A Picture to Share...

On my recent trip to Hait I got to meet the child I sponsor with Compassion International! Meet Judie....



She's absolutely adorable and it was great to spend the day with her. I think you can tell from the pictures that she and I both have an element of "sassiness" that we're working with! I love this kid!!! I don't have many pictures to share because I was the crazy person who left all her memory cards back in St. Louis, so I'm waiting on copies of Joanna's pictures, but she sent me this one in an email!

For a little over two years I have been sponsoring Judie through Compassion International. We've written letters back and forth but up until a couple weeks ago we had never met. She lives in Haiti and has recently moved to a place that is a lot closer to where I am when I travel there, so it was possible for me to meet her this year.

In case you didn't know Compassion International "exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults." They are serving over 900,000 people in 24 different countries. They really do a great job caring for the whole person. I love being a part of this organization.

You can read more about the organization at www.compassion.com. Their words are better than mine!

Like I said in my last blog, I'm trying to live my life knowing that the choices I make, not only affect me, but many other people. Compassion is just one of the ways that I choose to give back, and I wanted to share a picture from my trip with you...hope you enjoy!

If you're interested in giving 32 dollars a month to sponsor a child you can click on the link below, or you can click on the link in the side margin of my blog...or just email me, and I'll help get you set up!

Click Here to Sponsor a Child!

Changing the World...

I've always known that I wanted to change the world. When I was growing up, it took the form of feeling like I wanted to be written about in History books. I thought I would go to some great college and get a high powered job that would give me access to the world, and the opportunity to change it for good.

In my bedroom at my parents home there is a charicature of me on the wall. It was done the night that I graduated from high school. I sat down and the man asked me what I was going to do with my life after high school. I looked him straight in the eye and told him I was going to save the world. The picture is a loose adaptation of me in a superhero costume flying with the world in my hand.

It's been almost 9 years since that night. I went to college, got a pretty good education, and set out on life. I've been working in churches for 6 years, sometimes seeing results, and sometimes seeing little return for my effort...sometimes I find myself wondering if I'm making a difference at all.

I recently returned from another trip from Haiti. I took a week of vacation to go and hang out there and spend more time trying to experience the culture. It was truly amazing. I'm a highly relational person, so to spend time with people and let them know I love them is a pretty huge deal for me. I met the child I sponsor with Compassion International...we hung out at her house, saw her compassion project and went out for lunch. It was a great day. But there were other parts of the trip that were hard to process. Yes, things seem to be getting better there...but there are still many children who are dying from preventable causes. Women are still having more children than they can care for. Orphanages are operating at capacity, wondering where they'll get the money to pay for food for the next month. Children are being thrown in the garbage. And I wonder if what we're doing is enough....if what I'M doing is enough. Does it make a difference?

One of the many blessings of the trip was meeting my new friend Miquette. Miquette grew up in one of the really poor vilages of Haiti. Two of her siblings died from malnutrition, and two of her siblings and a niece were given to an orphanage and later adopted by a family in the USA and another in Canada. The family that adopted Miquette's sister and niece were living in America and years later got back in touch with Miquette's family. When the father met Miquette, he asked her if she wanted to come have a year of high school in America. Of course she accepted and came to America knowing no English and began living in a culture very foreign from her own. 6 years later she graduated with a 4 year nursing degree from an American college. She is now back in Haiti working to build a hospital in a town that has none, and has her own non-profit that is sending many children to school each year!

As she told this story I sat across from her with my jaw dropped...This was truly the type of story you would read in a book, and I was sitting across the table from her, the woman who had lived it. Amazing. She reminded me of this story...

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It made a difference to that one!"

So as I go about life...I still feel the desire to make a difference in this world. I don't want to be a person who goes about selfishly living her life, when I have more than enough to survive. I want to make a difference...but I'm beginning to see that you make a difference one person at a time...one church member, one youth, one family living in poverty, one child...one at a time. I have taken responsibility and realize that the way I live, impacts the lives of others. Today I choose to make a difference...the question is, will you join me? Perhaps you already have!