I grieve today for the child I’ve lost. The relationship has ended. He’s left the Compassion program. There’s nothing I can do. And he’s not even really mine; I’m the correspondent.

I’ve had children leave before. Maregu graduated from the program. Sandra moved outside of our ministry area.

Ruan’s sponsor got married and his wife decided to write to him instead of having me as his correspondent. Ravi somehow is different.

Ravi dropped out of the program.

I don’t know why he left; it may have been family issues or peer pressure or feeling that working in a low-income job was better than completing his education.

As a 14-year-old boy, it could have been any number of reasons.

I simply know that our staff in India would have done all they could to reach out to him and encourage him to stay connected to the program and all it offers.

I suspect that his departure also hurt those wonderful men and women who mentored and cared for him right there in his part of India.

About three years ago I was speaking with one of our staff members who sends field memos to country offices on behalf of Australian sponsors.

On the same day they had received two emails from two sponsors of 10-year-old boys from Bangladesh in response to “why did my child leave the program” questions.

One child left because, like Ravi, he dropped out due to lack of interest and peer pressure. The other left because the support he had received from our ministry and the church had lifted him far enough out of poverty that the family was now considered “too rich” to be supported by us.

Two 10-year-old boys left; two very different reasons. You could say one was a success story and one was a failure.

Yet I say that every child who is presented with the Good News of Jesus Christ is a success story. Every child who receives more vaccinations and more education than he would have otherwise had is a success story. Every child who interacts with God’s Church and is influenced by His servants is a success story.

They are both success stories.

Like me, many sponsors may not know why their child has left the program, they just know he or she has. Sadness can overwhelm as you lose this special member of the family. Grief increases knowing that you can’t physically see or speak to him or swallow them in the hug you long to give.

When it feels like there is nothing you can do to help this child anymore, there is just one thing you can keep on doing as before, and that’s the most important of all.

Pray.

I may not ever see Ravi, or hear from or about him again. He may never think of me again. But his photo is on my wall and his name is written on my heart.

I will continue to pray for him because this is the most powerful thing I can do for him. My God sees Ravi and loves him, wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, whether he loves God or not. So I keep praying for my boy Ravi.

And today I start giving a little bit of my heart to a new child, Ita, as our friendship begins and my lifetime of prayers for her starts.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Our correspondence team receives many gifts from sponsors for their sponsored children that can’t be sent to our country offices. If this happens to your gift, we will contact you to see if you’d like the gift returned or donated to a local Colorado Springs charity, Northern Churches Care.

And to help prevent that from happening to you, which items do you think can be sent to your sponsored child through the mail?

Ok, ok. It was a trick question. None of the items can be sent through the mail. Unfortunately, we receive about 300 items like these each month. Our correspondence team spends about eight hours each week sorting out these undeliverable items.

Last year, they were able to donate over 200 shoeboxes.

You can find a list of items that you CAN send to your child through the mail on compassion.com.

UPDATE: November 30, 2011 – Here’s an idea of the volume of items we receive that can’t be sent and which sponsors choose not to have returned.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Nooltetan is a Maasai peasant farmer who has been unable to farm because of the severe East African drought.

Mostly, she has depended on raising cattle for her family’s survival. In the past 10 to 20 years the Tanzanian government has encouraged Maasai pastoral communities to engage in alternative work such as farming instead of just relying on cattle.

Nooltetan heeded this call. Along with raising cattle, she began farming her small plot of land when she got married. But the drought has been severe, forcing Nooltetan to cease her attempts at farming. Then she lost all of her cattle and was reduced to poverty.

Nooltetan and her husband had two children before they separated after family quarrels. Now she looks after her children on her own.

With children to feed and responsibilities to fulfill. Nooltetan resorted to collecting firewood for a living. Each day she goes to the nearby bush to collect firewood, which she carries to the nearby town to sell.

One day Nooltetan injured herself with her machete, which has forced her to rely on her 15-year-old son, Alais, to collect firewood and sell it to feed the family. Nooltetan tells us,

“We get about Tshs 2,000 per day (approx. $1.15 USD) for the bundle of firewood we sell and then we use the money to buy food and other home essentials.”

Nooltetan feels it is better to do that than go hungry with no food at all. When the family is not able to earn a living through selling firewood, or when Alais has not been able to secure a day’s pay, the family resorts to asking a neighbor for food.

But if the neighbor family has nothing to spare, Nooltetan’s family goes hungry that day.

