Skip to main content

Teaching Compassion and Raising Up World Changers

Often I feel limited in the ways in which I can help meet the needs of children living in extreme poverty. Many times I've had to remind myself that, in this season of my life, I do have the opportunity to not only love and meet the needs of the child in my care but also to teach compassion and raise up world changers.

This week I contemplated and prayed about how I can do more. I spent time clicking through the World Help website. I ordered boxes to fill for Christmas for an Orphan. I ordered a bundle of Gift of Hope catalogs to give to my daycare families and decided that this year, instead of Christmas gifts for me, I would ask for gifts of hope. As I searched the website I found many little things that I could do and I became excited. That excitement led to the realization that doing something small could have the potential of growing into something much bigger.
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”  ― Mother Teresa

As I browsed through the faces of children needing sponsors I decided that Laurie's Little Sprouts (the name of my home daycare) could sponsor a child.  At first I was overwhelmed with picking one child out of the many children in need but then the ideas flooded in. I added Guatemala to my search since I teach very basic Spanish to the kids and decided that a child that was three years old would be perfect as most the children in my care are that age. I printed up five the pictures of five children to share with my daycare kiddos.

During circle time the next day I introduced my children to each picture, stating the name and age of the child, and added that these children live in places that don't have clean water and often times the dirty water that they drink makes them sick. I told the kids that many families don't live in houses or have food to eat but that we could help. I was amazed at my daycare kids as they were concerned and very eager to help.

Each day since we have prayed for the five children from Guatemala whose pictures are displayed in my dining room. During our lunch time prayers we pray for each child by name that they would have clean water to drink, food to eat and a home to live in. As we learn our colors I tell the children that our friends in Guatemala say rojo for red and the kids look up at our Guatemalan friends and eagerly repeat "ROJO!"

This week the kids and I will choose one out of the five of our new friends from Guatemala to sponsor and I hate that we can only choose one. One of my daycare boys, when I explained that we could only afford to send money to one child, cried out, "NO! We HAVE to send money to ALL OF THEM! I have money at home that I can bring!" Yes, this child knows compassion! This is what I want to teach the children in my care.

How about you? Could you help just one child? Please consider sponsoring a child with World Help.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stay-cation: Fun Things to Do Around Rochester, MN

Family vacations are expensive. Gas, lodging, meals...oh, and then there is the admission cost to all the cool things that you want to see. Vacations cost more than a small fortune. Now figure in the loss of income (some of us don't get paid vacations) and you've "broke the bank". Enter the stay-cation. Gas costs are reduced. Lodging is covered. Meals, although still necessary, can be made at home and packed in a cooler. This summer, instead of taking a week off, I am taking a couple long weekends. One weekend we will be traveling "Up North" to visit my husband's college buddy. Otherwise we're keeping our exploring near to home. Another benefit to a stay-cation is a little extra time for home projects. I can keep up with the laundry, instead of having a week's worth of laundry to do when I return home. Isn't that the worst part of vacation - the accumulation of dirty clothes you have to wash after being away from home all week? Gardening ca
10 comments
Read more

Thy Will be Done

Years ago....June 2012 to be exact..... while at the hospital bedside of my daughter , I cried "Heal her!" which was followed with as much conviction, "Thy will by done". And I meant it. The Holy Spirit equipped me to pray for God's will and not my own. The Holy Spirit equipped me to pray that whatever the outcome, he alone would be glorified. photo credit: Tessa Rampersad Since that time, "thy will be done" isn't as easy to pray when going about my normal, everyday life. How was it that I was able to so easily submit the future to his hands when I was facing my hardest days. Not by my power but by His. The past couple of weeks, as I prepared emotionally for the celebration of my youngest's 18th birthday, I've been revisiting this need to release my child into the hands of God. I've spent too many moments wondering if I've done my job in preparing my son for adulthood. I've spent too much time being anxious for his future
Post a Comment
Read more

What mama did ~ LOVE

Joining Lisa-Jo in another five minute write. Five Minute Friday is writing without thinking too much and not worrying about the mechanics......just allowing our hearts to speak.  This week we get to choose our own word to describe "what mama did". Mom and Me, Christmas 2011 My mama loved well. Three babies, one of which was born without breath, born well before the young age of 20. I was the first, born shortly after her seventeenth birthday. My sisters followed, arriving two months early before my mother had even turned eighteen.  Mom always told me, when I was old enough to figure out that I was in her belly at the time she married my dad, that they wanted to marry so badly but because they were so young their families wouldn't allow it. So I was a gift. A planned excuse for a wedding. When I got old enough to know that this was probably just a story to ease a young girls insecurities, it was too late. I already believed that I was wanted. I already knew tha
10 comments
Read more