When I originally wrote this on the list, I had written, "Sponsor a child through Compassion International," however, through the Hole in Our Gospel study that we're continuing at my church, I've had the opportunity to learn a great deal about World Vision since the book The Hole in Our Gospel is written by the president of World Vision, Rich Stearns.
I knew this was something that I'd want to do when I got a stable income, and since I have been substitute teaching every day since the beginning of this semester, I figured it was time! All last week I looked on the World Vision website for a child to sponsor. Since I had taken a mission trip to Valencia, Venezuela in high school, I had hoped to be able to sponsor a child from the same country, but apparently World Vision is not currently active in Venezuela. This isn't too surprising considering the political state of affairs down there, however it made me sad because I was able to witness first hand the poverty and devastation there and wanted to do something to make a difference.
Instead, I searched on the World Vision website through various other South American countries all week, looking for the child that I was supposed to sponsor. I didn't find him on the website, but I basically wanted to bring every single child I saw home with me and could quickly see myself becoming a MUCH classier version of Angelina Jolie (ha ha).
Anyways, at church on Sunday (3/27/11), we had representatives from World Vision come and bring hundreds of pictures of children that needed sponsors, and there were people all over the Atrium of the church digging through these stacks. I felt sort of awkward about it because it seemed weird to be picking and choosing these kids based on a photo, however, I quickly snatched a stack of cards from El Salvador and began flipping through them. It was pretty overwhelming to see all those kids, and honestly made me feel a little helpless...like "what's me picking ONE child going to do for all these other ones?" As I continued to flip through the stack of El Salvador photos, one little face kept pulling at me, so I "claimed" him and brought his picture home! I don't know how much is okay to say about him online but he is the cutest little four-year-old I've basically ever seen. I'm so excited to begin this relationship and to get to help him attend school and help his village get clean drinking water, and a whole host of other things you can read about here.
If you've been considering sponsoring a child, I would definitely recommend going through World Vision because I feel that it is one of the more trustworthy organizations out there. If you want to do more of a one-time donation, they have many opportunities for those as well. Some are listed here along the left sidebar.
Probably my favorite thing about sponsorship is that you get to form a relationship with the child and can send him letters and packages...since his description says he loves to play with toy cars, I've already gotten Hot Wheels and Disney's "Cars" stickers to send the minute I get an address to the El Salvador World Vision office! I am so excited to begin this process and am looking forward to getting my sponsorship kit in the mail in a few weeks!
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