After her separation from her husband, Nooltetan decided to go back to her parents where she was born. While there she met a man who fathered four more children with her. This man has not married her and doesn’t take any responsibility for the children.

So Nooltetan now has six children to raise. Before the drought, she had six cows and 10 goats, but now she doesn’t have so much as a chicken to supply eggs and income.

“This year the drought has persisted and because of the loss of our cows and goats, the situation has become even more difficult.

“We depended much on the cattle as our security and means of survival, because we could sell some and buy food. But since cattle are no longer available, we depend on the small business of collecting firewood in exchange for food.”

On a good day, Nooltetan’s family has two simple meals of maize flour and beans, vegetables or porridge. Today they had porridge in the morning and they were going to have another porridge meal in the evening.

The porridge is made of water with maize flour and smallest measure of cooking oil they can buy (at Tshs 200, approximately 15 cents USD) to add flavor.

Food scarcity is not the only the problem in this community; there is also an acute shortage of water. Even though a water pipe is located a few hundred meters from Nooltetan’s home, the pipe is dry most of the time.

The only reliable source of water is a puddle of water-pipe leakage. Here, many people from the community collect their water each day. When the puddle is dry, they have to walk several kilometers to look for water.

One day a relative heard that the local church, in partnership with Compassion International, was going to register children and help support them. Knowing Nooltetan’s struggles to raise six children as a single mother, the uncle asked the child development center workers if he could register her son Emmanuel.

The development center workers came to Nooltetan’s home and confirmed Emmanuel for registration. Nooltetan says she has seen God in these workers, and in Emmanuel.

“Emmanuel being registered has benefited us as [a] family in many ways. Emmanuel would not have gone to school if it was not for Compassion’s intervention. His behavior is very different compared to his other siblings, and more importantly, he has great hope for the future.

“The impact [of] him going to school has even touched his younger siblings, who all go to school as opposed to his elder brothers who did not go to school.”

The family has also received several gifts from Emmanuel’s sponsors, who have even been in their home to visit them.

“These gifts have helped our family to buy food and clothes for other children as well. The benefits have spanned to all other family members.”

Nooltetan cannot hide her joy and her appreciation of Emmanuel’s sponsors.

“I would like to sincerely thank Emmanuel’s sponsors for their support and I thank God who touched them to choose sponsoring my child. I would also tell them if it were not for them, our story, and particularly that of Emmanuel, would be very different.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

As a sponsor since 2009, nothing has inspired my involvement with Compassion quite like OurCompassion has.

When I decided to sponsor my first little girl in Ghana, I found myself hungry for more information. I wanted to know more about Compassion, more about the benefits of sponsorship, and more about Ghana.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at compassion.com, which was helpful, but I found what I most needed – the perspective of other sponsors – in OurCompassion.

OurCompassion Offers Information

In the Gallery section of OurCompassion, sponsors share photos and videos of their trips to visit their children. For those of us who haven’t been able to meet our children, these entries give us an idea of what the various areas and child development centers look like.

The Gallery also has photos of completed crafts and projects that sponsors have made for their children. Some sponsors post photos they have received after sending financial gifts, giving us all a better idea of just how far a monetary gift can go.

OurCompassion gives us the ability to connect with like-minded sponsors by joining Groups. There are hundreds of groups to choose from, among them are ones for those sponsoring in particular countries, for sponsors of older children, the Compassion Bloggers group and, of course, the group for the monthly letter-writing night.

Another wonderful feature, the recently created child development center groups, allow you to connect and share information and pictures with others who sponsor children in the same child development center.

There is a Google map of the area, which allows you to zoom in to look at the environment and buildings in the neighborhood. In some cases you can look close enough to see walking paths!

Many child center groups also have letters from the pastor that you can read to get a better sense of the work being done and the needs within your sponsored child’s community.

OurCompassion Offers Inspiration

Members can post questions, ideas, prayer requests and discussion topics in the Journals area. By perusing the posts, you will come across many great ideas from other sponsors.

Whether it be someone sharing ways that they have been able to afford more sponsorships or another showing pictures of a project or craft created to send to a sponsored child, there are always interesting new ideas to be found. The enthusiasm is contagious!

“This site has helped me with ideas to write to my kids. It has shown me the importance of writing often and sending little treats.

“Mostly this site helps me remember how others live. I am inspired daily by the people on this site.

