Happy New Year!

As you reflect back upon the blessings and trials of the past year and pray about what the Lord has in store for you in 2012, we want to thank you so much for your commitment to children in poverty.

The children are truly are blessed by your passion and faith.

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

– Isaiah 60:1-3 (NIV)

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Is it safe to challenge the status quo? No. It’s not. Post completed.

Challenge is an aggressive word. It suggests victory … or loss. It implies a struggle and change, possibly forced change. Change creates uncertainty for people. And uncertainty breeds worry and fear.

Asking people questions about what they believe and why they believe it is challenging. It’s often deemed unacceptable. People feel threatened and get defensive. It’s uncomfortable. Should we do it? Yes.

Critical thinking strengthens convictions and reveals the weakness in purely emotional responses. Emotion is not bad. It is also powerful. But it varies in intensity and can waver altogether. Conviction is a rock.

Should we challenge the status quo? Should we challenge the established way of thinking or doing things? Absolutely.

Jesus did. He challenged people’s idea of the Messiah. And He continues to challenge us to change our normal.

But what happens when I run into the rock of someone else’s conviction? Good things happen. Bad things happen. Anything is possible. I could affect change or I could get hurt — emotionally, financially, even physically.

When it comes to poverty, the established way of thinking for children in poverty — “I don’t matter” — is filled with hopelessness. The established way of thinking in poverty is a lie.

But Compassion’s work challenges this. Our sponsorship challenges this. With our sponsorship we’re telling our children to “think differently.” Believe. Hope.

Changing how I think changes how I act. And changing how I think is difficult. It’s not usually quick. It requires perseverance and commitment, which often seem in short supply when habit and convenience are present.

I value safety and comfort a great deal. They’re warm and cozy. But it wasn’t warm and cozy on the cross.

Challenging our status quo is required if we’re to grow.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” — Isaiah 58:6 (NIV)

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Here are his thoughts about a sponsor’s involvement in a child’s life.

Parental love is the first love a child receives. However, there are many children who are born orphans and many children whose parents desert them when they are still children.

Also, in many homes, parents end up fighting with each other and this leaves an impact on these little minds. The lives of the children become miserable when they don’t receive or experience love.

You play a major role in the development of children. You are instruments in the hands of God to demonstrate His care to children who don’t know what love is all about. When children receive no love at home, it’s common for them to seek from you the love they miss from their parents.

You help care for the all aspects of the welfare of the children — spiritual, educational, social, physical and financial. You help release children from poverty by giving them education and securing their life by helping bring them into local churches, thus raising them as good and responsible citizens of the society.

Not only that, your unceasing prayers for your sponsored children go a long way in granting the children a bright and prosperous future.

In developing countries like India, the role you play is extremely important. You are a great blessing to churches all over. Through you, churches grow. The church is able to go into places where once we were not able to. The church is able to influence the society.

The majority of churches in India are not in a position to raise funds. Most businesspeople and industrialists are not Christians. We rarely find them with a vision to help children. Hence, we depend on our brethren like you.

Even today, the Lord cries out with the same words that Isaiah heard, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

You are the ones who have responded to this call with the words “Here am I.” You are the ones who have responded to God’s commission.

And sponsored children do have expectations of you because of this. Though the children definitely feel highly obliged to you for the financial help and gifts, they also expect something more.

The children love to read the letters you send. The letters are a source of inspiration, love and encouragement for them. The letters gives them a deep sense of joy to know that somebody, in some corner of the world, remembers them and cares for them.

Through your letters, children understand your emotions and ambitions. You guide and counsel your sponsored children through the letters.

Every child longs to see his or her sponsor, at least once in lifetime, to see the face of the person who resides in some distant part of the world, and who loves, without being seen, and cares, sometimes more than the parents.

You also desire to see your sponsored children, and many times you never get this opportunity. However, even if you are not able to see the child in this world, you should be able to see the child in heaven. This should be the burning desire in your heart.

In order that this becomes a reality, you must regularly pray for your sponsored children and their spiritual growth. In this way, you are able to influence not only the life of the child alone, but also the entire family and society. The sponsored child becomes a powerful agent in days to come, influencing the society and nation. The child begins to be an advocate for other children in the society.

