“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
    He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

-Luke 4:18-19

I talked in my last post “What can I do?  Part 1” about how we are often moved and stirred in our compassion for those in need, but feel overwhelmed with the complexity of the problem or not equipped to help, so we usually don’t.  I shared last week about taking time to care about the homeless or those in need of help.  This week I would like to talk about those in poverty around the world – and our family’s experience.

About four years ago the Lord spoke to us about sponsoring a child through the Christ-Centered organization “Compassion International”.  Other great Christ-Centered organizations like “World Vision” also have sponsoring programs around the world.  We had heard about Compassion before and knew about sponsorship programs, but never applied that to our family.  God spoke to us that this was a simple, yet far reaching and impactful way we could make a difference in the lives of others.  The great thing about the child sponsoring through Compassion is that, yes you can make a difference in a child’s life, but it will have a huge impact for their whole family.  For less than the cost of eating out once a month our gift can provide medical care, nourishment, opportunities for education, connection to the body of Christ where they live, and encouragement through letters and pictures and most importantly prayer from our family here in America.  It’s do-able!

Since then we have stayed in contact with 13 year old “Ripon” in Bangladesh and it has been a blessing to know our ordinary family has been a part of the solution of poverty in our world.  We have recently felt called to step up ‘to the next level’ and sponsor another child too – so we are also praying for and supporting 5 year old “Elang” in Indonesia.  I can’t help but imagine if even 50% of Christian Families here in the United States sponsored a child there would be a waiting list HERE for a child, not waiting children THERE!  Just a thought!

We don’t have the excuse that the problem is too big or the situation too complex.  We don’t have to “rack our brains” trying to figure out how we can help.  Some awesome God-led people have gone before us and made it straightforward for us to get involved.  It doesn’t have to be complicated, but we are called to action!  What are you going to do?

-Jason