We sponsor an 11 year old young lady in Nagpur, India.  It is because of sponsoring her that Shawn and I both have broken hearts for India’s people.  I’ve spent many sleepless nights agonizing over mind boggling data on the poverty that exists in India.  She is a hurting country longing for someone to love her.

Despite the fact that the caste system is illegal, it is still very much in effect.  My husband had a conversation with a friend recently and this talked about this.  However deprave the caste system is, it is a way of life and tradition; and heads turn as higher level caste members exercise their “right” over those who are lower.

This of course does not bode well for women.  In a country that turns a blind eye to a deprave system and the majority of her residents fight to make about a dollar a day, many turn to whatever means they can to feed their children.

For women…this often means sex slavery.

Their bodies are sold for 10 cents.  They are abused.  Yelled at.  Threatened by bodyguards employed by the pimps.

All so they can have a “better life”.

I cannot tell you how angering this is to me.  That the worth of a “good time” is literally nickle and dimed.

Missions in Action in conjunction with Compassion recently did a video highlighting this epidemic.  Nagpur, the city near where our sponsor daughter lives is the epicenter of sex slave trade.  When they filmed the video there were 200 children of sex workers in the neighborhood of the red light district, only 40 were sponsored.  Yesterday, because of the video I’ll be linking below, 10 more children were sponsored.  That is now 50 children who have the chance to learn to read & write.  To have an education and be able to get jobs that their mothers never would be able to.

I’m not asking you to sponsor.  If you do, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I am asking you though, to watch the video and learn.  This isn’t only going on in India.  It’s happening in Africa, Thailand, all over Eastern Europe, and is rampant in the US.  Pray for these children, for the women.

Missions in Action & Compassion Video.

I’d made accusations against God based on feelings that have been ravaging me.  Accusations of abandonment, of the lack of caring.

We were scheduled to volunteer at an event for Compassion and honestly I didn’t want to go.  I wanted to be home, warm, cozied on my couch with my book.  I didn’t want to have to put on a “happy, Jesus is awesome & compassionate” face.  [just being honest here]

I was finishing up my day at work when I got a text from Shawn.  We had a message from our sponsored child.

If you don’t sponsor, or even if you do – these letters have the ability to make a bad day good, and even bring joy when all you feel is anger.

When I got home we opened the letter.  Inside was an anniversary card from our sponsor daughter Nikita for our tenth anniversary.  My eyes brimmed with salty tears and quickly overflowed.

The card was accompanied by a letter.  With my eyelashes still damp from tears I read that she loves math, and I think how smart this beautiful young lady is.  She sends kisses and hugs and I think how loved we are.

And she closes her letter with a verse.  This is the first time in two and a half years.  I read the illuminated text written by a 11 year old girl half a world away, and an overflow of sloppy tears inundate my cheeks again.

I wonder at how a young girl who wrote this letter about two months prior (a month or so before this all started happening in our lives) would choose this verse for a letter that would arrive at this season in our lives.

My mind floats to God, and I believe that it was at this point that my shell first started to crack.

It still amazes me that God reached from the other side of the globe, that months prior to this season even starting He moved upon the heart of a little Indian girl to minister to us.

For the last several months we’d discussed sponsoring another child.  We fully believe that we are called to care for the poor, and want to be obedient to God’s calling.

We decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to sponsor an older child through the term of their time with Compassion.  Older children are less likely to be sponsored.

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Since April 30th is the anniversary of when we started sponsoring with Compassion we decided to make that our consistent sponsorship date.  We missed that date by one day due to a busy day Saturday.  We sat down last night and sponsored this lovely young lady, Delinah.  She is 19, and  lives in Kenya – southeast of the Ugandan border.

We are thankful that God has brought her into our lives.  And for the few short years we are able to sponsor her I pray that we can be a blessing to her as she is to us.

There is something to be said when college students are willing to let go of $38 a month to help a child in poverty.  I was humbled by the generosity of these students.  Justin McRoberts spoke as a Compassion advocate, sharing his story of sponsoring and meeting one of his sponsored children.  One of the things he reminded us of is that whether a child is sponsored or not a seed has been planted.  A seed that sparks something more than just social justice, but a relationship.

I loved the scripture he spoke from.  I love how Luke writes that Philip not only came along side of but climbed into the chariot with the eunuch.  Philip stepped into his world.  I love the relationship that Compassion provides me as a sponsor, how they allow me to step into the world of a nearly 11 year old and minister Jesus to her.

Some great bloggers are running along side some “chariots” in June.  You can join them in a few different ways.  You can support them by donating to their fund raising efforts (click here).  Sarah is also featuring Crafting for Team San Diego, joining with handmade artisans – like Mandi – who are donating part of their proceeds to Team San Diego.

Do you sponsor or have you considered sponsoring?

Yesterday we received an updated picture of Nikita.  The young girl we sponsor through Compassion.  We’ve sponsored her for nearly a year and a half now.  I love that God has allowed her to be a part of our lives.  This young lady who loves dogs, calls us Uncle and Aunt, always sends hugs and kisses for us and our doggies.  This young lady who in part we think of almost like a daughter.

The photo we received yesterday showed her with a study desk that she was able to buy with money we’d sent for her birthday.  The initial picture in her sponsorship packet show a sad, maybe even scared little girl has been replaced with a smiling, happy young lady.  As soon as I saw her picture my eyes brimmed with tears.  I couldn’t believe the change.

Sponsorship works.  It works for them and it works for those who sponsor.  Every monthly amount, every birthday gift, every family gift, every care package with stickers, coloring pages, paper dolls, puppets, construction paper, little books…..

