her brother. Ruramai soon started writing to me herself. She told me she wants to be a teacher, just like me. That she prays for me and my family each day. She is such a beautiful young woman now of 13. My experience was so positive that I decided to sponsor another child. Daniela from Bolivia. Daniela had this million dollar smile with her front teeth missing. She told me all about the rivers and the beautiful land that surrounds her. Not long after that, my first son turned two and I wanted for him to learn about the world and all of its people. We started sponsoring Esdras from Honduras, who was born the exact same day as Elias. Esdras has sent us handprints, and Elias has sent him stickers and crayon scribbles. Someday he’ll write the letters. The love for our “neighbors” was growing and growing, but I wasn’t done yet. For some reason, I really felt called to sponsor a child from Armenia. Maybe it was because it was winter and I just couldn’t bear to think about kids cold without blankets. Tigran from Armenia joined our family. Finally, when my husband got a big promotion at work, we decided to be thankful by sponsoring another child. We started sponsoring Abrahan from Peru.

I wish I could sponsor all the kids who need someone.

I had never felt God’s call so strongly in my life as when I made the decision to become a child ambassador for World Vision. Changing the lives of these five children through being their sponsor…giving them hope and love…it was great, but it wasn’t enough. Being a child ambassador means that I try to match children who need sponsors with people here in the U.S. who will sponsor them. It was something so outside of my comfort zone, yet I felt so strongly that it is what I should be doing. God’s call is interesting in that way. But I knew that all He needed was a willing heart. He needed someone’s hands and feet to work through. So I interviewed and I became a volunteer child ambassador.

I did a lot at first. I talked to family and friends and members of my church. I got twelve kids sponsored. Changed 12 little precious lives. (Well I didn’t do it…I just helped get it started). But somewhere along the way I forgot what it was all about. I got busy with a toddler. I had a second child so there were two kids under the age of three. And I started worrying that I wouldn’t be able to do it. How could I convince people to give their precious money? What if they said no? What if I looked like a fool? I don’t have a lot of time anyway. I really wanted to connect kids with sponsors, but somewhere in there I just got lost.

This weekend, though, I went to the World Vision Child Ambassador conference. I was hoping it would help reignite my passion, and give me some tools and courage to get going again.

The conference was an amazing experience and I learned a lot. But I realized something unexpected while I was there. God isn’t asking me to convince people. He isn’t really asking me to do anything except be a willing body. I can give of my time and my passion and He will do the rest. Tools and training are important, but what is more important is listening to God’s call and being willing to follow. All I need to do is provide opportunities for sponsorship, and not worry about the outcome. The child sponsorship model works.

I learned a lot this weekend about child slavery and child labor. About kids who never really have a childhood because of poverty or cruelty. I learned about families having to make impossible decisions and it was all so hard to hear. It was hard not to feel overwhelmed by the terribleness of it all, especially with two young children of my own. How is it possible that we were all lucky enough to be born here and they were born there?

But I was also reminded that I am one pillar in the lives of my sponsored children. Just one pillar of hope and love in the many that World Vision is providing kids all around the world. I can help defend childhood one child at a time, and I can help others do the same.

Sponsoring a child will change you if you let it.

Will you join me?