“I have read about people giving up things, stepping out in amazing faith, and clinging to God’s promises of provision to sponsor more children. I have seen pictures, read stories, and prayed for people about their travels to these countries.

“My life is changed because of this site. I see ‘stuff” differently. I spend my money differently and I am so thankful God lead me here!” – Rachel K.

“I have been sponsoring only since last October and was excited about it and enjoyed writing and so looked forward to hearing from my little girl, but it’s such a long time in between!

“I stumbled on OurCompassion a couple weeks ago, and it has changed me as a sponsor. Something in me is honestly different! Sponsoring has become REAL now!

“I only wrote when she wrote and I didn’t realize just how much our letters mean to them. It never dawned on me that I could write more often.

“Through reading all the journals we all post and through pictures I see, I realize now just how desperately poor these kids are, and even though I live a pretty simple lifestyle I have so much more. Surely there are some things I can let go of so I can help another child!

“I have and I now sponsor two more children since belonging to OC. The Lord has blessed me as I ‘follow Him’ in caring for our children and the poor. Everyone on OC has been a huge inspiration to me.” – Patty

OurCompassion Offers Encouragement

Sometimes sponsorship can be discouraging. Letters from our children come slower than we’d like or they lack details. Or maybe some of life’s challenges weigh heavy upon us.

OurCompassion is a family that pulls together to offer support and comfort when needed. As a fellowship of people who share the same faith, we pray for unsponsored and sponsored children in the program as well as one another when needed.

One diligent member named Debbie posts a daily prayer list of unsponsored children who are celebrating birthdays, making it easy for us to go through and lift up each child to specifically pray for them on their special day.

While OurCompassion has a lot to offer us, there are some challenges to using it. It can initially be difficult to navigate and figure out how and where to post.

The Journals area can be found by clicking the Community tab along the top of the page and then clicking the link that says Journals.

You can start a new Journal discussion or introduce yourself by clicking the small blue square with a pencil that can be found on the right hand side of the page.

If you’re looking for the Groups, just click the “Connect” tab and then the link that says “Find Groups.” You can scroll through the various Groups, search for one on a topic you’re interested in or even start one of your own.

The Child Development Center pages can be found by looking at your own profile and scrolling down until you see the box titled “My Child Center Groups.”

To make sure that your posts can be seen by others, click the green “Edit Profile” button and then click the “Privacy and Notifications” tab. Make sure that the Privacy Settings menu is set to “All Community.”

If you are concerned about privacy you can always change your profile so that it doesn’t show your last name or location.

So, while the initial navigation of OurCompassion may be a bit difficult, I definitely think it’s worth your time to overcome. Not only will you find information, inspiration and encouragement, chances are you will also find a renewed enthusiasm as a sponsor.

The OC community is always ready to welcome new members, so take a few minutes today to register and look around.

Be sure that you stop by the Journals to introduce yourself!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Compassion is more than just a sponsorship program that helps break the cycle of poverty. It is about a relationship between a registered child and his or her sponsor. The lives of a young boy, Vitoon, and his sponsor, Richard, will never be the same since they got to know each other.

Vitoon is a Leadership Development Program student in Thailand. He is in his third year at Rajabhat Chiang Mai University, majoring in English education.

Vitoon was born into a hill tribe called Karen. Vitoon’s house is in Chiang Mai, but it’s located in the high mountains, a five-hour drive from the city.

When Vitoon was in 10th grade, his sponsor stopped sponsoring him and Vitoon prayed to God for his new sponsor. That was when Richard came into his life.

“Richard sends me a bunch of letters and that’s why we have a great relationship. In his first few letters, Richard told me that he was 82 years old, he had two cats and he did not have a family. I felt so sorry for him. He was quite old and he lived alone. No one would help take care of him. So I began to pray for my sponsor.”

Through the letters, Vitoon could feel love and care from Richard.

“Do keep me informed in your studies, your success and even difficulties. I pray to God to help you, protect you and bless you, Vitoon, the most precious in my life.”

From the love Vitoon experienced from Richard, he found himself with a new family member whom he soon called Grandpa.

“Grandpa always encourages me to focus on studying so I will have good grades and I will have a better life.”

Grandpa Richard inspired this Karen tribal boy to have a dream to enroll in our Leadership Development Program so he could pursue a university education.

“I am so proud of you, Vitoon,” Richard wrote to him, ”but you will have to study hard and long hours to succeed again, but I know you can succeed.”

