Compassion: India

Happy Monday, Peeps!

  

We have some business to take care of this fine [stormy] Monday! So, without further ado, the winner of Friday's book giveaway is:

  

Kate Gal!!! 

I've felt that 'gut feeling' where I take that as God nudging me. Sometimes its a little nudge 'yes Kate, do that' other times its a pretty hard jab 'what are you thinking!?? STOP!!' I'm not sure I've heard His voice but I keep looking for His hand, His guiding, His help. I need it a lot. Will have to go out and get this book (if I don't win it)

Congratulations!!! Email me your mailing address to gitzengirl@gmail.com and I'll get your book to you ASAP!

  

I feel like I should put a disclaimer here because so many of you commented about the concept of being more quiet to hear God's voice... and that part wasn't actually from the book. That was just me giving my opinion. :) The book is an easy read that is basically a compilation of short stories telling different people's experiences... it's especially nice for people who want to pick up a book and read snippets when you have time since it's not one continuous story that you feel you need to finish. Just wanted to make sure you understood what you were buying. :)

   

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Remember awhile back when I told you that I won something amazing over at Pioneer Woman's blog? For those of you who missed it, I won the chance to be a part of a Compassion child's life. Ree [aka Pioneer Woman ] paid to sponsor a few older children who were a part of the program, but who are often overlooked for sponsorship because of their age. I offered, and I was chosen to correspond with one of them.

Recently, I received my packet of information and instructions on how to correspond with my sponsor child. Meet Tsegaye:

  

I opened my packet and instantly felt such a pull on my heart. I have nephews that are around Tsegaye's age. They are in school, play sports, go on dates and are planning for their futures. They are getting driver's licenses and thinking about college. And I want Tsegaye to have all those hopes and dreams, too. And then I read his profile.

He loves to play soccer, he is above average in his middle school studies, he attends church activities and helps his mother with the cleaning. He's really just like my nephews... a great kid. A great kid who just happened to be born into an HIV affected area of Ethiopia, who needs help and encouragement and people to believe in him. And I get to be that person.

I can't tell you how great that feels.

You might have noticed that I have had a link on my sidebar [over there on the left] to the Compassion website, in case any of you are interested in sponsoring a child. For the next week or so, there is another button right above it that says "Compassion Bloggers in India." Right now, a group of bloggers are traveling in Kolkata [which used to be Calcutta] visiting children in Compassion programs. You can click that button to go to a page that lists the bloggers on the trip and provides links to their sites. I've gotten to know both Angie [from Bring the Rain ] and Pete [from Without Wax ] and would encourage you to go to either of their blogs to read about their journey... they should be posting regularly while they're there with photos and accounts of their trip.

It's a pretty amazing opportunity to see first hand [well, second hand, really... but you know what I mean :)] what the needs are in these countries and how the children can be helped.

I'll keep you updated from time to time on how things are going with Tsegaye, and I'd love to hear about your experiences with programs like Compassion, too. It's overwhelming to think of how many kids in the world need us, but it's pretty amazing to be able to help at least one.