Greetings Friends!
This month is Blog Month for Compassion. Would you please consider sharing this post with others? Facebook it! Tweet it! Send it through email! Let's see more children find hope this month by people praying for them and some even making the choice to sponsor them.
A few weeks ago, I shared with you about God placing a call on my heart to sponsor a child through Compassion International. I truly believe their work is at the very core of what God is calling us to do.
If you have read the Bible, you know that God calls us again and again to care for the least of these. (Matthew 25:34-40) His
heart hurts for the orphaned and the homeless. Doesn't God ask us to love others like we
would want to be loved?
In an
interview, Katie Davis, author of, “Kisses From Katie” shared,
“As someone
who calls themselves a Christian, I mean, it’s very apparent that you are to
love the Lord with all your heart and then you’re to love your neighbor as
yourself. Myself doesn’t want to be starving … and so I don’t want other people
in the world to be starving.”
She goes on
to point out that these were not requests, but commands from Jesus. Friends
crack open your Bible and check them out for yourself.
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first
and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor
as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments.”
Are you thinking, "Oh crud!? Those are commandments? I am sure that does not mean I actually have to do them..."
Perhaps you are about to click away from this blog, thinking to yourself,
"Oh my, we have another bleeding heart here. Bla bla bla, I have heard it all before lady and seen the infomercial. Time to turn the channel."
Honestly I understand... We are all over exposed and have become desensitized to this message, but please keep reading. I am with you. I have been there my friends, please keep reading.
Today we need to stop treating these as optional requests from God. Friends, these are His commands and they flow out of the core of God’s very heart.
These are real people.
These are suffering children.
They are our hurting neighbors.
God commands us to treat them as we would want
to be treated.
So that
leads to my request for today.
I have learned incredible lessons from my sponsored child. The joys we have known
through our experience in this relationship have been amazing. I even wrote
about this very topic 2 weeks ago in my post titled, "Love Does! When God Strikes in the Middle of a Boring Lecture Hall..."
That is where my journey in Compassion's child sponsorship program began. When God used a simple college lecture to tear my heart in two with the news of the sex slave trade in Thailand. Through her letters and beautiful drawings, I met a wonderful little girl named Tairinee, from Thailand.
Eventually, Tairinee grew
up and moved on, but now we have dear, sweet Genesis. Genesis has opened my ignorant eyes time and time again over these last couple of years. Imagine, one little girl teaching our kids, myself, and my husband priceless lessons we
would not have learned otherwise.
We signed up to show God’s love to Genesis,
but honestly Genesis has taught us about God's love for people and the importance of prayer.
Friends let’s
do something for these little ones. I know some of you already sponsor a
child and some of you just feel flat broke right now, but here is your
opportunity to do something so simple.
Would you please consider going to the Compassion Sponsor page. Take a moment and look over each child, their names, their different countries, and their ages.
Ask the Lord
to provide for them spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
Pray for
their family’s health and for adequate jobs for their parents.
Pray for their protection
from harm.
Pray for
blessings upon them and their family.
Finally,
please Pray for someone to sponsor them.
Could you do
one more thing?
Could you ask
the Lord in what ways He would like you to help the poor? Whether it’s through
Compassion International or in your own town, ask Him and then follow through
with what He lays on your heart.
Please visit
and pray for these children. It will only take a moment of your time and time is something we can all give a little of.
If you have
sponsored a child, could you take a moment and share how God has provided the
means financially for this commitment?
Has it been
rough financially to do this?
May God
Bless you greatly friends! J
Again
consider sharing this. Maybe you could be the catalyst for another child
finding their sponsor by posting this blog on Facebook or Tweeting about it.
Let’s see if we can help Compassion reach it's goal for over 3,000 children to be
sponsored this month!
Praying, sharing, and tweeting this! So wonderful that you are advocating this. Awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mandy!!!
DeleteAwww, yeah. I'm participating too! Great kick-off post, reminder, and encouragement.
ReplyDeleteAre you on Twitter? Sorry for not knowing this...I feel like I can't keep up. I'm gathering names of people who are doing blogging for Compassion this month.
ps I like your Get Active links.
