I got to spend today with my sponsor child and his mother, a privilege most people will never have.
I did not take it lightly, I was there for all of you who will never get to do such.
The Compassion folks planned a wonderful day for us to get to spend together but it seemed to go by far too fast. I found myself at the point…that point where it is coming to a close. Someone whispered in my hear “Ten minutes. You’ve got ten minutes until we leave.”
My heart seized up for a fraction of a second before I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me. I knew what I had to do. To tell him I believed in him and to move his eyes from all the poverty that surrounded him now to a bright and encouraging future.
Words.
I had to use that ten minutes to speak life into this child.
Knowing this is the opportunity so many sponsors would live for…I had to do it right.
I had ten minutes to tell him everything I have a lifetime to tell my own children.
I took a deep breath and my translator seemed to focus in on me, preparing herself as if she knew the weight of what I was about to attempt.
Looking Wilbert dead in the eye, I began.
“You are going to grow to be a very wise man, Wilbert. God has a special plan for you and I know this because when I went to the Compassion website I thought ‘How will I choose a child?’ and as I looked on that page and my eyes fell on your photo, God spoke to my heart and he said ‘He is the one’.
I looked him in the eye and he gazed back intently, directly into my eyes, solemnly listening to every word as if he fully understood what I was trying to do and wanted to absorb it as badly as I wanted him to.
“I know God has plans for you. You have to work hard in school, study, continue to look after your family, and read God’s word. Write it on your heart and then when you find yourself in trouble, you will have God’s word in your mind and your heart to tell you what to do. His word is timeless wisdom that has been proven true over and over and over again for thousands of years and it will not fail you.”
“You have to study the life of Christ and when you find yourself not knowing how to handle a situation or how to react or what decision to make, you ask yourself ‘What would Jesus Christ have done in this situation?’ and if you have studied his life, you will know what to do. That is why it is so important. Always do what Christ would do and you will always do the right thing.”
“You are going to grow to be a very wise man, but wisdom does not come just because you get older. You have to decide you want to be wise at the age you are now and then grow in wisdom. Someday you will be a father and your children will come to you whenever they have troubles. They will say ‘Let us go ask our father, because he is a Wise man, he has walked in the ways of the Lord all of his life and he knows God’s heart.’
“And then, when you are a grandfather, you will be a great grandfather with many grandchildren who will all say ‘Let us go consult with our grandfather, because he is a wise man. He has a heart for God and God has given him wisdom.”
“No matter what you decide to be when you grow up, you must strive to be wise because God has set you apart. I know you had two sponsors who quit sponsoring you before my family, but we are your last sponsors, we will sponsor you as long as you need a sponsor. We will never forget you.”
I looked at his mother “Know that we will never forget your family. Me, my husband, my son, my daughter, my mother, my father, will all be thinking of you an praying for you every day. We will send up mighty prayers for you and your children, and whenever you are in need, call out to God and he will hear your prayers mixed with our own. Your prayers are strong too but the bible says that whenever two or more gather together in His name, He is there also.”
“We will never forget you. You are our family now, your names are written on our hearts and God has brought us together.”
At this point, She had tears, I had tears, and Wilbert had tears. I said “I’m all done preaching now. I just want you to know that I love you.”
She replied “We will never forget you, either. Give our love to your whole family and tell them we will pray mighty prayers for you every day and hope you all return to Nicaragua someday. You are our family now.”
My family set out to sponsor a child.
After that day, I feel like they’ve sponsored us.
If you’re a sponsor and have never written to your child, I beg you to write to them today and speak life and hope into their lives. Tell them you love them and tell them you believe in them. I became a writer because someone who didn’t even know me told me at the age of 7 that they believed in me – and they said it with enough conviction that I couldn’t help but believe them.
Words like that, spoken to a young child, can fuel a lifetime.
If you sponsor a child, I can promise you that they have been waiting on your letter.
Read my post from Day 1 of my Nicaragua trip by clicking here.
Read my post from Day 2 of my Nicaragua trip by clicking here.
Read my post from Day 3 of my Nicaragua trip by clicking here.
Read my post from Day 4 of my Nicaragua Trip by clicking here.
I traveled with some amazing bloggers and They all wrote daily posts as well. Visit them by clicking the links below to go to their blogs or by visiting http://www.compassionbloggers.com/nicaragua
Edie at Life In Grace
Traci at Beneath My Heart
Kelly at Faithful Provisions