The Longest Wait

A few months ago, I finally took the plunge I've been thinking about doing for far too many years and sponsored a child through Compassion International. When you sign up to sponsor a kid, you can sort by age, gender, country, and probably a few other things, so I did the only thing I could think of: I sorted by length of wait and clicked on the kid who'd been waiting for a sponsor the longest.

First letter from Juan Diego.

And then when I went to the next page to finalize my transaction, the clever-clever web folks at Compassion had one final question for me: did I want to multiply my efforts and sponsor another kid from the same area? Of course I did, et voilà, I'm now the delighted sponsor of two little boys, Nelson and Juan Diego, from the same town. I don't know if they know each other yet. I hope they will get to be friends along the way as they're growing up together. They're both very young, so I'm going to be sponsoring them for a long time indeed. It's gonna be great.

First letter from Nelson.

Since I went for "longest wait," it was just by accident that I got Spanish-speaking children who I can write to in their native language, kinda. I hope I'm at least saving the Compassion translators a bit of time and energy. My sponsor packets arrived on my birthday, which was the coolest birthday gift I've received in years.

So, I blog and I'm a Compassion sponsor--does this make me a Compassion Blogger? Haha, no, although I'm thinking about joining that group, so stay tuned. It's not like I don't have enough words to do that--I can probably scrounge some up.

If Compassion International isn't for you--and I do recognize quite readily that joining forces with a Christian organization is not for everyone--please find some good work that you can support. Maybe it's your local food pantry. Maybe it's an advocacy group advancing a cause that's close to your heart. Maybe it's disaster relief, or education, or leaving a bag of groceries on the doorstep of a struggling family in your neighborhood. Whatever is the best way for you to make this planet a better place, find it and do it. Don't wait too long. Make today the day.

Let's leave the world better than we found it.