Five Days In Uganda

From January 27th through the 31st, Compassion Bloggers is returning to Uganda after five years of sharing stories of helping impoverished children.  In five days, through blog writing, the goal is to have 400 children sponsored.  

That's not a very big number, is it?

For only $36 a month, you can give a child in poverty the opportunity to hear and learn about Jesus, a good education, hygiene training, health care, good meals and a caring, safe and Christian environment to grow in.  

 Over 1 million children have been sponsored through Compassion International since it began in 1952.  Of the goal for 400, over ten children have already been sponsored!

Somewhere, a little boy or girl is needing the love of Jesus.  They need to know what real love and hope is.  You can give them the care they need if you choose to sponsor an impoverished child through Compassion.

Click this link here for more info about the 2014 trip to Uganda, as well as a Trip Banner that you can share on Pinterest, your blog, or Facebook.

Just imagine living on $1.25 a day.  Wouldn't you want someone to help you and tell you about Jesus?

Now is 400 really a big number?

A Worn-out Coat

 

I live in Kenya. Every day, I walk miles and miles along a dusty road to my little school, grasping my bucket tightly so I can get water for my mother on the way back. She cooks our food and washes our clothes with my water. We also drink from it. It is dirty yellow-brown from all the mud.

I've worn the same torn and tattered coat ever since my big brother grew too big for it. My mother gave it to me and I've played in it until it's become the same color as the dirt that I walk on. But I am thankful for what I have and I will keep on wearing it until it is just a patched-up rag.

Sometimes I wish we had more clothes, clean water and three meals every day. But, like many of my friends, we are poverty-stricken and don't have the money for everything we need. And that is why I still wear my worn-out coat.

(This is a post for Compassion Blog Month. Please join in the fight against poverty.)

Still My Childhood Self

I'm a two-year-old. Or maybe I'm three. Anyway, Mama is grasping my hand so I won't get lost in the crowd of busy shoppers. I'm terribly nervous. Too many strangers.

A woman remarks how cute I am with my short ponytail and chubby face and smiles at me. I frown back. I don't want anyone talking to me.

I'm a shy toddler and I despise strangers. But I have a wonderful trick. It's called a frown. I perform this trick and everyone leaves me alone. It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does. And that is the power of a frown.

But why can't I be friendly? Why is it so hard for me?

Fast-Forward.

OK, now I'm a seven-year-old. My whole family is at a banquet. It's loud and I'm quiet. It seems like everyone has their own friends and I don't. Oh, two girls walk past me. They're chatting and laughing. Maybe they'll let me join in.

I follow from a safe distance. I pass some adults and older kids and continue my walking. Oops, I got too close. One of the girls turns around and looks at me for a moment. I'm so embarrassed! Should I move on and act like I wasn't doing anything? The girl says, "Do you want to play with us?" I slowly nod my head. I don't smile, but I don't frown either.

Hey, I made a new friend.

Years pass. I'm still shy. I can still count the number of friends I've made on one hand. And if I could go back and tell my two-year-old self one thing, I'd say, "Don't be shy. Go out on a limb and make some friends."

And over a decade later, I'm following my own advice.

(Note: This post is for the first Compassion Blog Month Assignment. Please join in the fight against poverty.)

Compassion Blog Month is Back!

If you read my earlier Compassion Blog Month Post, you probably know what I'm talking about...If not, let me refresh you...

Beginning Tuesday, September 3, Compassion International will email a weekly writing assignment to members of the Compassion Bloggers Network and will publish each assignment on compassionbloggers.com.

The goal is to find sponsors for at least 3,160 waiting children. If you help, that will make a huge difference.

And there's prizes if you get children sponsored.

The grand prize is a spot on a 2014 Blog Trip.
The first prize winner and second prize winner has the option to attend the 2014 New Media Expo presented by BlogWorld or the 2014 Blissdom conference.

To be eligible for the above prizes you must get at least five children sponsored during Blog Month.

Also, Compassion has five prize packages to give away!  To be eligible for these, you must get at least one child sponsored.
Each prize package includes the following and more:
~$25 iTunes gift card
~16 oz. Compassion stainless steel mug
~12 oz. bag of fair trade organic whole bean coffee

All you need for entering is a blog and signing up to the Compassion Blog Network. Compassion Blog Month starts September 1st, so get ready if you're interested! Oh, and one last thing: 

Each blog post you write will earn you 10 contest entries after you enter the URL to your post in the Rafflecopter widget on Compassion Website. Submitting more than one blog post for each assignment is allowed, but each post must be unique and different...no copying! :)

For more info, click the link here

Let's help save children from poverty.

World Malaria Day

Today, April 25th, is World Malaria Day.
Malaria kills approximately 655,000 children each year. It develops symptoms that usually include fever, chills, sweating, nausea, and headache. In severe cases, it can advance into coma or death.
 It is a preventable and treatable disease, but a child dies of malaria practically every 30 seconds.

Compassion International helps prevent malaria by : giving mosquito nets to families at risk of malaria, treating and educating families on malaria and how to prevent it.
You can support Compassion's Malaria Intervention by donating at this link.

A net gives protection from mosquitoes and the diseases they carry such as malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever.
Please give so others can live.

From the heart

To quote part of the email I received from Compassion, "It's time to wrap up Blog Month but not without one last effort. For this assignment, we want you to blog as if you are a sponsored child. God told us to become like little children. Remember? This assignment is about aligning with the heart of children in poverty. Write a poem about the sights, sounds and smells of poverty or write a letter to your sponsor, of 13 years or 13 minutes. Write about your feelings, fears, hopes and dreams, or imagine you've switched places with your sponsored child and write about the shock, stress and adjustments you have to make. You are a child living in extreme poverty. What do you have to say?"

Oh, dear! This is going to be tricky! I have never been very close to personal Poverty. AT ALL.

OK, I'm thinking.......

My Poem:

This is what I have to say

Living in poverty is a troubling way

To live, to be, to hear, to see

To have to know what it really means

Ten thousand babies without a life
A man with his children but not his wife
Many people who are poor
Don't know what they're living for

The hunger, the stress

My absolute best

To try to live in 

A world like this

And it's filled and filled and filled with

Poverty 

  

Just a little note: This poem was hard to make (I have never, in all my life, created a poem as big as this!). 

This was the last assignment from the September Blog Month  and guess what! On the 23rd of this month, 2,297 children were sponsored! That deserves something special!

Praise God for Compassion International! I'm glad I heard about this wonderful fight against poverty!