Compassion

This morning at Church Tim Hanna from Compassion Australia came to speak. Before he did, though,  he showed this short film.

 

A few parts of this film got to me. But perhaps the biggest part was when one of the men talked about how he watched his 10 month old sister die in the arms of his mother from starvation.

20 minutes prior to seeing this I had woken up my sleepy head of a 10 month old, carried him to Sunday School and left him there as I went on to church without him. The biggest of his worries would be no food for an hour, and whether he would play with a truck or a ball downstairs.

I read recently in Lisa Bevere's book Nurture about babies dying in Africa because the mother herself didn't have enough nutrition to supply milk in her breasts. While we are so blessed to have the breast or bottle option, and what seeming to be the biggest worry of that decision is whether we will be judged for the choice we make.

And then our pastor showed us a video of his recent trip to Salatiga in Indonesia, where he and his family were breaking down in tears visiting his sponsor child of 22 years. I was fighting back tears. At the end as the band sang a song and images flashed of different children of different cultures with big smiling faces, I looked to the ground and bit my lip and tried so hard not to cry. Some of the faces were so obviously Indonesian (there's just this look about them), confirmed by the sight of the red and white Indonesian flag in the background.

I know people get all cynical about child sponsorship and the like, but I urge you, please, consider sponsoring a child today. We know, for a fact, that sometimes in countries such as Indonesia there is a lot of problems with corruption with money, that's why sponsoring a child through an Australian (or any other trusted international organisation) is a fantastic way to help others in the world. And when our money can go so far in a place like Indonesia - wow. It's a bit more than just giving a cup of water to the least of these.

I haven't got much more to say, other than, click here and sponsor a child today.