Vitoon’s parents are farmers who work hard just to make ends meet. They do not earn enough to support him through university.

When Vitoon knew that he was accepted as a Leadership Development Program student, he was happy but also sad.

“The child development center director told me when I entered the program, Grandpa might not be my sponsor because the financial support was much higher for university students. But Grandpa informed me that he wanted to continue sponsoring me. I was very happy and grateful to have him as my sponsor. He wanted to help me, even though we have never met.”

Not only has Vitoon found new family, but so has Richard.

“I do not have a family any longer so I am happy to be a part of your family. Vitoon, you are like a fine, intelligent, studious grandson to me, making me useful again doing what God teaches us: help one other. You are a big help to me. You give meaning to my life so I want to give you a better life.”

At the age of 84, Richard had to move to a retirement village where there are people who can assist him. He had to leave his cats and his familiar life behind, so the only thing he had left was his sponsored child. Richard longs to receive letters from his “grandson.”

“Last Tuesday was a very exciting day for me. In my daily mail was a large white envelop. I hurried back to my small room to see what was in the oversized envelope. I was very excited but as soon as I saw the content, I was even much more exited. Four beautiful colored photos of you spilled out.”

Letters for Richard are more than just pieces of paper; they are treasures that are priceless.

“Very dear Grandson, what a blessing you are to me. Today I found a long and interesting letter from you in your clear and beautiful handwriting. I was so excited and happy I kissed your letter many times before even opening it. I had waited for that letter for a long time.

“I have kept all your letters as treasures, so if I do not find one in my mailbox, I go to my three-ring binder and read again an old letter from you. That gives me much pleasure. I feel we are still in touch one with the other.

“Every thought you express to me changes a dull, cloudy day into a beautiful day full of sunshine.”

There was one letter that made Vitoon cry and he committed to praying to God consistently. He learned that his beloved grandpa Richard was faced with health problems. Richard cannot walk without a walking aid, and he has lost his hearing as well as the sight in his right eye. Sometimes Richard spends several days writing his long letters because he can use his one good eye only for short periods. 

Every time Vitoon writes a letter to Richard, he feels like he is sharing his life with his own grandpa rather than writing a letter to his sponsor. Vitoon loves telling Richard about his family, updating him on his life, and finding good messages to make his grandpa feel happy. Sometimes Vitoon sends photos along with long letters.

Richard loves Vitoon so much that he supports Vitoon through his spiritual life and academic study.

“I want to buy my grandson a fine, new guitar that must be selected from a good music store with the help of Compassion who will bill me for the full cost of the guitar you want. Choose the best one you see and your proud and loving grandpa will gladly pay for it. My first gift to my grandson.”

Vitoon uses his musical talent along with his guitar in a worship band that he leads for Sunday service. He is proud and enjoys playing his guitar so much that he writes to his grandpa many times to tell him. Vitoon also has a computer notebook that he received from his beloved sponsor. Richard wants Vitoon to use it to do research and reports for his studies. Vitoon is one of the few leadership students who has such a privileged relationship.

As a leadership student, Vitoon wants to develop himself to be a leader who has an impact on others. The Leadership Development Program has equipped and helped him to change from a shy boy to a confident man who can lead worship or games in front of people. This program also trains Vitoon to have a broader perspective, teaching him to listen, obey and fellow Jesus’ commands.

Vitoon has a desire to be a teacher in the mountains. He wants to dedicate himself to teaching young children in the same way he learns from Richard to live for others. He knows that children who live in remote areas have the same abilities as children in the city but they lack the opportunities to gain knowledge.

Vitoon wants to be the person who gives those children that chance, just as Richard gives to him.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Yesterday, I spent four hours with the boy I sponsor. It was our second time together, and I enjoyed seeing him again, seeing how he has grown and hearing him speak a few words of English. Three years ago he didn’t know any English.

I was delighted to meet the director of his child development center and to finally see photos of his mother, father and younger sister. I also saw pictures of the house they built with one of the family gifts I sent.

I enjoyed telling Lerionga that I’m going to be a father soon and recounting in greater detail the things I’ve shared in my letters. But all of our conversation lasted about 10 minutes, and then there was silence.

I am extremely uncomfortable with silence when I think it’s not supposed to be there.

In advance of my time with Lerionga, I imagined this meeting would be different from our first one. I imagined that conversation would be easier, that there wouldn’t be silence. I imagined it would be an “unbelievable encounter” like this. But it wasn’t.

