Tag: Nicaragua

Last Day Nicaragua – Speaking Life Into A Child

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

Nicaragua – When You Know It’s Real

Seeing how Compassion works this week has been amazing. Every time I think of one thing they might have overlooked, one area they may not have thought to cover, I find that they’ve covered it and thought beyond to boot.

Joshua wants to be a chef when he grows up.

Today I’m sharing photos of our visit to a Compassion Center that teaches vocational skills. This is all provided to our Compassion kids as part of being in the program. As they get older, most areas offer the option of vocational training, which can make a drastic difference in life for these kids.

Instead of trying to eek out a living as a street vendor or even prostitution (that was horrifying for me to even type), they have a skill set that will allow them to make a better living – that will enable them to elevate their generation out of poverty.

The center we went to teaches a variety of specialties, including Computer, Cosmetology, and Culinary. When you consider how much these jobs make in the context of this country, you understand the pride in the children’s eyes at getting to go there.

A 13 year old studies Cosmetology at a Compassion Center and asked if she could please paint flowers on my nails

The lady who sells spices that we visited earlier in the week, on a good day, makes the equivalent of $6.00 USD. A Cosmetologist who gives manicures can make over $4.00 per client. A job like that can elevate a child out of poverty and once she’s grown, her family, too.

Compassion doesn’t just work with these children for a few years, they make sure that each child in the villages the centers are in have healthcare, education, mentoring, and a skill set to allow them to go further than previous generations, to break the cycle of extreme poverty.

To someday even live in a house with an actual floor instead of dirt.

With actual walls instead of black trash bags found at the city dump and pieced together.

With three meals a day instead of just one.

Their goal is to impact lives and change generations.

And they have, and they do.

Shaun Groves told us a wonderful story today about the President of Compassion International taking a trip to Korea to try to encourage a large group of Pastors to give out sponsorship packets in their churches. He began explaining the impact Compassion has on children who are in the program and one pastor stood up and interrupted him, saying “You don’t have to explain what Compassion is to us, we are Compassion children.” Then he asked all of the pastors who had been Compassion children to stand up and over half the room stood.

You see, South Korea is where Compassion began. With orphans from the Korean war. From there it expanded and within fifty years, Korea went from being a country receiving Compassion help to one of the largest countries giving Compassion help by sponsoring children in other countries. That is an amazing thing.

For those of you who read the words of the letter written by an 18 year old sponsor in Korea to little Ivan in Nicaragua on my post yesterday, you may have wondered at where an 18 year old high school student gets so much wisdom from. How does he know just what to say to motivate little Ivan? When I saw he was from Korea, I was able to understand a little more of where such wisdom must come from. I can’t help but wonder if his father, mother, or grandparents were part of the Compassion program and if he has grown up hearing stories of the impact it had on them – knowing that his life is so very different today as a direct result of people who cared enough to think beyond themselves and sponsor his ancestors.

So the amazing thing is that Compassion is real.

You truly do change lives.

It’s legit. I know it’s legit because I’ve seen it. Compassion goes above and beyond. I never could have imagined the impact a single program can have on a life until this week. The community my child lives in was drawing their water from a dirty well, contaminated with sewage and chemicals. Children in the village had skin conditions and were even developing diseases as a result of the water. Compassion came in and paid to have water run from the city to the village. Then they set up the center and began enrolling kids in their programs.

Wilbert is the child I sponsor. Wilbert’s brother was one of the children who, as a four year old, his skin was covered in sores. Then Compassion came in. Look at him now.

These are real kids but as Americans, we have to work hard to open our eyes to that. We’ve become so anesthetized to the outside world that it is difficult to fathom how incredibly wealthy we are and what poverty really is.

Poverty is a child whose two parents work from sun up until sun down in order to be able to provide ONE meal a day.

