Thursday, December 1, 2011

The beginning of a new friendship . . .

I got some sad news today. Our family has been supporting two children and a seminarian overseas in some of the countries faced with poverty. We go through Christian Foundation for the Children and Aging - http://www.cfcausa.org/ and have been helping and corresponding with a sweet, little girl in Colombia, a feisty boy in Guatemala, and a seminarian in Colombia. Today, we were informed that the seminarian wasn't totally in line with the foundations requirements and is no longer with the program which means we are no longer in touch with or supporting this young man.

Even as I was already missing his letters and our relationship, I knew there was a reason and immediately went on line to find another person to help in his place. What a decision! I went through dozens of pictures and profiles trying to figure out how on earth I could decide who needed us most . . . as all the children were in critical situations. I finally kept coming back to a seven year old who wasn't smiling in her picture and looked a little forbidding. Her name us Juana, she is seven years old, and I think her expression is more anxious and worried than forbidding. Poverty isn't something we really understand the depths of so how could I really judge? Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting her information packet, a more recent picture, and beginning a new friendship.

Although we often fall short, we do try to tithe and discovered that helping these children was a good way to share what we have with someone strugging to afford school fees and to have enough to eat. It is amazing how far the foundation stretches the $30 a month for each child. We have been doing this for over ten years and I can't imagine my refrigerator not having at least three faces reminding me that they exist, need love, help, and prayers!

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