Monthly Archives: January 2015

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Sponsor a Child

The following children are in need of sponsors.

For only $35 per month through World Vision, you can help a child’s community to fund projects that provide clean water, nutritious food, basic healthcare, educational opportunities and economic development assistance. Each community, along with World Vision, determines its most pressing needs.

You can also build a relationship with your child through letters. Will you consider changing a life today?

PriyankaIN-WV

Six-year-old Priyanka from India.

Priyanka is six years old, and she lives with her father, who is a farm laborer. She is in primary school and enjoys studying the national language. She helps at home by carrying water and likes to play with dolls.

The typical home in Priyanka’s community in India is made of wood, with a thatch roof and dirt floor. Rice is a staple in the diet.

Your sponsorship helps to provide Priyanka’s community with improved health through access to clean water and training in nutrition and hygiene. It also provides tutoring, vocational training and leadership training, as well as innovative agriculture and livestock training.

JuanPabloCO-WV

Juan Pablo, 7 years old, from Colombia.

Juan Pablo lives with his mother and one sister. He is seven years old.

Juan Pablo is not in school at this time. He likes to play with toy cars and helps at home by putting toys away.

He lives in an urban community in Colombia, where the typical home is constructed of wood with cement flooring. Common foods are rice, eggs, beans and plantains.

Your sponsorship helps to provide Juan Pablo’s community with special healthcare, vaccinations against major diseases and special feeding programs for undernourished children. Your support also helps to reconstruct the community, which has been devastated by an earthquake and war.

DeborahUG-WV

Eight-year-old Deborah of Uganda.

Deborah, 8, lives with her father and two brothers in Uganda. Her father is self-employed, and struggles to provide for the family.

She is in primary schools and enjoys foreign language. At home, Deborah helps with cooking meals. She likes to play outside.

Deborah’s community in Uganda has been severely affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis, leaving many children without parents. The typical home is made of mud and bricks with tin or thatched roofs. Common foods are cassava, maize, sweet potatoes and beans.

Your sponsorship will help to provide Deborah’s community with improved healthcare and support, emphasizing assistance to those affected by HIV and AIDS. Your support also helps children to attend school, and gives farmers seeds and training on new farming methods.

OpherZA-WV

Opher, 9, from Zambia.

Opher is a 9-year-old boy living with his mother and three brothers. His mother is a farmer.

He is in primary school and enjoys foreign language. Opher helps at home by running errands, and he likes to play soccer.

Opher’s community in Zambia has been affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis. The typical home is made of brick or mud with a thatched roof. A common food is a porridge called nshima, served with vegetables or occasionally meat.

Your sponsorship would help to provide Opher’s community with new wells for clean water and reading and math clubs to improve education. Your support also would provide instruction on the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, care for orphans and agricultural training for farmers.

DianaBR-WV

Diana, 13, of Brazil.

Diana, 13, of Brazil, lives with her parents and two sisters. Her father is a driver, and her mother is a vendor.

She is in junior high school and enjoys mathematics. Diana helps at home by being good, and she likes to play video games.

Diana lives in an urban community where homes are built of brick, and are small and airless. Common foods include bread, biscuits, cereal, vegetables and meat.

Your sponsorship yeps to provide Diana’s community with greater access to nutritious food and improved healthcare and hygiene. Your support also helps to provide education and tutoring to school-age children, teach mothers to read and fund skills workshops to help older children gain employment.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or have any questions, please contact me in the comments section below.

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Living on One Dollar

Living on one dollar a day in rural Guatemala isn’t without its challenges, but that’s exactly what four college-age men did in 2010.

These men faced obstacles including sickness and hunger as they lived for two months in solidarity with the 1 billion people in the world also living on just one dollar a day.

Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple, along with two photographers, traveled to Guatemala City, then rode for six hours on a crowded chicken bus to Peña Blanca, Guatemala, a rural Guatemalan village with a population of 300. Once there, they secured housing, obtained a loan for $125 to start a small radish farm for income, and began their 56-day journey.Living-On-One

They had devised a system involving drawing a number each day, between zero and nine, to indicate their income for the day. This would make their living situation more realistic as some days they would have no income, like other day laborers in the community. Altogether, though, the income totaled just $56 for each of the four men over their stay.

The group succeeded largely because of lessons learned from the locals and the resulting friendships. The film introduces several individuals, giving a more in-depth look into each of their situations.

There is Rosa, a young woman whose circumstances caused her to quit school as a child and work in the fields, which she continues to do while holding on to her dream of becoming a nurse. There is Chino, a 12-year-old boy who is eager to learn some English phrases and works in the fields now instead of attending school. And there is Anthony, a 24-year-old man who is one of the few in the village with a regular job, supporting his wife and three children, along with some older relatives.

Anthony befriends the group and quickly considers them as family, as his wife teaches Zach and Chris how to cook more substantive food by using tricks like adding lard to the beans for more calories.

At just under an hour, this film is a quick, easy view, the stories are engaging, and it offers a unique inside look at rural Guatemalan life. The film is available on Netflix and can be purchased at the Living on One website by clicking here.

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Go Into All the World – Book Review

GoIntoAllTheWorld

“Go into all the World,” by David Chalmers

If you’ve ever wanted to visit your sponsor child, but wondered whether it is worth the money, David Chalmers’ new book, “Go into all the World,” just might convince you to take the leap. It’s the oft-debated question among sponsors: do I use my resources to sponsor more children and send more gifts or to visit my children in person? The stories recounted in this book show how a visit really allows you to be the hands and feet of Jesus. In his book, David shares his adventures in visiting his sponsored children throughout Central and South America and the Philippines. He describes the highs and the lows of meeting your children in person, from the beauty of a child trusting you so fully that she falls asleep in your arms to the harsh realities of some very difficult situations in which he finds his children living. In discussing a visit to one of his children’s homes, David writes: “It’s times like that when I fully grasp the significance and impact of a sponsor. God is using me to literally be a father to the fatherless, to give Laura words of encouragement, which she doesn’t necessarily get from anywhere else.” But it’s not all serious, heart-wrenching moments. Well, a lot of it is, because it’s God working on and through a man as he travels great distances to shower his children in love. But David also shares lots of tales of fun and laughter as he celebrates his birthday at a Compassion project, plays the drums for the children every chance he gets and introduces everyone to Australian football, or “kicking the footy.” (I think that’s the right phrase!) David is a humble and caring man, who at one point sponsored as many as 50 children through Compassion. Most recently, he spent a year in the Philippines working at an orphanage, and now he is back home in Australia, where he is a teacher. You can learn more about David by visiting his blog by clicking here. You’ll get a thorough review of Compassion’s sponsorship program in reading this book. I highly recommend it. “Go into all the World,” can be purchased by clicking here, here, here or here. David describes a sponsor’s role quite well when he writes: “The one thing I can tell you after visiting so many of my kids is that in my own strength I alone am completely inadequate for the job of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. It is God alone who can release them and give them joy, hope, freedom and an opportunity to dream, despite their circumstances. I am merely an instrument he is using to show these precious people his love for them. There is nothing I’d rather be doing.” Read “Go into all the World,” and maybe you, too, can become God’s instrument in showing His love to His children.