They Are Still Waiting…

Sponsor a Waiting Child from Compassion International on Vimeo.

Make a difference in the life of a child who has been waiting over six months for a sponsor. You can end their wait when you sponsor a child today.

A LESSON IN COMPASSION

Time for a crash course in our Child Sponsorship Program…

Let’s say you’re a child growing up in poverty. A church nearby your home announces that they have partnered with Compassion and because of this partnership, if you are registered in the program, you will receive benefits that were never before available to you.

Benefits like:
• educational opportunities
• health care and health-related instruction
• nutrition
• life-skills training
And opportunities to hear about and respond to the gospel.

It’s all very exciting so your parents take you and register you at the local church. The church volunteers gather information about you and your family and take your picture. You’re officially registered!

You now have all the financial benefits of this program but there’s more! You are going to be connected to one sponsor. You just have to wait for someone to sponsor you.

And for some children, they wait and wait and wait…

WHY DID WE CHOOSE TO SPONSOR

We’ve been Compassion sponsors for almost three years now. It started one Sunday, actually…it was May 17, 2009 and our church was having a “Compassion Sunday” where we talked about sponsoring kids from Guatemala. We were taking a team to Guatemala that summer and were told that if we sponsored a child in a specific region that while on the mission trip that we would get to meet our child.

What started out as a simple step that Sunday morning has turned into one great adventure for our family. That summer my husband went with a team to Guatemala and was able to meet our Compassion daughter, Ericka. He went to her school, her church, met her Pastor and her family. They even were able to go to an amusement park (her first time in the city) and spend the day with other Compassion sponsors and their sponsored children.

Over the years we have written letters back and forth, watched her grow up and this past summer my husband and our youngest son were able to go back to Guatemala with Compassion for another mission trip. Needless to say it was an emotional trip for the guys as well as Ericka and her family.

While there my youngest son (he’s 15) decided that he wanted to sponsor a child all on his own. So now we have Luis as part of our family as well. They took Ericka and Luis to the museum while they were there and were able to help build new classrooms for Luis’ school.

This summer we are going back…again.

I can’t think of any one thing like this that has impacted our family as sponsoring these kids have. They are a part of our family now. We pray for them, write to them, and keep track of their growth just as we would our own kids.

The trouble is, though, that there are so many more kids waiting to be sponsored. Some of them are on a “longest waiting” list, which means they have been enrolled in the program for 6 months waiting on someone to sponsor them.

I look at their sweet faces and my heart just breaks.

Some have waited over 247 days for someone to sponsor them.

Listen, I know it takes a step of faith to do this…but would you please just pray about it.

Go to the “Longest Waiting” page (click here) and at least look at them. Look at all those sweet faces. Pray about it. Talk to your family about it, then watch and see what God does next.

If you sponsor a Longest Waiting Child you will receive a *free Compassion Scrapbook.

*Must sign-up online and make their first payment with their credit or debit card and be a resident of the U.S. or territories.