How do you love your neighbor? Several years ago this question kept pressing on my mind. We were traveling the country and the world with a show that was all about Jesus and repeatedly the question came to me, "what am I doing, individually? What action am I taking?" It's not enough to just talk about it.
Our tour was partnered with Compassion, an organization with a rock solid reputation for integrity that reaches out to children in poverty all over the world. Looking for the lowest common denominator in God's command to love your neighbor, it slowly became starkly clear: feed a defenseless child who was starving.
I looked through the information on the children waiting for sponsors and chose Latha, a little girl of five living in India who likes to dance and tell stories. Obviously a kindred spirit. Even in the poverty of rural India...
Now I am not a weepy person. I don't look at pictures of children or their finger paintings or whatever and start to well up because they are just so darn precious. But when I got Latha's first letter, I fell apart. Forget having me try to explain it, just know she touched my heart and I have never recovered.
I've been sponsoring Latha for several years and it is hands down the most worthwhile endeavor I am a part of. She LOVES to get my letters and I am more proud than I have ever been of anyone in the world to see her growing and learning and becoming the little woman she was made to be. We were corresponding through a translator up until about a month ago, when she wrote to me in English on her own. I was floored- I didn't even know she was learning English! And yet, there it was, from her own hand.
Latha is a beautiful, passionate little girl with the full potential of a bright and beautiful future. I don't know if she simply doesn't know differently or is just full of hope, but she never describes the dingy reality of her home life. She says things like, "please pray for my mom, she is sick" or "please pray for peace in my home. My dad gets angry and hits my mom." I called Compassion and discovered that Latha's father was dead, and this was a live in boyfriend who was getting rough with her mother. I couldn't get on a plane to India and take him down myself, but I called Compassionto find out what was going on. The woman on the phone answered a lot of questions for me, but the heartbreaking reality is that while Compassion can check on the situation, this isn't the States and the situation can't be remedied by an investigation or child protective services. She advised me to write to Latha more often, which I did. I just hurt for this little girl, and I poured that out on paper as best I could. And I prayed hard for her, that God would protect her mother-- and Latha-- from this despicable man.
Words are powerful. I couldn't reach in and save her, but I let her know that half a world away she was desperately loved and cared for. And I know it touched her heart. I could tell from her next letter.
It's easy to look at a fallen world full of troubles and get overwhelmed. But we're not called to save the world. We are called to love those who inhabit it.
I write this now because Compassion is asking current sponsors to help find more sponsors for its Christmas campaign. They sent me information on a little boy named Jonatan Rebby Rangkuh. He is four years old, living in Indonesia. He likes soccer and singing. In kindergarten, his performance is considered above average. Sponsorship for Jonatan is $38 per month and will provide him with education, nourishment, health care, spiritual development (Compassion is all about Jesus) and opportunities to grow in every way. If $38 is a lot right now, grab some friends and pool your resources, or move your budget around or something. Whatever it takes, it's worth it.
So that's my pitch. If you or anyone you know would be interested in sponsoring Jonatan, please let me know, or go to Compassion online to pick a child of your own.
I'll leave you with some of what I consider to be the most striking features of Christianity that's all about Jesus, verses that kind of pushed me over the edge to sponsor Latha:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (1. John 3.18)
Our tour was partnered with Compassion, an organization with a rock solid reputation for integrity that reaches out to children in poverty all over the world. Looking for the lowest common denominator in God's command to love your neighbor, it slowly became starkly clear: feed a defenseless child who was starving.
I looked through the information on the children waiting for sponsors and chose Latha, a little girl of five living in India who likes to dance and tell stories. Obviously a kindred spirit. Even in the poverty of rural India...
Now I am not a weepy person. I don't look at pictures of children or their finger paintings or whatever and start to well up because they are just so darn precious. But when I got Latha's first letter, I fell apart. Forget having me try to explain it, just know she touched my heart and I have never recovered.
I've been sponsoring Latha for several years and it is hands down the most worthwhile endeavor I am a part of. She LOVES to get my letters and I am more proud than I have ever been of anyone in the world to see her growing and learning and becoming the little woman she was made to be. We were corresponding through a translator up until about a month ago, when she wrote to me in English on her own. I was floored- I didn't even know she was learning English! And yet, there it was, from her own hand.
Latha is a beautiful, passionate little girl with the full potential of a bright and beautiful future. I don't know if she simply doesn't know differently or is just full of hope, but she never describes the dingy reality of her home life. She says things like, "please pray for my mom, she is sick" or "please pray for peace in my home. My dad gets angry and hits my mom." I called Compassion and discovered that Latha's father was dead, and this was a live in boyfriend who was getting rough with her mother. I couldn't get on a plane to India and take him down myself, but I called Compassionto find out what was going on. The woman on the phone answered a lot of questions for me, but the heartbreaking reality is that while Compassion can check on the situation, this isn't the States and the situation can't be remedied by an investigation or child protective services. She advised me to write to Latha more often, which I did. I just hurt for this little girl, and I poured that out on paper as best I could. And I prayed hard for her, that God would protect her mother-- and Latha-- from this despicable man.
Words are powerful. I couldn't reach in and save her, but I let her know that half a world away she was desperately loved and cared for. And I know it touched her heart. I could tell from her next letter.
It's easy to look at a fallen world full of troubles and get overwhelmed. But we're not called to save the world. We are called to love those who inhabit it.
I write this now because Compassion is asking current sponsors to help find more sponsors for its Christmas campaign. They sent me information on a little boy named Jonatan Rebby Rangkuh. He is four years old, living in Indonesia. He likes soccer and singing. In kindergarten, his performance is considered above average. Sponsorship for Jonatan is $38 per month and will provide him with education, nourishment, health care, spiritual development (Compassion is all about Jesus) and opportunities to grow in every way. If $38 is a lot right now, grab some friends and pool your resources, or move your budget around or something. Whatever it takes, it's worth it.
So that's my pitch. If you or anyone you know would be interested in sponsoring Jonatan, please let me know, or go to Compassion online to pick a child of your own.
I'll leave you with some of what I consider to be the most striking features of Christianity that's all about Jesus, verses that kind of pushed me over the edge to sponsor Latha:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (1. John 3.18)
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