My day with Lerionga was a great day. It was a special day, and in many ways for me it was a selfish day.

It was a selfish day because I wanted us to be “best buds,” but two days together, lots of letters and some financial gifts do not best buds make, even after four and a half years of sponsorship.

I first sponsored Lerionga because I wanted to change the world for the better, make a difference for Christ. I wanted to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

And in all honesty, I’d like to hear some of that before I get to Heaven. (But now that I’ve said this, it doesn’t count if you tell me.) ☺

Being drawn to something and arriving at the destination are not the same thing. They’re separated by the size of the dream, and dreams aren’t realized with the snap of the fingers.

Dreams are made with sweat and discomfort, effort and uncertainty and moments of success and failure. They’re kneaded together with sacrifice and generosity and held together with drive, perseverance and surrender.

Relationships are like that too. And so is sponsorship.

Is your sponsorship about your child or is it about you? How about other relationships in your life? Do you look outward, for others to change, or do you turn inward, where you can change?

My sponsorship is about me. And it’s about Lerionga. I need to do better about remembering that.

My sponsorship is about me. And it’s about Jesus. I need to do better about remembering that too.

Being a sponsor is hard. But so is living in abject poverty.

Being a sponsor is hard. But only because I’m fallen and I over-think things.

Don’t over-think this. Sponsor a child or sponsor another child if you’re already a sponsor. And then don’t even think about canceling the sponsorship; Jesus didn’t cancel His.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Dan Trumble

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

If you have trouble viewing the slideshow above, you can view the photos on Flickr.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The photos helped me picture my sponsored child, Lerionga, reading letters I’ve sent him. They drew me closer to him.

Some of these photos are old – five or six years. Others were taken just last year.

Some of these children have left our program, and some have sponsors from countries other than the U.S.

The exciting thing is that we were able to contact several sponsors and let them know about this post, so they could download the photo.

Any time I can do that for you, I will.

Here is what I speak of – the sponsor letter photos.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

An air of anticipation and excitement hung over the Muzahura Child Development Center on the morning of August 26, 2008. While any day at the child development center is always a day the children look forward to each week, this day was going to be extra out of the ordinary.

Special guests were coming to visit. On this day, 13-year-old Mistaff had a mixture of trepidation and expectancy coursing through him. Questions swirled through his mind. “What would they think?” “What do they look like?” “What will I say?”

On this bright and sunny day, Mistaff was waiting to meet his sponsor for the very first time.

Clean and smartly dressed in his uniform provided by Compassion, he waited with the rest of his class, eager and nervous at the same time.

Mistaff was taken in by his widowed aunt ten years ago when his mother died. Without a father actively participating in his life, Mistaff’s only support and family are his aunt and five cousins.

Aunt Perusi is a peasant farmer with no formal education or source of income. She grows enough cassava and beans to feed her family, with a little left over to sell in the weekly market to buy the basic necessities needed at home.

Muzahura is a community with very few educated people, there is no serious business that takes place, and the people are entirely dependent on the growth of maize as a source of income. With the drastic changes in the weather patterns over the last few years, this harvest has been compromised and not forthcoming.

Bringing into the family another mouth to feed in an already dire situation was a challenge Perusi faced. She recalls,

“We were in bad condition. We had no soap, no beddings. We slept on dry banana leaves, had no saucepans, no light to light the house, no money to support or treat or even educate the children.”

With no help to her at all, her family’s health suffered, especially Mistaff’s, whose immune system was very low. He inherited an unidentifiable disease from his father that affected his reproductive system, making him susceptible to urinary tract infections, gastritis and malaria.

The nearest health center is two kilometers away, and with no access route to the main road leading to it, it was nearly impossible to get medical help in emergencies. This hopeless situation would have discouraged anyone but not Perusi. “I had no plan,” he says. “I thought we were going to die with nothing. I just prayed for the mercy of God. He was my only hope.”

In October 2002 her prayers were answered when Mistaff was registered into our child sponsorship program.

Being a part of this program meant that a helping hand had come in to take care of some of Mistaff’s needs, like his education as well as his physical, spiritual and cognitive health. In addition to this, Mistaff is connected to a family far away who are pledging their time and money to support his development.

Before long, Perusi witnessed her nephew’s health improve, as the center workers consistently and diligently came to her rescue and made sure Mistaff received medical attention every time his health failed.

