Compassion Around the World

Quick! How many countries does Compassion work in?

If you said 26 countries, you are right! And the Compassion web site has a great spot for you to learn more about each one of the countries where Compassion is working to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Where does your sponsored child live? Does your sponsored child live in Colombia like our Lina?

By visiting this link (Colombia facts), you can find out when Compassion started working in Colombia and the number of children currently registered in Compassion programs at local churches in Colombia. But that is not all, each country page has information on the country’s history, education, religion, culture, holidays and festivals, sports and games, typical foods, greetings, and country facts and figures. Here is an interesting fact about education in Colombia, the school year runs from February to November!

Maybe this would be a great year for you and your family to learn more about the country where your sponsored child lives! Maybe find a recipe or two, add a craft project, learn a few phrases, find the country on the world map and you have yourself a great unit study!

Buenos dias!!

A little of this and a little of that…

Today, I am just going to share some random things with you, I hope you enjoy them!

Hello Mornings

I have decided to join in on the Hello Mornings Challenge again. This is a great way to start my morning off the right way. Spending time with God, making a plan for my day, and taking time to exercise a few times a week. This fall, the group is doing a inductive study on the book of Ephesians. My book is ordered and I am looking forward to the lessons God has for me.

last homeschool book

Quite a few schools out here have already started and I believe many more will be starting in the next week or two. At this point, our plan is to start at the end of August or right after Labor Day (one of the benefits of private homeschooling!). We have most of our books, but we are waiting for this one last book to arrive. Just got an e-mail that it should arrive just in time for us to start. We have already gone through the first three books in this series and I have been waiting for this fourth book to be published and ready.

Mexico countdown

And I can’t believe that when I first started the countdown for our Compassion trip, the number was 203 days! Matthew’s passport arrived yesterday and I am still making things to fundraise for our trip. Take a peek at my Facebook page, you might find something you like!

Happy Friday, enjoy this summer day, and have a great weekend!

Capture Your 365…or not

Usually on Wednesdays, I share with you a week worth of photos that I have taken from the Capture Your 365 photo prompts. Well, the past couple of weeks have been crazily (not sure if  that is a real word or not, but it fits!) busy and I did not take any pictures with my Nikon! Tragic, I know! What was I doing you might ask?

homeschool conference

I was able to set up a Compassion table for two days at our local homeschool conference and we found sponsors for three kids! In addition to hanging out at the table for two days and talking with a lot of people, I presented a workshop on the this title, “How One Mom Transitioned from Career Mom to Homeschool Mom”. This was my second time speaking at this conference, but the first time speaking on this topic. The topic is very personal to me because I was that career mom many years ago. Once I have time to enjoy some of my summer, I might just share with you some of what I shared in my workshop.

Spirit West Coast

The other event that keep me busy and away from home was three days at Spirit West Coast in Monterey. I could have taken some pictures with my Nikon at this event, but my focus was on finding sponsors for a lot of Compassion kids. Once I arrived home on Saturday night, I did learn that 165 children were sponsored over those three days! Praise God!

So I finally printed out my August list of prompts and will do my best to share a set of photos with you next week. In the meantime, why don’t you print out the August list and join me for some photo fun?

Watching God work

Last week, I was able to spend three amazing (cold!) days at Spirit West Coast with some of the most wonderful Compassion advocates around.

Spirit West Coast crew

On Friday night, a few of us were standing among the crowd waiting for Bob Lenz to come on stage to speak. (Actually, they were all waiting for Thousand Foot Krutch to come on stage, but that is beside the point.) There were a few technical difficulties and Bob ended up having 5 minutes to give his 30 minute talk. But Bob is so great at what he does, he made all the right points that he needed to make. Then we started walking through the crowd, handing child packets to anyone who raised their hand. I handed a child packet to one young lady and she looked at the child’s birth date and said, “Wow, that is my birth date!” I told her to hang onto the packet, pray about it that night, and if she decided to sponsor the child, come by one of the Compassion tables the next day.

Saturday afternoon, Scott (our fearless leader!) gathered all of us to pray for the day and for God to bring the people to sponsor the children that He knew needed to be sponsored that day. Not too long after this, the young lady I had handed the child packet to came by the booth!

new Compassion sponsor

Jessie decided to sponsor little Jose in El Salvador!

I didn’t know when Jessie’s birthday was when I handed her that child packet, but God did. And He knew that Jessie was just the right person to sponsor little Jose. I will be praying for both of them as they begin this wonderful relationship together through Compassion.

What about you? Would you like to sponsor a child who shares your birthday? You don’t have to wait for someone to hand you a child packet at a concert, you can start your search today on the Compassion web site. You have the chance to make a difference in the life of a child living in extreme poverty today. Don’t wait, your Jose may be waiting for you.

Compassion Hunt

Have you been able to participate in Compassion’s Photo Scavenger Hunt?

Here are the photos I was able to capture and share on my Instagram account:

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This has been a fun scavenger hunt to participate in and I hope you enjoyed my photos! But if you are not currently sponsoring a child through Compassion, would you consider looking through photos of children who are waiting to be sponsored?