A Compassionate Day

Yesterday started off as any normal Thursday, well my new Thursday where I go to my group fitness class before going to work (more on this fitness thing, but apparently taking a class for a grade is what I needed to do to get my butt in gear). I have been listening to The River on the radio lately because it's "Uplifting & Encouraging" and that starts my day off better than hearing a sappy country songs that makes me sad. (I still love country music, don't get me wrong.)

The River has been sharing commercials for Compassion, which is a Christian organization that does a number of things, but the part of the group they were advertising was their child sponsorship program.

Sometime around 2008-ish when I started reading blogs, I read a post on Kelly's Korner about the child her family sponsors. She even went on a blogger trip to the El Salvador and got to meet the little girl. I have thought about Compassion off and on over the last few years and in early November after hearing about it in a few different ways all within a few days, I took that as my sign from above that it was something I was supposed to do. So I did. I decided to sponsor someone who had been on the waiting list for the longest and picked a cute little girl named Valey. She's 6 and lives in Togo. I had no idea where Togo was (it's a country in West Africa, right beside Ghana) but she was being raised by her grandma and likes to play with dolls. I was hooked. She was 'mine'.

A week or so later I got a packet with information in it about Valey, her family and a picture. There was a little form in it for me to fill out about myself. There was a map of the USA and I put a star on my town (I did both Columbus and Piketon) and I answered a few questions about what I do for work, etc. I was told I'd get something back from Valey too and then we could write back and forth. I was getting a pen pal! (Squeals! I love mail!)

Valey hanging out on my fridge. 

Over the past three months I have written to Valey about 5 times. I try to send a letter every two weeks. Besides the first letter, the others I have sent through the website. They have a template that you type the letter and can upload pictures. There is an area where the letter will be translated into the child's language (which is French, I took Spanish in high school). You can also send a letter thru the Compassion app on an iPhone, so I actually spent a few minutes writing a letter while I was in the hospital waiting room last month.

So back to Thursday. I heard the Compassion commercial on my way to campus, then again on my way from class to work. They were doing an event like a telethon to get more children sponsored in West Africa and they kept mentioning the country of Togo. Again, I had never heard of this country before (and I like geography!). So I thought of little Valey and how it was about time for me to write another letter.

Part of my morning work routine is to read a few blogs that are found on the left sidebar and Jessica at The Macs had posted about Compassion that day and the bloggers that were in Ecuador. I followed the links and read their blogs, which made me think of Kelly's posts from 7 years ago, so I went and read those too, and then read other blogs about their experiences and looked at those pictures. Before long I was in tears. Some of the posts were so sad, but others were so happy and I could see the great things Compassion was doing for these children and their families. So I wrote her a letter, telling her about ice skating and included a picture of me on ice skates.

I got home that night and Molly told me I had gotten two pieces of mail from Compassion. One envelope had "a letter from your sponsored child". After three months of anxiously waiting to hear, I was so excited to get something from Togo. It was a form, similar to the one I sent her with a map and questions about what she liked. Her favorite color is violet, she wants to be a midwife when she grows up, and she likes to play with jacks. Her prayer request was to live a long time and her prayer for me was that I live a long time! I hope those are both answered too, Valey! :)

I waited many years to do this and I wish I had sponsored a child years ago. It's $38 a month and really, that's not that anything that I can't afford. I unfortunately spend more than that on a Target run buying a new nail polish, make-up, a coffee mug, a sweater, footie socks, a Mt. Dew and a pack of gum. None of those things to I need to survive!

So if you're looking for a way that you can give that will truly change someone's life, consider Child Sponsorship through Compassion.