The reason why is I know Jimmy. Jimmy stayed at our house for two weeks, so he went from being a formerly sponsored child, an African, and someone with a different culture and accent, to being a friend. To a human.

 
As much as we don’t want them to, our differences — culturally, geographically, economically — can separate us. “Others” can seem so very other. So unlike us. So “unrelatable.”

Yes, we have compassion for them. But it’s hard to really relate to them. Understand them. View them the same as we view ourselves, our neighbors, our family.
 


But Jimmy is my husband’s age. The two of them sitting on our couch talking about girls made Jimmy so utterly real to me. He’s someone who despite all our differences is so like us.
 
Someone who simply had a sponsor who loved him, who told Jimmy that Jesus loves him, and set his life on an entirely new path. 
 


So when I watch this video, I don’t just see some African who some Canadian “saved.” What I see is myself in another situation, another time, another circumstance. I see that this could have been me. And I see that this can be my sponsored child.

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Thanks to the Leadership Development Program (LDP), Talita is living in the best moment of her life, not only professionally, but also spiritually. Her life story is about striving for excellence. Her dedication makes her an example to be followed by others and a reference of struggle and Christian character.

Petite and delicate, 20-year-old Talita teaches the 5- and 6-year-olds at her former child development center. God, the Father, has made her a great woman.

The public system of education in Brazil is full of contrast. The best universities are public, and to be accepted in to one, the student has to have a good and strong education during high school. But when talking about a young person who’s attended a public school, the odds are small.

Public schools are the worst ones and rarely prepare for the next step. Besides all the hardship and risks children in poverty have to face, their academic and professional path can be compromised due to the lack of good education.

Talita attended a public school in her town, Tauá, a small city about 330 kilometers from Fortaleza – the capital of Ceará state. But different from most of the students of lower class who barely finish their studies in order to get a job and help their families, she devoted herself – and still does – to study. She overcame the statistics and got a vacancy in a public university – the “Universidade Estadual do Ceará” (University of Ceará State).

“The challenges in my life are still many, but smaller in comparison to my childhood. I hadn’t even been born when my mother had to ask my drunken father to choose between us and ‘the bottles.’

“At a certain time in our lives, she was pretty concerned over me and my brother. Then my father decided to leave us and never came back. I have never accepted growing up without him.

“But despite all the feelings my mother could have had at that moment, she had to be strong for us, working hard and trying to teach some good principles to me and my brother Tiago.”

At the age of 10, Talita had a decisive moment in her life, at her child development center. She finally understood all the teachings she had been learning about Jesus Christ and discovered that she had a real Father who gave His own life in order to save hers, and would never abandon His little girl.

“The educational support, the investment on my self-esteem and hope I have received through Compassion contributed to make me feel loved and protected. This is what I want to teach to my students. God has been transforming my difficulties into victory.”

Talita also recognizes the blessing of being sponsored from 3 until she turned 18 years old.

“This relationship was fundamental in my personal development … someone who just stopped, looked at you and cared about your life was very edifying. Without such a thing I am sure I would have taken a different path. Maybe I would be a single mother, or would be working as a cleaning woman instead of teaching my children.”

After her graduation from the Child Sponsorship Program, Talita could not accept just being seated at the church. She was willing to make the difference, and the LDP was the answer.

“I prayed a lot, asking God a way to be used by Him and that what is happening know. For a moment I did not believe that I could be accepted in Compassion LDP, and my approval was a surprise; but I had never lost faith. I think I was chosen due to my commitment with Christ and my great desire to serve people.”

Besides attending college at night, Talita spends her whole day at her former development center.

“Talita is an inspiration,” says Sélia, the director of the center. “We saw how much she grew and how blessed she is. We hired her as a teacher due her life testimony and dedication. She used to be a volunteer, but her love and commitment impressed us.”

Talita’s time to study is only after 11 or on weekends, when she reads and does research. She suffers with the distance from her LDP friends. In order to take part in the LDP meetings, Talita has to travel from Tauá to Fortaleza, which takes about 4 1/2 hours – but she knows she has friends whom she can count on.

“He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). – Mark 5:41, NIV

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Jesus was in Bethsaida, when a group of people brought a blind man to him. The crowd begged Jesus to touch the man. So Jesus took the man by the hand and led him to a place out of town. There, our Lord spit on the man’s eyes and asked him if he saw anything.

“He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’” – Mark 8:24 (NIV)

So Jesus puts His hands on the man’s eyes a second time … and this time, the man’s sight was restored fully.

Why? Why did it take a “do-over” for Jesus to heal this man?

Surely we’re not supposed to believe that our Savior’s power was waning. Surely we’re not supposed to believe that His strength wasn’t enough the first time around.

So why did the man not see clearly after the first attempt? Was it in the formula?

Other times, Jesus put mud on a blind man’s eyes. Did He simply forget the mud? Did He not say the right words?

No, I don’t think the answer can be found in any fault of a perfect Son of God … but rather in the fault of the mortal man.

Whenever I have these kinds of questions about Scripture, I usually try to put the story into a perspective that I can relate to.

In what ways has God had to show Himself to me more than once before I “got it”? How many times has my Heavenly Father shown me the path I should take, only for me to stumble in my own direction without clarity, before finally crying out to Him a second time, “I still can’t see, Lord!”?

Oh … too many to list here!

So perhaps Jesus was waiting on the man’s faith to grow. Perhaps the man needed to see a little before he had the faith that he could see it all.

What does this have to do with poverty?

Well, I think sometimes the Church is like the blind man whose vision hasn’t quite been restored. We’ve got some of the basics down, but we don’t fully appreciate the severity of this global pandemic. 

The Church, I believe, has been content with seeing “men walking like trees” instead of clearly seeing the face of poverty.

A recent Barna survey I got my hands on, but which I can’t find online, shows that 57 percent of pastors polled in the U.S. believe their church should do more to address global poverty. Those same pastors, on average, taught only one message last year on poverty. No wonder we don’t see it clearly!

But I believe God wants His people to see poverty for what it really is.

It’s more than money. It’s more than social status. It’s more than food or water. God wants His Church to understand that poverty kills hope. It steals dreams. Poverty robs children of their potential — and therefore robs us of what they have to offer.

Maybe it’s time for a ”do-over.” Maybe it’s time to go back to your senior pastor or your missions pastor and help them see beyond the surface issues of poverty. Maybe it’s time your congregation took  a second look at the poor.

Now, if Jesus had never touched the man a second time, it still would have been a miracle. The man went from not seeing at all, to seeing blurry images. That’s still impressive. But that’s not enough.

Jesus wanted the man to see clearly. Likewise, I believe God wants His people to have a clear understanding of poverty — and what He has commanded His Church to do about it.

We’ve created some wonderful resources to show you what poverty really is. I hope you’ll spend some time looking at them. And then use them to give your church a “do-over.”

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