Thursday, April 19, 2012

I joined the fight against poverty: Clemence and Compassion International

“I joined the fight against poverty!” the white-lettered t-shirt seemed to shout from its black canvas, as I pulled it out of the cardboard box, careful not to dump the packing popcorn all over the floor. I had been waiting for this package to arrive for weeks, and it was finally here!

It all began long ago, but in the spring of 2009, I finally took action. I was looking ahead to my one year review at work, my first full-time, "I’m an adult now," job, and I wanted to do something special to celebrate my adulthood and God’s provision for me. That's when it hit me - I was, for the first time in my life, financially stable, generally independent, and actually able to sponsor a child through Compassion International! I had grown up watching the commercials on TV of children in need, their empty eyes yearning for food, for hope. I had even spent a couple summers with the Continental Singers raising sponsors for the organization. I had always wished that I could do something for the poor children of the world, but I hadn’t had a steady income. Now I did! Now I could do something about it!  Now I could change the life of a child!


Excitedly, I logged onto the website, clicking through the photos. With so many children in need, how do I just pick one? Then I saw her, those brown eyes called out to me: Clemence Matano. ‘She’s perfect!’ I thought. A little seven year old girl (She’s ten now!) living in southern Kenya with her parents and two siblings, according to the little biography on the site. In her simple lavender dress and her shy smile, I couldn’t tear myself away. And she loves to sing!

In our first correspondence I learned that her favorite subject in school was capital letters. I admitted that they are rather fun to write. “I LOVE TO WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS TOO!” I responded. I hoped she might giggle. After all, I didn’t think email writing etiquette really applied when writing to my little Clemence. In the days that followed, she began drawing pictures of herself and her home to send to me; I continued to send photos, and not sure what to say exactly, I told her a bit about myself and life in California.  Over time we began to share Scripture with each other and to pray for each other daily.

The next fall I began thinking about how I could give more. I had also been pursuing involvement in some sort of ministry, somewhere that I could really invest my time and try to make a difference. One afternoon when I was exploring the website, I first read about Compassion’s Advocates Network. “Become a voice for the voiceless.” I had heard the phrase before, yet it meant more to me now. I can’t change the entire world; however, Compassion is eager to show that you can make a difference in the life of one child, and that makes all the difference for her world. Shy as I can be at times, these dear children continue to live and die in silence. Rather, their cries for help are drowned out by our surround-sound home theaters and our blaring iPods.

Without a sponsor each child will become another sad statistic – another malnourished child, another uneducated laborer like his father, perhaps another victim of HIV/AIDS.  Still worse, she may never hear of the love of Jesus!

Won’t you consider partnering with Compassion? Join the fight! Together we can make a difference: Releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name! One child at a time!

To find out how you can help, visit http://my.compassionsunday.com/f/victorianperry 

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