Looking into the World of Child Sponsorship from Our Eyes

Buckle up sweet friends, I am shooting straight from the heart today. I’m coming to you today and I’m asking for you to prayerfully consider sponsoring one or more of these precious children from Guatemala through Compassion.

Let me back up a quick minute…we have been sponsor’s with Compassion since May 17, 2009. On that day we had a “Compassion Sunday” at our church. We knew that we wanted to sponsor a little girl since we have two teenage boys (you know, the little girl we never had and all that good stuff) and we knew that our church was going to be taking a trip to Guatemala that summer…so it seemed like the perfect time for us.

What we didn’t know when we sponsored her was that my husband was able to meet our new Compassion child (now affectionately called our daughter) that summer. My husband was able to meet Erika and her family, see her school, visit her church, go to the Compassion field office, and even take her family to an amusement park in Guatemala City for the day. It was absolutely one of the MOST memorable trips of his life. When he left for the trip we packed a back pack full of goodies for Erika and a photo album full of pictures of our family.

Over the last two years we have received over a dozen letters & drawings from Erika and we have faithfully written her a letter every month (thanks to scheduling it in our family calendar). We’ve watched her grow, prayed for her daily and when a letter comes in the mail from Compassion the entire family stops what we are doing to see what’s going on in her world.

Well, this summer my husband went back to Guatemala with Compassion and this time he took our youngest son, Bailey, with him. While they were there they were able to reconnect with Erika and her family as well as spend the week building new classrooms for a Compassion project out in the rural area of Guatemala.

While they were in Guatemala Bailey decided that he wanted to sponsor a child on his own, so he started his sponsorship of Luis. Bailey was able to meet with Luis’ parents, see his home and talk to his mother about some health issues that Luis deals with on a regular basis…which, as God would have it, is something Bailey’s brother deals with as well. Bailey was able to talk to Luis’ mom and encourage her and let her know that we understood exactly about his illness.

Here’s a picture of Bailey and Luis at the children’s museum in Guatemala City.

They were also able to reconnect with Erika and her family. There was a mix up and the family pulled her out of the Compassion program, so we weren’t even sure they would be able to see her. They told us that our sponsorship was canceled and that we would need to pick another child. Well…we’re a little stubborn and could not imagine not being a part of Erika’s life, so when they arrived in Guatemala the Compassion team told them that they would be able to visit with Erika and her family. After talking to her mom they found out that they moved and didn’t realize they could stay in the program…long story short…Erika is BACK IN the program and we are her sponsors again…woohoo! 🙂

Here’s a picture of Erika and her brother Mario Enrique (we’re trying to get him in the program so we can sponsor him too!).

Oh my gracious, there is so much more to tell; like how while they were there they helped to build classrooms, had a quince for one of the girls on the missions team, went to church with the local kids, went on home visits and so much more.