Last week...

Last week my heart was broken.

Last week I felt a burden and an ache that I've never experienced before.

Last week I met Susan.

 

Susan grew up in Sierra Leone.  Until she was nine, she lived on the streets.  Susan's mother was mentally ill and unable to care for her or her older sister.  Susan talked about how the streets were full of danger and how violence lurked everywhere.  They had no security or shelter and no guarantee of food.

Susan was a sponsored child and last week she surprised her sponsor family and met them for the first time. I feel blessed to have been able to witness it.  

See last week was State of the Church.  State of the Church is an annual event where all of our church’s different campuses come together.  And at State of the Church we were talking about Child Sponsorship.  One of the pastors was talking to the Gallegos family who shared about the child they had been sponsoring for 8 years named Susan.  They spoke of the joy they had watching her grow and how blessed they felt to be able to help.  Then the most crazy thing happened… they showed a video of Susan in Sierra Leone.

You should have seen the shock on the Gallegos's faces.  They got to see the child that they had prayed for and watch grow up...  they saw where she lived, they heard her talk!  Wes asked Ruthie (Mrs. Gallegos) what she wished she could say to Susan if she had the chance.  She replied, "I don't know.  I know I'd want to give her a big hug!" 

And then the unthinkable happened... Susan walked on stage and took Ruthie up on her offer and they hugged.  After all of those years of sponsorship, letter writing and pictures they finally met. 

It was beautiful and I (of course) bawled my eyes out.

Last week my heart was broken because my eyes were opened.

Last week I felt a burden and an ache that I've never experienced before.

Last week I thought what if that was me?

  What if I couldn't feed or take care of Jay?  

What if we lived in poverty?  

What if on the other side of the world while people were freaking out about the new iPad, my baby starved? 

In the Bible there is a story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with one child's lunch.

Imagine if you gave up your lunch just one day a week.  With that money you could change a child's life.  What could Jesus do with your lunch?

http://www.feedthe5000.org/