COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL

Hello everyone! Compassion International, the child sponsorship organization through which we sponsor our children, has issued an invitation to its donors to blog about our experience as sponsors. I am extremely excited about this blog and about the opportunity to put out the good word about Compassion. If there is anyone out there who has considered sponsoring a child and just wants more information -- or is on the fence as to whether this is a worthwhile way to spend your money and your efforts -- YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE. I will do a series of entries on the hows and whys of child sponsorship. I have been a sponsor now for two years and have really thrown myself into it heart and soul. So I have some good information for you!

To begin at the beginning -- how I learned about Compassion. When I was a very young woman, just out of high school, I attended a Christian concert. The musician took a break during his set to share with us the needs of children around the world living in poverty -- children who were orphaned, starving, unable to attend school, lacking in the basic necessities that so many of us take for granted -- and how Compassion International was working to meet those needs.

Today, I could not tell you the name of that musician or any of the songs they sang that night, but the message that there are children out there in dire need of love and assistance is a message that stayed with me permanently. From that moment on, I wanted to sponsor a child. Twenty years later (gulp!) -- now married and a mother, I sat down at my computer, looked up the Compassion International website and met a little boy from Ethiopia who would become a part of our family and would totally reinvigorate me as a human being and as a Christian.

The joy that our family has experienced from sponsoring a child -- and the lessons we've learned about love and faith, caring and sharing -- are huge. I hope there is some way in the entries to come that I can fully convey this to you. But even more so, I hope that someday you experience it yourself by sponsoring a child.