The Heart Connection!

Time for another Compassion assignment :) This one involves writing about this beautiful video about a happy little boy called Judah who has a mum who loves him very much. :)

Judah's mum talks about her experience with Judah needing to have open heart surgery and how grateful she is that they were able to get this so he could grow up into a wonderful little man who is full of love and life. :)

She then mentions that there is a staggering number of children who are loved and treasured by their parents who have preventable health conditions who can't get medical care and don't get the opportunity to grow up into wonderful little people. These parents would give anything for their children to be able to get medical treatment but it just isn't possible - *unless* someone steps in - someone like Everett Swanson - founder of Compassion, someone like Wess Stafford - recently retired president of Compassion, someone like me or someone like you! Someone equipped with Jesus' love! :)

For only $48 (NZ) a month you can be the difference between a family losing a beloved child from a preventable condition and a family being overjoyed by receiving medical care for their son or daughter and getting to watch them grow up! 

You can be the difference between someone's baby daughter dying of malnutrition and someone's daughter having enough to eat and growing up healthy! 

You can be the difference between someone's son having nowhere to turn and joining a gang and someone's son gaining an education, vocational skills and even going to university!

This is not all! You can be the difference between a family living in fear and darkness and a family hearing the life-saving message of the gospel and having the opportunity to put their hope and trust in Jesus - gaining joy and eternal life! :)

It's easy (for me at least) to think that because tragedy happens so often to people in poverty that it does not really matter as much to the families who go through it but that is not true! Everyone, everywhere, loves the same, grieves the same, and needs Jesus the same! :)

Change a life today - for now and eternity! Sponsor a precious child and release them from poverty in Jesus' name! :) 

The Backstage Hero :)

Today I wanted to a post about a very special person. I wanted to write about him because he is a backstage hero. Here on this blog (and in various other avenues where people know me ;)) I am very passionate about things and love promoting great causes and people easily get the idea about how I feel about things (heehee) but there is someone who is just as passionate and invested in supporting and promoting great causes but he is more quiet (I'm a little on the loud side ;)) and so people don't always know about all the amazingness that is contained within. :)
This person inspires me every day and provides an amazing Christ-like example, he constantly inspires me to become more Christlike (with Jesus' help! :)). He is the kindest, most big-hearted person I know and he is constantly amazing me with his patience, kindness, selflessness and brilliance at everything - seriously the dude is crazy talented, sometimes I envy his brilliance but most of the time I just enjoy it! :) This person is my husband, Eoin. :)

Guest Interview!! :)

Today I have the pleasure of posting an interview I did with a friend who lives overseas (we did it through e-mail.) :). 
I got the inspiration for doing interviews from one of my awesome sister's in law (thanks!) :). 
I have changed the name of the friend I interviewed for her privacy. :)

Compassion Bloggers In Uganda! :)

This week (and still at the moment - till the 31st) a team of people are in Uganda on the five year bloggers anniversary trip. They've gone back to Uganda, the first country that a team of Compassion bloggers went to and are having some amazing experiences.

They are each blogging daily and their blog posts are addictive! They are a window into another culture, a connection with sponsored children and their communities, and a way to understand more deeply what child sponsorship is and why it's amazing to be part of it.

Sponsor Bracelets! :)

My friend Lizzie makes beautiful bracelets that represent each of the countries Compassion works in. She has bought beads from each country that represent the different countries and weaves them together into a bracelet. She is doing it as a not for profit venture but she does get a little profit from each bracelet which all goes into supporting her Compassion International children. 

The bracelets are also a wonderful way to talk about Compassion's work and/or your sponsored children as each bead represents one of the countries that Compassion work in. You can get a get a bracelet with beads representing your specific sponsored children too; for example, if you had two sponsored children, one in Bolivia and one in Tanzania, then you could get a bracelet made with a Bolivian bead to represent your Bolivian child and a Tanzanian bead to represent your Tanzanian child. :) They're also a great bonus reminder to pray for your child/ren. 

Community Development and Child Development

When it comes to Child sponsorship there are two main ways that it is accomplished. Both of these ways can accomplish a lot and be a great tool in the fight against poverty.

What Does Compassion Do?

To start with I thought I would do a post about what Compassion does.  

Compassion International has offices all across the world, their main headquarters are in the USA but anyone can sponsor through their regional office or the US office – even if they don’t live in the US! They have sponsorship programs in 26 countries around the world and have released over 2 million children from poverty in Jesus’ name!  I actually live in New Zealand and we have Tear Fund which is the same organisation as Compassion but under a different name, they do great work too! The reason I chose a Compassion sponsored child is when I was looking at their website (for fun  ) I saw a picture of her and she melted my heart and I knew I had to sponsor her!