The Longest Waiting

I just finished reading Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis.   A story about a young woman's life who left right after high school for a missions trip to Uganda, fell in love with the people there and feeling God's call in her life, moved there and is in the process of adoption thirteen Ugandan girls.

What impressed me most about this story though, was her ministry to everyone she came into contact with.   She willingly opened her hope to those with life threatening illnesses, cared for them, fed them, loved them, and taught them about the love of God.  Part of her ministry includes a Saturday program where the children come to her home, have a meal, and a bible study.   She has found sponsors for children so they are able to attend school, have school supplies, nutritious meals, and health care.

Throughout the book, I kept thinking about how similar Katie's program was to the program that Compassion offers to the children in their program.    Offering education opportunities, health care, health-related instructions, nutrition, and life-skills training.  They look for the most needy families in the area they are working, meet with those families to assess their needs, and then, after a picture is taken, the child is enrolled in the Compassion program where they wait to be matched up with a sponsor.

Our Compassion Sunday is this weekend at church and just received confirmation that our box of children's packets are on their way and should be on my doorstep tomorrow or Friday.    I have said before that I absolutely love to stand at the Compassion tables and see children get matched with a sponsor and the stories that are told in those selections.  I pray that there will be a lot of children who find sponsors this weekend.

In anticipation of the weekend and praying to find sponsors, I was looking through Compassion's website.  Because I was in the middle of Katie's book, I searched children in Uganda.   My next stop was the "Longest Waiting" option.  When we chose our first two children to sponsor, we chose children that had been waiting for more than six months for a sponsor.   The thoughts that these children were not getting letters on the mail days, broke my heart.   The thoughts that they were waiting because for some reason, some reason beyond their control, they were not picked to be sponsored.   When we searched this list three years ago, the little heart symbol by the picture meant they had been waiting for longer than six months.  This week as I was on the site, I noticed Compassion tells you how many days they have been waiting for a sponsor.  Some of the numbers break my heart to see how long these children have waited.

I blog about Compassion because I love what the organization does for children in need.  I blog about Compassion because I value what they have brought to my family.   I hope that my passion and enthusiasm for this program show through in conversations, blogging, and in my life.   Would you for just a minute as a friend, look at Compassion's webpage of longest waiting children and pray for one of them.   Please pray for a sponsor for these children so that their wait for a sponsor is over.

The video below is not clear picture wise, but it shows parents in Ghana that have just learned their son has a sponsor.

When I watch this video, it makes me wish I could have been a fly on the wall when each of our sponsored children found out that we had picked them to sponsor.