Dealing with infertility many times causes a person to become self-absorbed. Each step you take (is it helping me stay healthy?), each bite you take (will this nourish my body?), each moment of your life calls out to you – wanting to know if it’s making a difference in your health.
My heart aches today as I wait with anticipation of the posts of my fellow blogging friends traveling with Compassion International in the Philippines. How my heart desires to be there with them, but alas, it’s not in God’s plans at this moment for me to go.
You see, seven years ago now, while in the midst of trying to conceive our son, a local radio station had someone from Compassion International in the studio for a couple of days. They were talking about the children I had grown up seeing on those little sponsorship cards at Christian concerts. How those little children were given a second chance because of someone giving up just a dollar a day.
My heart-strings were pulled and I couldn’t stop thinking about them.
I had been fervently praying that God would send me a child. My heart and arms ached for nothing more. Yet here I was in the land of plenty, wearing new clothes and driving to a job in which I was most likely overpaid. {yes – I said it, we were overpaid} For three days I listened to the same radio station on my 40 minutes, one way, drive back and forth to work. I cried for these children and their families, prayed about the decision to sponsor a child, and finagled our finances so we could do just that.
And then I ‘met’ Jam.
She was four years old, living in the Philippines. Such a little girl with such a big heart. She’s prayed for my pregnancies, prayed for my children, prayed for me as a mother and homemaker, and prayed for Todd -that he always has work to provide for our needs. We’ve received pictures of their house, which has been destroyed and flooded due to typhoons and living on a flood plain. From what I gather they are essentially ‘squatters’, no land of their own and they build homes out of what they can find and afford.
It makes my struggles (though real) pale in comparison to the struggle to survive.
Seven years later I have a folder of letters, pictures, and crafts so overflowing I had to begin a new one. But greater than this, is the many, many prayers she’s prayed on our behalf. As someone who has more worldly possessions than she might ever see, this humbly brings me to tears.
We are called by God to give, to take care of others, and if you’re able I encourage you to look into sponsoring a child through Compassion International. Right now as I type, my friends are traveling through the Philippines, where our sponsored child lives. Follow their trip and read what great things God is doing through this program.
- What Does it Take to Change a Life – Stephanie
- I Just Want my Child to be Healthy – Lindsay
- The Opulent Ability to Give More – Tsh
- My Bathroom is a Portal to the 1980’s – Kat
- When Provision Looks Different – Emily (a post to read along with the video above)
Learn what Compassion International is all about. It’s time for us to come out of our self-absorbed world and do something. $38.00 a month and a child receives life-giving, developmental, spiritual, and social care. Pray for these children that they might receive sponsors, become one yourself, or donate a set amount to help a child until a permanent sponsor is found.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11
Donielle Baker