With the added nutritious and supplementary food they provide as well as the particular attention and exercise he gets whenever he visits the center, Mistaff’s immune system has improved so much that he rarely falls sick, and his insatiable personality and penchant for football flourished.

Right before her eyes the little boy with no hope and no opportunities grew into a man with a future.
“One day he will complete his education and become successful,” she says. “He’ll get a job and land and construct a house. I feel happy that his future is secure.”

Mistaff’s family circle increased when Bevan and Tamlyn were introduced into his young life as his sponsors. To Bevan, Mistaff is not just another child on the other side of the world that needs a helping hand; Mistaff is part of Bevan’s growing family.

Regular correspondence between the two families gives Mistaff the nurturing of the father he never had.

“They pray for us, buy his books, clothes and things for the house. And Christmas comes with a gift”, says Perusi of the Russell’s influence in her and Mistaff’s life. “I thank God for them, to bless them, for such a great work. I pray so that GOD may replace where they get everything”.

With the sponsorship received from the Russells, Mistaff — with the guidance of his aunt and the center staff — bought a goat and seedlings to plant beans and maize on a larger scale to have a bit more to sell. Recently, the goat gave birth to two babies that Mistaff proudly says he will rear for sale so that he, too, can contribute to his family’s income.

So when Perusi and Mistaff were told that Bevan was flying from across the world to come and visit them, he had a great deal of excitement and a bit of trepidation. They decorated the entrance of their mud house with brightly colored bougainvillea and yellow and white hibiscus flowers. They also specially picked a bouquet of bougainvillea and hibiscus tied with banana fibers from their garden to present to Bevan. They laid clean and newly dried grass onto the mud floors as a carpet so that they and the extra guests could sit on as they have only a couple of chairs.

The Meeting

And as August 26, 2008 dawned bright and clear, Mistaff waited while Bevan, in his hotel room a few miles away, prepared and prayed for their first meeting. “We have been looking forward to this for a long time,” he says. “My only regret is that my wife is not with me.”

On arrival, the music and dancing of the children and caregivers added a sense of celebration and gaiety to the meeting. Bevan was greeted by all the children in the program, their caregivers and the center staff.

A group of caregivers merrily danced to the car to receive him as he stepped out of it. The dancers were dressed in traditional garb embellished with beads and danced in circles, which symbolizes oneness and unity. The dance and welcome song were accompanied by the rhythmic beat of the drum and the melodic xylophone and flute. The music and dance followed Bevan as he greeted the children. With his back turned, Mistaff quietly walked up to him and waited until he turned around.

“It was actually quite strange when first meeting because while I was chatting with all the other kids, Mistaff came up behind me, and as I turned around he was right there. I actually didn’t recognize him at first, he was a lot taller than I had expected and he was grown up, compared to the photos I had seen I was looking for a smaller boy — it was a really good surprise!!!”

And at that first hug between boy and man a relationship that had started six years before with a letter and a commitment from afar was sealed for a lifetime.

Within no time, Bevan and Mistaff could be seen on the football field playing Mistaff’s favorite sport with some of his classmates, or hunched together in a world of their own, talking.

Their time together was a dream come true for both of them, and Mistaff recalls that although Bevan had promised in previous letters that he prayed for a chance to see him, to Mistaff that was all it was, a prayer.

“I have been longing to see him. Now I can see he is real and my neighbors can see that he is real and my friend. He is a man who keeps promises because he said he would visit one day and now here he is and I am blessed because many children don’t see their sponsors face to face.”

They talked together about each other’s lives, families, Mistaff’s school and education and a mutually favorite game, football. It was with a heart-wrenching goodbye that Bevan left the child development center at the end of that day.

“It was actually quite sad, I didn’t expect it to be as sad as it was as we had only spent a few hours together, but I wasn’t happy saying goodbye. It wasn’t, however, a sad feeling based on leaving them in their current state; it was a feeling of wanting to spend more time with them to get to know them better.

“My day spent with Mistaff has certainly changed my relationship with him, and I place far more value and importance on my correspondence with him and my prayers for him. This meeting has inspired and motivated me to stay faithful with what God has entrusted to me and the part that our church can play in making a significant positive difference in the lives of these children.”

For Mistaff, although the end of the day heralded his friend’s departure his heart was warm, his prayers had been answered. “Now I know who he really is,” he says. “I can see him exactly that he loves me and is concerned about me because he came all this way to see me.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates