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Friday, May 8, 2009

Favorite Friday

I know I've been going on and on about how great Beth Moore's latest Bible study on Esther is. I've also been following her blog recently and it's great, too!

For the past two weeks, her youngest daughter, Melissa, has been blogging while on a trip with Compassion to Calcutta, India. It has been absolutely amazing & eye-opening to read about her experience there. No lie...I've cried every single day I've read an entry she's written from India! It's just incredible to read about how the rest of the world lives while I feel bad for myself that I can't afford something as small as a pedicure or as big as a vacation or a new car. For goodness sakes, these people are starving, without power, without homes, and without knowing that someone loves them. It breaks my heart. So, I encourage you to check out the Living Proof blog. You'll have to go back just a little ways to start reading about Melissa's trip.

You'll also find posts from Beth and her daughter Amanda. They are sometimes thought-provoking posts, but often they are just laugh out loud funny! I just love this family--they are so REAL!

Anyhow, back to Melissa's trip with Compassion. Just this week, I was reading about Melissa's final day in India and crying my eyes out! Taylor asked me why I was crying and I showed her the picture of the beautiful children Melissa met. I explained to her their situation and that these children needed help. Well, truth be told, I often feel bad for those left fortunate, but never act on it...never really do anything to help. But, this hit me. That same day, as I was in another room I hear Taylor singing. As I near her, she is singing "Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world, Red & Yellow, Black & White, they are precious in His sight, Yes Jesus loves the little children of the world." Of course, I had to decipher a few of the words...but, you bet I got the message! Wow! We sing "Jesus love me" all the time, but I haven't sang this one to her in quite awhile. I was amazed at how God speaks through my own child...right then, I took Tay to the computer and we picked out a child from Compassion's website. We are now sponsoring a beautiful little 5 year old girl, Maher, from India. I anxiously check the mail each day waiting on my packet from Compassion with more information about her. I can't wait to mail her a letter. What a privilege!

Seriously, I am tearing up now as I type just thinking of them. Here's an excerpt from her last entry. If you don't feel compelled to sponsor a child, simply pray for them.

From Melissa:
After playing with our children for about an hour or so, I realized that our leaders were signaling some message to us. Our time was coming to an end. We had been so busy anticipating meeting our sponsor children that for some reason we hadn't even thought about the reality of having to say good-bye to them. As we hugged them good-bye for the last time my heart began to race and I noticed that Manot urgently kept saying something, the same line, over and over again to me. So, I beckoned the translator and I said, "Can you translate what he is trying to tell me?"

He is saying, “Please pray for us.”

Seriously, can one heart take it? That’s what nine-year-old Manot was trying to tell me. After all the gifts I had brought him. After all the food we had served him. After all the fun we had. This was his one urgent request:

“Please pray for us.”

I assured him through my tears that I would never ever stop praying for them.

That was the last verbal exchange we had before we said good-bye with oversized lumps in our throats and then we waved and waved and waved. I can’t count the times they looked back at me. They hung out of the window of the van, and we blew about a million kisses back and forth. As the van started to move, I felt my heart sink.

Will I ever see them again?

Will they make it?

2 comments:

SnoWhite said...

I LOVE Beth Moore's stuff too. Thanks for your honest post, and thanks for stopping by and leaving such a nice comment on my blog.

May God bless you this week.

Jamie said...

Thanks for such a "real" reminder that others are hurting and how we can help. I have heard so many people talking about this trip these past few weeks.