Releasing children from poverty in JESUS' name!

Believe it or not we're quickly approaching the holiday session! In fact we're 87 days away from Christmas!! (I know, I know you don't want hear that just yet!)

I got on this Christmas kick after being reminded of our sponsor child today.

Meet Rachel. Rachel is 8 years old and is in 2nd grade. She lives in rural Indonesia with her mom and dad. One fun fact she has shared with us recently is that her favorite food is rice! We hear from her about 6 times a year and is always telling us what her new favorite bible story is. We get to write her back about us and even share bible stories through letters.

Now you're probably wondering how did that lead you to thinking about Christmas? The answer is that I was offered the opportunity to send her a Christmas present today. Every last penny of the money we gave for her will be spent on her! I love that Compassion International doesn't take any administrative costs out of gift money.

Compassion International helps Christians connect with children in need in 26 countries around the world. Their motto is "releasing children from poverty in JESUS' name." It cost $38 a month and 80% of what you give goes to the child. That is much more than most other sponsorship programs. Their program feeds, clothes, and educates them in addition to getting them involved in a church program where they will learn about the gospel.

So back to Christmas. I as I do from time to time I clicked on the Compassion International website. My heart broke as I looked at the pictures of children tagged with a heart. This means they have been waiting for a sponsor for over six months! I thought about how they may not even know how to pray to God yet asking for a sponsor yet. So I stopped to pray for one for them.

Father God,

You know each one of these little ones personally.
You see there tears, you hear their rumbling tummies, you feel their longing to know someone loves them.
I pray on their behalf that Your Spirit would awaken us to hear and see their needs too.
James 1:27 says "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."
Allow us to be a part of your plan to care for those who can not care for themselves. For you will raise up the poor from the dust; and lift the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. (1 Samuel 2:8)
More specifically, I pray that each child who has been waiting for 6 months or longer will receive a sponsor by Christmas.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

I hope Christmas is on your mind now and that you will consider becoming a sponsor to one of these little ones before December 25. I can only imagine that it will make for their best Christmas ever. It could result in the first time they ever hear what Christmas is all about.

If you have any questions about Compassion or sponsorship we would be happy to answer them for you. And if you're already a sponsor we would love to know that too!

Merry Christmas,
Laura

One Year Later

Ok ok so this blog is being posted one year and almost two months later. I think you all understand, though, that when the school year hits life picks up speed and the fun stuff like blogging is pushed to the way side. Our paper (first) anniversary, however, is worth backtracking a little for.

For those of you who don't know the first anniversary is traditionally the "paper anniversary" because you are poor. The couple is to buy, make, or incorporate a paper aspect to their gift. To honor tradition (and our status as poor seminary students) we decided to go with it.

I (Laura) got Steve a copy of our song's sheet music. We're still trying to get the hang of this guitar thing. I hope one day (maybe by our 10th anniversary) we can play it!

Steve's gift was a series of cards that he gave out through out the day. Each one was accompanied by a surprise of where we were to go next.

 The first surprise was that we were going to Monterey California. It is about a hour and a half drive from where we live. On the way we passed the famous garlic festival. Despite my wanting to check it out Steve felt we had better things lined up. haha. Maybe we'll hit up the garlic festival next year.

After we arrived I got my next card and surprise number two that we would be eating at an awesome seafood restaurant on the water. Our table over looked the beach and was so beautiful! The food was really good too!

We decided to take a picture of one  year's worth of wear and tear on our rings.

 At the end of lunch I got my last card and final surprise that we were going on a whale watching tour! I was super surprised and we were both excited. We had a little time to kill so we walked back down the beach towards the pier and window shopped.

Just before our tour started the sun came out! It was perfect timing! This is a picture of the boat that took us an hour out to sea.

We decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and views. With a little hot chocolate we were able to stand the cold. About an  hour into the trip we started to get skeptical. Were we going to be in the 1% of people who didn't see something on this trip? Then out of no where...



There were over 15 whales all around us. They told us it was pretty unusual to see them in groups like that. They were happy to show off for by us coming out of the water which was really fun. One came right up to our boat but of course I was not ready with the camera so this is a sampling of what we got.



Once back to shore we finished our day with a trip to Buba Gump Shrimp for dinner. We chose it because we went to our first Buba Gump Shrimp restaurant on our honeymoon. We learned that Monterey is the original Buba Gump!

We didn't get around to the final tradition of first year anniversary's until the day after our one year mark... The eating of the year old cake. It was quite an adventure getting this cake to us. As most of you know we were married in Mississippi and now we live in California. We planned on hand carrying it back earlier this summer when we visited home but forgot it in the freezer. Good thing too because we got stuck overnight at the airport and it would have been ruined by the time we got home. So my mom and grandma figured out how to overnight it to us and it made the trip just fin.

While I had to do some strong convincing for Steve to give it a try we decided that it was pretty good. We, however, did not to keep it to try again the next year and tossed the leftovers in the trash.