All of it is worth it!

What started out as a small flame erupted into a burning desire to rescue those in poverty when we started sponsoring Nikita.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it till the day I die, sponsorship changes YOUR life.  Allowances you made before, you’re no longer willing to make.  Your perspective changes.

I love what Compassion does.  I love how they minister to not only the children who are part of their services but their whole family.  What touches the child doesn’t stop the moment the leave Compassion’s Child Development Centers.  They carry it home held in precious little hands & hearts.  I love how as I sleep at night this beautiful young lady is being ministered to spiritually, physically, emotionally.  I really do ♥ Compassion!!

As I wrestle with just how God will accomplish my dream to be a rescuer I do what I know I can right now.  I sponsor and both Shawn and I are praying about one or both of us becoming Child Advocates.

Do you sponsor?  If so what organization, and where does your child(ren) live?

Meet Achile.  Achile’s heart doesn’t work very well.  He is an 8-year-old boy in Burkina Faso with a congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of Fallot.  On Jun 17th, he arrived in India for heart surgery.  This precious little boy needs heart surgery. His pain is great, and for the last five (5) years has been unable to attend school on a regular basis.

Achile has the privilege of being in the Compassion program in Burkina Faso.  More than that, when Compassion HQ contacted Shaun Groves that he needed to pull his child sponsorship info from the boxes that would be shared at concerts & conferences Shaun more than stepped up to the plate.  Actually…his son did.

Not only is Achile part of Compassion, he’s sponsored.  By none other than Shaun’s son.  He get’s the chance for life years from now, and gets to hear about Jesus, and gets to be loved on by a little boy and his family in Tennessee, USA.

Of course with any surgery, this isn’t cheap: $20,449.  You can help.  I encourage you to give towards helping pay for the surgery & airfare to save this little boy’s life.

In Matthew Jesus tells His disciples that when we’ve given to the least of these (the poor, the needy, the alien, the orphan) we have done these to Jesus himself.  Click the link below, donate.   Touch not only the heart of Achile, but also the heart of Jesus.

Update on Achille.

]]> http://www.prudychick.com/2010/06/to-heal-their-broken-hearts/feed/ 3 http://www.prudychick.com/2010/05/happy-birthday/ http://www.prudychick.com/2010/05/happy-birthday/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 14:00:43 +0000 prudychick http://www.prudychick.com/?p=1080 Saturday night, I was lying in bed waiting for the pleasant presence of sleep to overwhelm me.  I was thinking about blog posts I needed to get up.  I realized it was Sunday, May 09th, in Nagpur, India.

In the quiet of my dark bedroom, with Chihuahuas nestled in their crates I mentally began to sing:

“Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Nikita!!
Happy birthday to you!”

It was officially her birthday, though it was still May 08th in my bedroom.

Nikita, the little girl we sponsor in India through Compassion turned 10 on May 09th.

I wish I’d gotten a cupcake to split with Shawn for her.  Maybe next year.

Painting I did for Nikita for her birthday.

(watercolors on watercolor paper.  her favorite color is blue.)

जन्मदिन फलाफूला

(Happy Birthday)

It rocketed my perspective and my desires to a completely other place than they’d ever been before.

More specifically, it took my heart and shipped it to a slum outside Nagpur, India.

On April 30, 2009 Shawn and I decided to sponsor our first child through Compassion due largely in part because of this Bloggers Trip (Anne‘s posts had my crying like a slobbering fool).  We always say that sponsoring her was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.  And we’re completely serious.  I didn’t think that sponsoring Nikita would change my life, I thought we’d change hers.  Provide her nutritious meals, schooling, health checkups, etc.  But she’s changed ours in so many ways.  They way we are choosing to live our lives.  What we find important.

Sponsoring her has made me fall in love with India.  Praying that God would redeem and save India.  That He would break apart the hierarchy of the caste system and open the eyes of the leaders to the poor dying outside their major cities.

I can’t believe she’s been apart of our lives for a year already.  We do our best to write her often and send gifts.  I want her to be the little girl that always gets something from her sponsors.

I pray for her salvation and that of her parents and two sisters and brother.  This is hugely important to me.

I wear this ring as a reminder of her.  To pray for her and her family and her friends.

She is as much part of our family as our own child would be.  Even across thousands of miles.

As part of celebrating we sent her some special gifts.

A card, a little wallet size card that reminds her she’s special, Disney Princess stickers, My Little Pony coloring pages, monkey finger puppets I found in the Target Dollar Spot, and a beautiful prayer Shawn wrote for her.

We celebrate this day with great joy and pray that we will continue to celebrate for many, many years.

Happy anniversary our dear Nikita.

Shaun is doing a very thought provoking image blog category while on this trip called Third World Dictionary.  Photographic images of everyday things you and I take for granted.  There was one image that really hit me especially hard.

It seems over the last year I’ve grown to hate doing laundry.  And that is only laundry for Shawn and I.  No children.  It just seems to be a bother.  Remembering to transfer it to the dryer and don’t even mention folding/putting it away.  Ahhhh.

That was until I saw this:

I’ve only had to do my laundry outside for a few months……and it was still done in a washing machine. I haven’t had to brave inclement weather to wash my clothes.  I’ve never washed my cloths in tubs smaller than a plastic kids swimming pool.  I’ve never washed my laundry in dirty water.

I felt convicted over my complaining when I have it so easy.  I printed out this picture and have hung it up in my laundry area.  A reminder of this advantage I have.  That I shouldn’t be complaining but should be grateful.