Adding To The Family

These last couple of weeks have been sooo busy.  We are officially moved into our apartment….until our house is complete.  The weekends have been filled with soccer and moving….and more soccer and more moving.  But in the middle of all of the madness, an event came to town that I knew, as a family, we needed to go and see.

The Compassion Experience rolled into town last Friday night…..and I literally mean rolled.  The Compassion Experience is put on by Compassion International.  It is a rolling museum of sorts that tells stories of children throughout the world living in some of the worst conditions imaginable.  Compassion International’s goal is to bring children out of poverty in Jesus’ name.

The reason I thought we should go was pretty simple.  Even before I heard about this experience, I knew I had to do something for my kids.  My kids aren’t bad, but they are like so many when it comes to things they want.  They have to have everything, or so they think.  The sense of entitlement has started to drive me crazy.  My goal with going to the Compassion Experience was to show them how good their lives are….that they have never gone without….that God loves them and has taken care of them…..even though they don’t quite comprehend that just yet.

So the little tour consisted of a few stories of children from countries such as the Philippines and Uganda.  The Ipod tour lead us through small rooms and stories of the conditions of their lives.  It was extremely difficult for me to see…..but in the end their stories ended with successful lives.  As you walked out of the last room of each story you were brought into a room with a wall full of children’s faces…..all of whom lived in these same horrible conditions throughout the globe.  We all started looking around…trying to find a child that maybe we could help.  After a few minutes we decided to leave and have a family talk over dinner.

With Compassion International you sponsor a child…..and this child has one sponsor….you write letters, send pictures, send a small amount of money each month to help cover some of their expenses.  The big thing with Compassion is, you are this child’s only sponsor….if you decide to quit one day, they lose that resource that they have had.

At dinner we talked…..decided that it was worth the work and effort….at one point my oldest son even began feeling bad because he didn’t eat all of his dinner that cost more than we would be sending each month.  My youngest wanted to pick all of the children.

The next day we went back.  We had all decided we all wanted to choose a child somewhere near the age of my boys…so they would have more in common with each other.  As I walked around the room I saw a little boy from Ecuador wearing an Angry Birds shirt who was only 5 days younger than my oldest.  I opened his envelope and he loves soccer, art, and swimming….all things my boys love.  He was good at his academics and his favorite subject was math….he was the one.  So last Saturday we welcomed Gabriel to our family.

In the last year I’ve watched the news….I’ve watched the hate…..I’ve watched the suffering…..and its about time I try to step out in any little way I can to make a difference….a real difference.  Like Paul said, “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35.)”

So we have a new “family member”……and a new “family” too as well…..since Gabriel does have a mother and father already…..parents that from what I can tell are doing their best already to take care of their son.  We are just here for a little extra help if and when they need it.

We have realized, even more within the last 2 days, how much junk we have accumulated over the years….how much useless stuff we have….and how little others have.   It’s quite sickening when you think about it.  So it’s time to give back, and give back we will.

As a part of our welcome packet we sent to Gabriel we had to send our favorite Bible verse, so I will leave you with what we sent.  But before that I pray we can all give a little more to help others in need, that we could open our hearts a little more to people around us.  That we could love, just a little bit more.  Because the more I think about Gabriel, the more I think about my boys….and that they could very easily be Gabriel.  So I pray that during this beginning of the Christmas season we can take a step back and realize what this season is all about.

Our verse for Gabriel:

“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13.)”