Do you?

Do you have $38 a month?
Do you have room in your heart to pray for and love a child on the other side of the world?

Compassion is a Christian organization that sponsors children around the world. That is an easy sentence to write but really, it means so much more than those 11 words. Here is a bit about what they do with the $38 a month.

They provide healthy food to children who may only eat scraps of garbage riddled with bugs.
They provide shelter to children and their families who may live in nothing more than cardboard held together with what they can find.
They provide medical care and education about disease prevention to children and their families.
They provide clean water to drink so they aren't drinking water that has mixed with the raw sewage running directly behind their tin hut.
They provide education and necessary supplies or uniforms for the school.
They teach families how to help lift themselves from poverty to break the cycle for the next generation by teaching them a skill they can then use to produce products to sell and earn a living.
But you want to know the biggest thing Compassion does?

They bring the love of Jesus to people who would never feel that love otherwise.

Compassion brings the reality of the lives children are living in other countries to us by sending bloggers on trips to experience the lives of these children up close and personal. By reading the blogs of the people traveling they hope it will spark more people to sponsor children who desperately need it. I've been following a couple of these blogs over the past few days. Sponsoring a child has been something I've considered for several years but quite honestly I didn't do it simply because I didn't take the time to research which organizations were trustworthy. I had too much on my plate; or so I thought.

On Tuesday I decided enough is enough. We live a life of utter luxury compared to the stories I was reading about the children in Kenya. I wasn't putting it off any longer. I went to Compassion's website for children available for sponsorship in Kenya and spent a few minutes reading through the profiles of the over 800 children available. I chose one, a 6 year old little boy named Kevin who lives with his 5 siblings and is being cared for by his grandmother.

We will sponsor Kevin indefinitely and he will become a very real member of our family, albeit a long distance relationship. We will exchange letters and gifts with Kevin and get to know his family in Kenya as he gets to know our family here through our letters and pictures. With our mere $38 a month Kevin will be provided things in life he otherwise never would have gotten.

The bloggers currently in Kenya visited the largest slum in the country; it houses 800,000 people in 3 square miles. The ground is made up of decomposing garbage and the sewage runs between the huts. Smack dab in the middle of this slum is a school and church run by Compassion; the love of Jesus is in this slum.

Here is a blog post about the slum.
Mathare Valley
Then read these two blog posts about a young man who's been sponsored by a gentleman in California. He's lost his entire family to disease and the only reason he's still alive is because he's been sponsored.
Full Circle
Father to the Fatherless

To sponsor a child through Compassion, follow this link where you will be able to view pictures and information about available children. You can sort by country, gender and even age to find a child that fits your family.

Sponsor a child.

Resolutions

Are you the type to make resolutions every time New Years Day rolls around? Do you keep them or dump them in a week?

I usually do not make New Year resolutions. In the past I have tried to set a goal for myself but I never really set the bar extremely high so if I didn't make it I never had the sense of being a failure (see how that works?). In years past I have thought of trying to be a better mom, or more patient, or always speaking with a sickeningly sweet "oh that is OK you broke my $300 TV with your spray bottle, TWICE, honey" voice, but...well that quickly flew out the window an hour later when I had two or eventually three toddlers/preschoolers all saying "MOMMY" at the same time and I wanted my 12 inches of personal space back. Yea, I tried that goal only once and then I wised up; the only way I could maintain that patient, sweet talking, better mom persona is behind two closed doors with a book during certain times of the day.
OK, so that makes it sound like I'm raising three rowdy, out of control children that drive me crazy. That is only half true- I'm raising three awesome, wonderful children that drive me crazy.

This year I am making a full-fledged effort of setting a few resolutions. To hold myself more accountable I am posting them here for the world to see, so if I fail- I really fail.
In 2009, I plan to:
1. Lose all the weight that I lost once before. This will take a considerable amount more effort than it did last time because at that time I was stressed out and alone with 3 kids for a year. That made weight loss goals unbelievably easy. Now I am happy, fat and comfortable and my stress level is considerably lower; I find chocolate much more desirable now and diet chocolate sucks.
2. I plan to start an individual devotion. I picked up this book yesterday and we'll see how it goes; maybe I'll find that sweet talking mom persona deep down and not raise my voice when my children break the bed for the third time after being told not to jump on it at least once a week.
3. I plan to actively search for a new church. This has been hard for me, far more difficult that I imagined it to be. We city hop and thus, church hop nearly every year but our last year in GA landed us in an absolutely wonderful church where we met amazing people and friends. We were able to share and grow in our financial ministry and found it so rewarding. Leaving that church behind affected me more than I than expected but also clouded my search for a new church. I am vowing to set aside my pouting, whining and my version of a three year old tantrum and come to the conclusion that I cannot have another Westtown but God will lead us to the place we need to serve here.