Compassion Day
While not physically
imposing as some of the other Compassion sites,
the Las Delcias Compassion site has made an impact in the short time it has
been approved and opened.
What is Compassion International?
The direct quote from their website explains their
mission much better than I could:
Compassion International exists
as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual,
economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become
responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
Founded by the Rev. Everett Swanson in 1952,
Compassion began providing Korean War orphans with food, shelter,
education and health care, as well as Christian training.
Today, Compassion helps more than 1.2
million children in 26 countries.
Wow, I know. My family sponsors two
children, one who attends the new site in Las Delicias!
My cabin woke up (my father, my
brother, and I) with an excited feeling; today I would meet my little sister
for the first time. My father had already met her in November, and I couldn’t
wait to meet her! The team as a whole was pumped up and ready to meet their
children.
The church itself was adorned with
balloons and banners. As beautiful as it was to hear the children singing and
laughing, I think that just to celebrate some of the new sponsors such as
Yolanda sponsoring Bryan and Mike sponsoring Jimmy.
We listened to
songs and watched adorable skits while the Compassion Pastor Alex dressed up as
frog and danced. Afterwards we played outside with piñatas and soccer.
We went to get
lunch and we sat down with Rosa, Tania’s (our sponsor child) grandma and she
explained that Tania was so excited to receive that monthly letter from us. And
it broke my heart when we later visited her home, which was literally shambles
and saw her poor living conditions. Despite her broken home she was healthy due
to the regular checkups Compassion gave.
I almost cried when she gave her shy, but immensely precious smile when
we gave her new backpack.
When we left we
were quite sad to leave her, as was the rest of team with their children. Today
we celebrated the union of church and community. But we also left our children
behind. But someone remember,
“Hey they live
right there. We’ll probably see them tomorrow. “
And we did.
Mike
and Jimmy have a victorious moment in soccer.
