The Compassion Experience

We went to the Compassion Experience in Ft. Worth, TX.  Compassion International has these at various cities throughout the year, and if you haven’t been to one yet I would highly recommend attending one near you.  Click here to find one.

Compassion is an organization that helps children in poverty.  We have been Compassion sponsors for years, but it was really awesome to attend this experience where we were able to see what life is really like for a child living in poverty.

While you’re there you wear the provided headphones and listen to the child tell their story on the iPod.  As you enter each room you will hear the child explain what his/her life was like and what the room means.  You hear about how they felt when they heard they have a sponsor, and how that sponsor changed their lives.

You see what a Compassion center classroom looks like and real-life letters sent to the children from their sponsors.

If you are already a Compassion sponsor, please remember to write to your child.  They love to hear from you and to know that you love them.

We became Compassion sponsors in 2007 when we sponsored a little girl named Niya from Indonesia.  She is now 17 and I have been so blessed to be her sponsor.  As a Compassion sponsor you can write letters to your child and they write back to you.  I have been writing to and receiving letters from Niya for 9 years and it has been wonderful to watch her grow over the years.  It is so easy to write to them — you can either send handwritten letters or type a letter on the Compassion website.  They have translators that translate your letter into the child’s language.

Once Jake was old enough to write letters he wanted to sponsor a child his age.  So we sponsored Ramses from Ecuador who is just 5 days older than Jake.  They have been writing letters to each other for a few years now and I think it’s awesome for Jake to learn how life can be so different for some children.

As soon as Jesse was old enough to write he also wanted to sponsor a child, so we sponsored Nehemias from El Salvador who is the same age as Jesse.

And not to be left out, Chris also decided to sponsor someone.  He chose a teenage boy because older children are often overlooked when people are looking to sponsor a child.  His child is now 18.  His name is Ermias and he lives in Ethiopia.

We have been so incredibly blessed by sponsoring these 4 amazing children.  I hope this will encourage you to become a Compassion sponsor.

I have started an Act for Compassion Campaign and my goal is to find sponsors for 3 children in the next 60 days.  If you feel so inclined, please click here to learn more and consider sponsoring a child today.

One thing I thought of today while we were walking through this experience: I wish I could sponsor them all!  I hate that any child has to live like that!  I know I can’t sponsor them all but I can make a difference in the life of one child.  I remember hearing a story once of a boy picking up starfish on the beach and throwing them back in the water. Someone asked him, “Why bother? There are so many of them, you can’t save them all.”  As the boy picked up one more starfish and threw it back in the water he said, “I just made a difference for that one.”

Please make a difference for a child today.