Hi Amy! I just visited your site and love it, seriously Vernors!? I also am a fan of the Bono quote. I had to go and post that pic on fb. Yes I am on Twitter at twitter.com/HeatherWindeler, but I just clicked to follow you so you may just look and find me in your followers. So tell me more about this group of bloggers you are gathering? :)
DeleteWonderful post! I need to chat with you about blogging for Compassion this month. We sponsor five little boys in the same village in Guatemala and Marcel and Plamedi in the DRC in Africa. I just put their pictures on my refrigerator in this new house and was thinking how I want to fill the entire door with pictures of little people I love! We're looking forward to the next set of kiddos we can "adopt" into our family! : )
ReplyDeleteHi Tobi! Wow you are amazing! You should be blogging on this. I will go and find your email and send you the link. I love the idea of your fridge being full of little people you love. Beautiful!!!!
DeleteOh yes and amen and I'm praying!
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful post.
It hurts my hear to see how desensitized we have become to this dire need. I was blessed to go on a missions trip when I was 16 to a city Compassion reaches heavily due to the demand. The smells, the looks of these children with life-filled eyes and distended bellies. It never leaves you...and I pray it continues to haunt me.
Amen Nikki! I keep that a constant prayer as well. Where did you go? I love that you served on a mission trip as a teen. I work with teens. :)
DeleteJoining you in prayer! I'm blogging for Compassion this month too, and I have 2 kids in El Salvador. Blessings to you as you support Genesis!
ReplyDeleteLinking up from SDG,
Susan
Yay! I love that there are so many people blogging for this amazing cause! I hope we help to blow their goals right out of the water and with all of these prayers being offered that these children see blessings and provision in abundance! :)
DeleteIt took us awhile to become a sponsor for the very reason you mentioned: we were desensitized to it and didn't trust that our money would actually go to help the children. After doing some research and confirming that Compassion was a solid organization, there was no excuse left to hold us back. I'm so glad.
ReplyDeleteI remember doing the same thing. Researching like crazy because I was so tainted by the media etc. Thank you for sharing this. I am praying that what you just shared helps someone else who is sitting on the fence. :) God Bless you lots!
DeleteI hope so too! Thanks for linking up!
DeleteBless you for doing the work of Love. We sponsor three children through Worldvision but lately I have had its on my heart to take on another. You are making me think about this even more.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I have done some fundraising work with World Vision as well! Isn't the Lord amazing? How beautiful that you have a wonderful global family! Blessings to you and your kids. :)
DeleteYay! I love seeing and hearing about other people's "kids". Ours are from Uganda. Thanks for linking up this week.
ReplyDeleteMe too Debi! I get a goofy grin on my face when ever someone tells me about their sponsored kids or if I spot one on someones fridge! ;)I love seeing the Lord at work.
DeletePraying for their goal to be met and that He will supply the right child at the right time for our family. It is a goal of mine to have 1 girl and 3 boys to sponsor just as the ones I gave birth to :0). God is an awesome God and I am trusting Him with this HUGE task :0).
ReplyDeleteAh! How awesome Donna!? I love that you are praying for this. I know God will be blessing you big in this endeavor. I am hoping that we can adopt more as well. P.S. Going through Seven is a fabulous kick in the rear isn't it? I am loving it!
DeleteThanks for your comment on my Rock4Today blog!
ReplyDeleteI, too, have a heart for sponsoring children, but am already quite commited to World Vision. I hope your blog post stirs many hearts to open their hearts to a child!
Blessings!
Thanks for visiting Esther. That is great that you are sponsoring children through World Vision. :)I actually have worked with both. We have done a few fundraisers for World Vision. I hope/pray it stirs peoples hearts too. :)
DeleteCrazyblessed,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your heart about Compassion International. We share a child from India with our youth group, and enjoy the letters back and forth.
What a treat to be able to sit beside your son on his first roller coaster ride to hear him shriek and laugh. :)
Grinning with you,
Jennifer Dougan
www.jenniferdougan.com
Another thing we have in common. Our youth group has a child they share/sponsor as well. Yay! Love it. :)
DeleteBless you for writing such a powerful post on behalf of Compassion children. Like you, we have been so incredibly blessed by our experience as sponsors and advocates for Pascaline and Elibie. I so hope you'll join me and other Compassion bloggers on my link party during this campaign to hightlight our stories. I'll be sharing this link party with several other sites and hope we get enough traffic that Compassion will also post it on their site.
ReplyDeletehttp://teaganstravels.blogspot.com/2012/09/linking-up-for-compassion.html
Blessings, Michelle
That sounds awesome! :) Count me in Thank you for visiting and sharing about Pascaline and Elibie. I look forward to linking up.
Deletefound you through SS..you got a great blog and heart.
ReplyDeleteThank you that means a lot. :) Just a work in progress.
Delete