April 29th is a special day. It’s the day Joan of Arc arrived to relieve the French forces in the Siege of Orleans. Not New Orleans, just Orleans. It’s French. You eat their bread and potatoes. What’s that have to do with anything you ask? Absolutely nothing. It’s just an interesting bit of history.

However, April 29th is also special because it’s the day we will be holding our first Compassion Sunday. I guess if I tried hard enough I could draw a parallel about how Joan of Arc did not have compassion on the English army, but we’re called to have compassion—it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you should seriously, and prayerfully, consider being a part of this event.

In short, we are using this day to help sponsor children in Bolivia. The cool part about that, is unlike other organizations, Compassion International will allow you to go meet your child. We’re actually working on a date in 2020 for that to happen. But what I really want you to know is how much of a difference your sponsorship actually makes.

When I was in Bolivia, I, like many of you, questioned the validity of child sponsorships and asked what $38/month could really mean for a child. Quite frankly, it means a ton! On my trip, I walked in to a shanty no bigger than a bedroom here, it had 3 grungy beds, no electricity, no bathroom, only a pile of clothes, and a propane cooking stove. Buried in the corner, a mom dug out for me all the letters they had received from their sponsor, neatly wrapped in a ziplock bag so if rain came through the thatched straw roof, it wouldn’t damage the written communications.

Now, don’t get me wrong, your sponsorship does more than just provide emotional joy in the form of a letter. It buys family’s groceries and helps get them in school where they can learn to read and write, and hopefully, eventually, break the circle of poverty, but what’s more is it helps spread the Gospel. It changes eternities. I think we’d all agree there’s no price tag for that.

So I don’t want you to get emotionally charged up only to regret your decision later, but what I would like to do is let you know that Laura and I sponsor a child for each one of our children and we’ve never regretted the decision. Sure, $114/mo would be nice, but what’s going to be nicer is to hear the stories in heaven about how such a small act made such a big difference.

That being said…Pray. Ask God, and if you have peace about it, then I’d invite you, join us in making an impact. I think together we can more than meet the goal I’ve set of 20 children sponsored.

Blessings.

https://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/