Poverty is a little girl who turns to prostitution because she is so desperately hungry and has no education or skill set to get another job.

and Wealth is being able to open your heart to the reality that there are children living in conditions that are unfathomable to us – but we have the ability to change their life.

I know what holds you back the most from sponsoring a child. You wonder if it will really make a difference. You wonder if the children are real. You wonder if they really get your letters and if you’ll really hear from them. You wonder if the $38 a month you send actually goes to help someone or is just put into some big old fund.

I’ve been here all week. I’ve see the faces. The answer is Yes. The children are real. It does make a difference. The money does go to provide for them.

Here are the faces. When I saw them, my answer was Yes.

This morning, my mother said yes to her second sponsored child.

Is there room in your heart to love one more?

Sponsor a child by clicking here or the banner below and receive a free copy of my first book.

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.

I’m traveling with some amazing bloggers and They’re all writing 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

Compassion Bloggers Christy, Kelly, Traci, and Edie

I cannot tell you how blessed I’ve been to get to spend time with these precious ladies who uplift and inspire me. Thank you for being a part of this. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement, for your comments and your love. None of this would be possible without you.

Nicaragua – There Are No Impenetrable Walls

As we were walking through a village today I was really struck by how much barbed wire is used. Each lot is sectioned off with posts and barbed wire, then a little shack is erected in the center, usually with a tin roof and black plastic walls. Sometimes the structures are more stable by having one side be made of cinder blocks or wood, but most of what I saw today was typical metal roof, plastic walls with barbed wire around the tiny plot of land it sits on.

I really don’t know the intended purpose of the barbed wire. Maybe it’s easy. Maybe Nicaragua was once populated by barbed wire salesmen who were really good at getting their product out there, or maybe it’s for security. This is my land, this is my plot, don’t venture here without my permission.

Security is what kept coming back to me because on the onset, several layers of barbed wire will certainly keep you out of a place. But then the part of me that is a policeman’s daughter immediately thought “A good pair of cutters would get through that in about five seconds.”

The center we were at had a little play yard with walls made of steel bars that rose about seven feet high. I looked at those and though “All you need is a ladder or a sturdy piece of furniture to get past those…”
Everywhere I looked were security breaches waiting to happen, walls waiting to be scaled.

Not a one I saw was impenetrable.

I got to thinking about all the walls in our lives that seem to be permanent boundaries. Walls of stubborn pride, bitterness, depression, judgement- both of ourselves and others, walls of hopelessness, unemployment, etc. None of those walls are impenetrable either, no matter how much they seem so.
The number of walls God has broken down outnumber the grains of sand on a beach. Do we really think our case is so unique that we are the only ones God can’t help?

And with God’s help, who are we to say that He won’t use us to break down walls in the lives of others?

I went to another family’s house in a village in Nicaragua today that is served by a Compassion Center. This was one of the nicest houses I’ve seen so far, made of cinder blocks with a metal roof. As usual, there were no lights inside but you can look up at the roof and see sunlight streaming in all around where there is a good two inch gap. They had walls around their property, but the door was swung wide to allow us to come in.
(How often do I ask God to come in but leave my door locked to him?)

We met a wonderful lady who lives with her aunt and three sisters. Together, they are raising 8 children who are incredibly well loved and taken care of. I’ve never seen kids with such manners and kindness. Daisy is a merchant by trade, packaging spices and seasonings into small bags each evening to go sell on the streets in the early hours of the morning. On very good days, she makes the equivalent of about $6.00 and then comes home to care for her children and nieces.

The kids clearly adore her. Shaun asked one little girl if her mother was a good cook and she looked at her mama and beamed as she nodded yes, just as I’ve seen my Katy Rose do so many times.

Through an interpreter I asked what her favorite thing to cook for her children was and she smiled at them all before answering “Pollo”, chicken.

Then I asked the little girl what her favorite thing to eat that her mama cooked was and she practically got stars in her eyes as she said definitively “Pollo”.

