In April 2011, three months after I graduated from high school, I felt God leading me to sponsor a child. This may not sound all that crazy, but it was. I had about $40 to my name, barely enough to cover a month’s sponsorship, and while I had been looking for a job for three months, I hadn’t had any luck.

I checked the Compassion website to look for a child, and had no idea I would be so overwhelmed.

How do you choose between almost 2,000 children who desperately need someone to sponsor them? How do you choose when they all have beautiful eyes that speak to your soul, and some of them live in places with AIDS, and others are orphans, and on and on and on?

I have a heart for children. I’m going to college to be a neonatal nurse, and I want to start an orphanage in India. It tears me apart to see kids who can’t go to school or don’t have enough food every day or have watched their parents and siblings die while they are left behind.

How do I help just one when I want to help them all?

“God, how do I choose?”

I decided I needed to be specific in my search. I decided to look at the children with physical or mental disabilities.

And there he was. Djamsel.

I have no idea how to pronounce his name. The sight in his left eye is defective, and you can see it in his picture. He has a quirky little smile on his face, and he looks a bit unsure, but he is so beautiful…

It’s been almost four months now, and I’ve written to my little boy twice. I haven’t had a letter from him yet, but I look forward to the day when I do. He turned 9 a few weeks ago, and so I bought some brightly colored stationery for him for my next letter.

I’m hoping he’ll be able to see the pictures I send to him and know what I look like and know that I love him and pray for him every time I see his picture, which hangs above my bed.

How do you choose which child to sponsor? How do you know which one will be yours, to love and hold in your heart?

In all honesty, you’re not the one who will choose your little boy or girl. God has chosen a little one for you, and He will lead you to him. Your child will choose you.

“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” (Matthew 25:40, NASB)

Sarah is a new Compassion sponsor who likes to share about her life’s adventures on her blog, A Christ-like Life.

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Now that I’ve come to know the Lord, I realise how heartbreaking it must be for Him to see His creation turn to other gods. I also realise just how loving, patient and faithful He is to have pursued me in spite of my past disobedience.

I find it difficult to imagine myself living in a world where I would be publicly persecuted for believing in or proclaiming the Truth. Paul states in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing would separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. I wholeheartedly believe that.

But it does make me wonder … If I knew Christ, only to enter into circumstances which threaten my expression of faith, would I shake hands with the convenient half-truths, the counterfeits, the prince of the power of the air? Would I be a Daniel?

As Mel shared in the day two post, religious violence is very real in some parts of the world. It’s obvious enough that Satan is at work to confine the development of the innocent children – our future generations. But let that threat not stop us from reaching out. Instead, I pray that it would spark in us an urgency to intercede for these unforgettable little lives and the churches in these endangered areas.

Mel’s day three experience in Kolkata brings to mind various forms of poverty. These street kids would not only have been materially poor, they would’ve grown up with a smorgasbord of gods demanding their reverence and even worship. How on earth would and could a child sift through a mass of religious traditions, the so-called “culture” in their society, to find transparent truth, and be set free?

Still, I find comfort in knowing that shining lights like Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying have been a refuge for those walking through the valley of the shadow of death. God promises that we would not need to fear any evil even in the darkest hour, but to walk “through” it. There is hope in receiving His comfort.

He is the Light of the world.

Take three!

Mel Carswell in India – Day Three

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