Sponsoring children in need enables one to discover the joy that comes from blessing someone else’s life! We may not be able to transform the entire world, but we can surely make a notable difference in the life of our sponsored children! It would give us a sense of fulfillment, of satisfaction to restore the true joy of childhood to the children.

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I sat at my desk, stunned by the news. Alfan was such an adorable little boy! Full of life!

In his letters, he expressed his love for the picture we sent him of our family dog. He was excelling in school. He shared about all that he was learning about Jesus and talked about the church he attended.

I found myself very distracted the day we heard of his death. I wondered how his family is coping. I wondered what kind of ceremony they would have in Tanzania to remember such a precious child. I wondered if his family realized that his sponsor family was at a loss over what to do.

I stared at his picture. I thought, How do you say goodbye to a sponsored child? Then it hit me – this wasn’t just a hypothetical question, it was a reality in our lives.

And not just in my life, but in the lives of many other sponsors. On average, about five to 10 Compassion-assisted children die each week.

I still haven’t figured out a great way to mourn Alfan’s death. It still makes me sad. I’m still overwhelmed by the tragedy of the death of a child. However, I cling to hope! I cling to hope and joy that someday, Alfan and I will be reunited.

I anxiously await the day that Alfan and I will meet at the feet of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The day where we are both in heaven, embracing, and praising God for the beauty of binding our hearts together during our short times on Earth.

We should all cling to the promise of God from Isaiah 25:8a (NIV):

“He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces …”

Because when loss is involved, Christ is our only hope in the face of death.

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Thankfully, I am aware that Satan is just trying to deceive me again. So I turn to the One who can get me through those feelings — God.

Sometimes those lists gets smaller, my energy goes up, and I’m not so discouraged if everything seems to not get done in time.

And sometimes it doesn’t. Boy does Satan love what happens next — I doubt myself and God. Did He hear me? Am I not good enough in the eyes of my heavenly Father? Maybe I ticked Him off (by snapping at my kids, the dogs, and my husband) and he’s giving me the silent treatment. Hmm … Perhaps I didn’t pray the right way?

Then I really start to wonder: If Satan is trying to deceive me, then you can bet he’s trying to deceive those who are truly suffering: those without food, medical attention, water, clothing, the list goes on and on.

Just a little background as to why I think this.

I have always felt that my sponsored children’s faith was stronger than mine. They have so much hope. They seem to always be positive and thankful. I figure that Satan would try to deceive those who have a stronger faith.

Why?

Because whenever something goes “wrong” for me, I start to complain:

My daughters and I had ear infections awhile back and our doctor is an hour and a half away. I complained.

Or, my husband had to work late and I had made dinner to be ready for him when he got home. I complained.

Or, “Mr. Fast and Furious” speeds past me, but I am the one who gets pulled over by the policeman for going 5 miles over the limit. I complain.

I know I should be giving thanks to God that we have a doctor, my husband has a job, I have food to prepare, I have my own mode of transportation, and that He will hold other people responsible for their actions.

It seems like even though my sponsored children are living without basic necessities, they’re so thankful for what they DO have. They know what it truly means to be without — they see God working in big ways, because they have so little.

Whereas, since I have more and live with so many more opportunities, I don’t see (or it’s harder for me to see) how God is working.

So, I pray for those who know what it is like to suffer. I pray for my sponsored children.

One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 54:17 – “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” I pray that my sponsored children will be protected from any weapon — sickness, hunger, thirst, violence, loneliness, discouragement, fatigue and deceit. That those weapons would crumble into dust as my Savior protects them.

After praying for THEM, my lists don’t seem all that important. In fact, my focus has, more often than not, turned toward another piece of paper, one that will contain the words to build up my sponsored children’s self-esteem and to help them battle Satan’s lies. I write my sponsored children and assure them of God’s infinite love, of how special they are, and how proud I am of them.

Interestingly enough, I find that as I write those words, God speaks to my heart as well: God loves you, He hears you, and you are His beloved.

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