I looked at the lone chicken pecking around the yard and wish I knew spanish word for “Supper” so I could make a joke

I was really heartsick to discover later that they only get one meal a day at home. I can only imagine what a treat Mama’s pollo is.

I got to help her break apart large sticks of cinnamon and package them into small bags to sell. As I did so, her little boy, Marvin peeked around my side to watch me. Like all happy children, he has a smile that turns on every light in your heart.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small battery powered fan and turned it on, blowing a small stream of cool air into his face. His eyes got wide as he gently grasped it to get a better look, turning it over and around to see how it worked. I showed him the on and off switch and he was enthralled with peeking inside trying to see exactly what was creating the breeze. It was evident that this kid was a tinkerer at heart, one of those people that love to figure out how things work,just like my grandaddy was. The fan had a little necklace so I hung it around his neck and after a few more minutes of figuring it out, he began fanning his sister and cousins with it, amid giggles of delight.

A while later he came up to me and said something in Spanish, motioning to the fan with a hopeful look in his eyes. I don’t speak a lick of Spanish but I know kids and I knew he was asking me if he could keep it. I didn’t want to respond without a translator though, because I wanted to make sure he knew what I was saying. I had the translator explain that it had batteries and it would quit eventually, but yes, he could certainly keep it.

I pulled a smiley face stamp out of my pocket and stamped faces on the kids hands, first one, then the other, then they asked for stamps on cheeks and I finally gave them the stamp and encouraged them to share it – something that is a holdover of being an american, but you really don’t have to encourage kids in countries like this, they share because they find more joy in sharing rather than keeping it for themselves.

Her oldest daughter showed us letters she’d received from her sponsor and posed with them with great pride. It was clear she felt loved, not just at home but by someone back in america as well. There is a sense of self worth that can outpace poverty at any level if it is only given to a child when they are young enough.

The pastor at the center we were at today said “Many countries just want to receive the fish. Here, we want to teach them to fish for themselves, that is what we are doing for these children when we educate them”
And that is what Compassion does. They nurture kids in more ways than one, but the goal is to nurture them as completely as we can.

There are four facets of nurturing that every sponsored child receives:

Social/Emotional nurturing – Compassion works to ensure children feel loved and valued by helping in many ways, such as offering therapy to the child if needed, and even helping adults in that child’s family learn to restore relationships.

Education – In many countries, education is very difficult to come by. In Nicaragua alone, 4 out of 5 children never go to school. This is mostly due to parents not being able to afford it. Compassion works to make sure children in the program receive an education. In fact, it is required that they be educated while in the program. They do this by providing money and supplies for school, school uniforms in countries that require them, tutoring, and in some cases even providing the school itself.

Physical – Compassion children receive healthcare, clean drinking water, and even nutritious food and nutrition education. Any one of these things would be considered a blessing beyond measure by one of these families so I can’t even imagine how grateful I’d be if I were a mother in these mother’s shoes and had this provided for my child.

Spiritual – We are all lost. Compassion makes sure every child in the program knows of the love of God for them and has an opportunity to choose to follow where He leads. Children are not required to become Christians to be a part of or remain in the program, but they live each day receiving all of these wonderful things and knowing it is in the name of God.

And that is what compassion does with your sponsorship money of only $38 a month. The tear down walls separating these children from their dreams.

And this is what you do when you sponsor…

Today, I bonded with a little boy in a foreign country who didn’t even speak the same language as me. Currently, 1.4 million kids in 26 countries are being given a chance they would have never had if not for people like you agreeing to sponsor them.

Today in Nicaragua, I realized that with God’s help here are no impenetrable walls.

Click here or the image below to change a child’s life.

Read my post from Day 1 of my Nicaragua trip by clicking here.

Edie at Life In Grace

Traci at Beneath My Heart

Kelly at Faithful Provisions

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Tag: Nicaragua

Last Day Nicaragua – Speaking Life Into A Child

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