Calling for Compassion

I am one of those pickle jar people sometimes when it comes to following God's call. Please tell me, you have heard of the pickle jar! No.. OK let me tell you..

Someone shut the pickle jar way to tight. So you try and try to open it, then you pass it on to someone else to try. They turn and turn the lid but it won't budge. They pass it off to someone else and so on until, YES, the jar opened. People can be this way too. You might be the first person to tell someone something and you planted a small seed in the back of someones mind (or loosened the lid a little). The next person loosened it a little more. But then finally the idea sticks for that person. This doesn't mean you didn't have any help in the situation, everyone worked together to open the jar.

To get back to me (because this is my blog) I am such a jar sometimes. It was probably a year ago or so that I heard my Pastor (or maybe someone talking at my church can't remember) talk about having their child select a Compassion child to sponsor and how they used this to increase their child's awareness of the less fortunate and learn responsibility and finally a good dose of humanitarianism. I thought at the time that is great, I am going to have to do that.

And months go by.. I put the idea away. To add one more financial bill to our house, my daughter is too young, this will be a long term commitment,  all these things gave me doubt and excuses to put it off.
Then this summer my friend Sarah tells me about how she went and visited her Compassion child in Honduras. Again there is that Compassion thing getting brought to the forefront. But again I put up excuses: Sarah is a Pastor's child she is always more giving, she is single without a mortgage and etc... I push God's voice away again.

Then my friend Kandi starts a blog. I know nothing about Compassion here, right? Wrong. I feel immediately led to start blogging again, something I haven't done in a year or so. I tell her I am starting back up because I feel more accountable if I have to write about it for the world to read. Then through reading her blog list I find Nester. Oh she has a beautiful decorating style, but wait she is apart of this online group called (in)Courage. So I checked it out. What do I find an online community of Christian women working towards their life goals and supporting one another. And wait you guessed it Compassion is there to. Two of the woman are just finishing up a trip to a Compassion site and blogged about here and here.

It's done the jar is open! No more excuses no more push backs. I went home and told S and Mouse about this idea that God put on my heart over a year ago. Mouse is all for, she has figured out how she will divide up her allowance so $2 will go towards the sponsorship and she can keep $1. Then Mouse tells me how she has to write letters in school each day and the teacher said she can write to who ever she wants. She says she will write to the child we pick everyday. She is already planning what she wants to send for Christmas. Her enthusiasm is so contagious. God, why was I so hesitant? Her and I discuss locations, at first we wanted to do Bolivia since we have friends that are preparing to move there as missionaries. I wanted to look at Brazil also since that is where I went on a mission trip. When we start looking at the children, Mouse wanted to choose all of them. She asked what the little heart on their picture means. I tell her that means they have been waiting over 6 months for someone to sponsor them. Mouse is adamant that we choose one with a heart. "Why should they wait any longer" she asked. Good question, sweetheart. We looked for a girl who is the same age as Mouse. I want her to feel like a sister to this child and have commonalities to show her that poverty, language and foreign country doesn't mean you have nothing in common. Then we see her, she is 8 and helps takes care of her families animals (just like Mouse) and she loves swimming and singing (just like Mouse).

Meet	Zaida!
Age:	8
Gender:	Female
Region:	Central America and Caribbean
Country:	Guatemala
Program:	Seguidores de Jesús Student Center

Personal and Family Information:

Zaida lives with her father and her mother. At home, duties include caring for animals. Her father is employed as a farmer and her mother maintains the home. There are 6 children in the family. Swimming and singing are Zaida's favorite activities. In primary school her performance is average and she also regularly attends church activities.

Please pray for her.



I have never felt so proud of my own child as I do today. She is learning that there are children out there that need help and that she can make a difference. She is adding one more person to her prayers at night, we all are. And maybe next time it won't take quite so long for the pickle jar to open, when God calls.
Do  you feel the call towards Compassion? To sponsor? To write a letter? Really it can be as easy as just writing letters. We all know the importance of positive feed back is to a child. Do you have what it takes to make a child's day? If so become a letter writer today, click here!

“When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).