Our Compassion International Experience
At this exhibit, 3 countries were represented, Uganda, Philippines and Dominican Republic. We put on our headsets and listened to a child from each country talk about their life in poverty and how having a sponsor gave them hope and determination for a better life. It was a sobering, yet hopeful journey.
According to Compassion International, the experience is designed for all ages. Even though it is impactful for adults, it is not too intense for small children. Our kids are pretty sensitive to sounds so it was hard for them to listen to some parts. For the most part, they walked through as we narrated for them.
As we walked through, we were surprised at how realistic the experience felt. Some living conditions showed leaky roofs and homes littered with rats.
Many of the children were forced to work at young ages to help support their family.
They felt lucky to have a single doll to play with.
In the grass scene below, the little girl spoke of her frightening experience as she hid from invaders coming to kidnap children in her town.
The kids realized how fortunate we are for all our belongings, food and home when they saw these living conditions.
Each child spoke to how having a sponsor through Compassion International gave them hope and helped them overcome the obstacles of poverty. By having a sponsor, Compassion International was able to provide them medical check ups, nutritious food, health and hygiene training, educational assistance, mentoring and above all, love.
We finished our experience with a heavy heart after listening to those true stories. It is startling to know that around the world, 767 million people live in extreme poverty, of those, 328 million are children. Although we cannot help them all, we can help at least 1.
We came home and together with the kids, we picked a child to sponsor. We felt a deep connection to help a child in the Philippines because of Chris' family roots there. We wanted the child to connect with the kids so we picked a little girl (like Zoey) who is 6 years old (like Zander). Zander will introduce her to you...
Since we received this package the kids have been telling us all the things they want to send her - their toys, money so she can eat at a restaurant, food, a birthday gift, to name just a few. Sometimes they will say these things out of the blue and it just melts my heart.
We are excited to start mailing her letters, special gifts from the kids and build a connection with her. The kids have already started making bookmarks to mail with our first letter.
Our hope is that this sponsorship with help transform not only her life, but ours. We hope this experience will help us appreciate all of our luxuries and live a simple life so that someone else, Yen Yen, can simply live.
I hope this inspires you to check out The Compassion Experience when it comes to your town. If you already know you want to sponsor a child, head straight to Compassion International.
If you have been through The Compassion Experience, sponsored a child or simply have questions/comments, we'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
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