Rosa!!!!!

Our church has partnered with Compassion International in an amazing program called Church 2 Church!!  In this program we have partnered up with the Filadelfia church in Los Heraldos, Peru.  It is a desert community outside of Lima.  With the Compassion program, our church has committed to sponsoring 50 children.  As soon as I heard about this, I was on board.  I couldn't wait to get started.  Well, Sunday morning at church, they had some of the packets there so that you could pick your child to sponsor.  Kylie had to stay home because Emma has been sick, so in my mind, I would get to pick our child!!  I called Kylie after church and she happened to be in town getting medicine for Emma so she stopped by and when she got there, only 2 packets remained.  One boy and one girl.  Well, having two little girls ourselves, we wanted to go with a girl and I'm tellin ya, when I looked down and saw the picture on that packet, Rosa had my heart immediately!!  She is 4 years old and beautiful!!  She's got that "tough girl" look!!  Eerily similar to the "tough girl" look on my beautiful wife's face pretty often!!  HAHAHA!!  Maybe that's why I was drawn to her!!  (at least that's what Kylie says!!)  I had no idea that I would be so smitten with this little girl that I've never met!!  I just know that I am so excited to get to know her, yes, only through letters and pictures at first, but I may have the opportunity to travel to Peru to meet her in the next couple years!!  When I think of Rosa, I can't help but think how much we take the blessings we have here for granted!!  For instance, the average family in her community brings in the equivalent to $162 per MONTH!!  Not each week, each MONTH!!  Their homes have dirt and cement floors and tin roofs!!  There are people in this world that are hurting and who are we to complain about being broke while watching cable tv and eating delivery pizza??  Seriously??  Some of you just might say, oh big deal, so your sending money to some organization and you don't even know how your money is being spent.  Or you might say, yeah right, like that is really going to make a difference!!  Folks, I have very good friends who have been there and have seen first hand how much the sponsorship helps these kids.  Compassion provides these children with Bible teaching, health and hygeine instruction, medical checkups, nutritious foods, homework help and academic reinforcement, along with monthly meetings and health workshops for the parents or guardians of the children.  Kylie and I are not able to have any more children and we've prayed about adoption and that still may be a future option but I can't express enough how much this is going to bless us as well as Rosa!!  This little girl has stolen my heart already and she doesn't even know it!!  I find myself thinking of her and praying for her and her family several times daily.  I am so blessed to have two beautiful little girls here at home and now God has given me the opportunity to be a blessing in this little girls life.  I can't wait to see what God is going to do through this journey, because it's amazing to see what he has done in my heart through this little girl in just a few days!!!  Stop and think.............what if the tables were turned?  What if you had to wonder, day to day, if you were going to eat that day, have fresh water, have education for your kids?  I could type all night of the advantages that we have here that we take for granted.  All I know is that I am going to pour my heart into this ministry and I am going to do everything to let little Rosa know that someone half way around the globe does love her and is praying for her and will help support her and provide for her!!  I plan on sending birthday and Christmas gifts and I'm going to write her regularly and when we have extra to give, we're going to give and I pray that I have the opportunity to travel to Peru and meet this precious little girl!!  Just pray about getting involved instead of standing on the sidelines and leaving it up to someone else.  Just give it a shot and I guarantee you won't regret it!!  http://www.compassion.com/