Release 3

Have you ever thought about the small things you do each day that might change someone's life forever? A simple smile, holding the door open, paying it forward in the drive through lane. These are simple things we can do in our everyday lives to make a difference in someone's life. But have you ever thought about doing something to make an eternal difference in someone's life?

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. - Proverbs 31:8

This month, I am advocating for three Compassion children as part of Compassion's Release 3 program. During the month of October, sponsors and advocates have the opportunity to pray for and try to find sponsors for three children that have been uniquely assigned to them. Let me introduce you to the three children that have been assigned to me:

This is Katerin. She lives in El Salvador with her family where she is responsible for running errands and cleaning. She also likes to play with dolls.

Richmond lives in Ghana with his grandfather. Richmond helps at home by carrying water and he enjoys playing soccer.

Arjun lives in India with his family. He works at home by running errands and he likes to play with friends.

Each of these children is currently waiting for a sponsor. Someone like you who will love them, pray for them, and encourage them as they grow up, learning more about Jesus from their local church and from you. As a sponsor, you have the opportunity to send them letters, reminding them that they are created in the image of God, and that He loves them very much.

Sponsoring a child has been such a life changing experience for me. There are things I am willing to go without in order for us to be able to sponsor children through Compassion. This life is temporary, heaven is eternal. Knowing that we are making an eternal difference in the lives of these children gives me more joy than any temporary thing here on earth.

Are you ready to take that step to be a sponsor? Comment below and I can get you started on your sponsorship journey today to help release one of these children from poverty in Jesus' name!

September Compassion Share & Tell

Blogging is taking a back seat in my life right now. So many things going on in real life...school started, volunteering a lot of Compassion events, a big sewing project, and a big baking project! Phew!

But I don't want to miss out on sharing with you what I wrote to my sponsored children this month. I was hoping to put together a few Christmas items to mail to the kids, but I will have to put that together in a couple of weeks once these crazy few weeks have passed.

Anyway, I decided to write my letters online this month and quickly share what I have been doing during my Bible time. Here is one of the letters:

Compassion makes it so easy to write to your child online. Once I had signed into my account and had written the first letter, it was really quick and easy to have letters sent to my other Compassion children. Since I was sending the same letter to each child, I was able to duplicate the letter, just change the name and template, and click send. It really is that easy!

When was the last time you wrote to your Compassion child? Has it been a while? If it has, I encourage you to log into your account and write to your sponsored child right now. These children love getting letters from you. They are encouraged by your words and your prayers.

Not sponsoring a child yet? For $38 a month, you can choose to be a blessing to a child. I pray you choose to make a difference today.

My Empty Shelf Challenge Update #2

Wow! I just checked to see when I did my last Empty Shelf Challenge Update, and it was back in March! At that time, I had finished reading 12 books. My goal for this year was to read at least two books a month, for a total of 24 books for the year.

So how am I doing? Since March, here are the books I have finished reading:

• Mission Drift by Peter Greer
• The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle
• Esther by Beth Moore
• How People Change by Timothy Lane
• Dancing with My Father by Sally Clarkson
• The Beauty of Broken by Elisa Morgan
• Hope Rising by Scott Todd
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Rhinestone Jesus by Kristen Welch
• Chasing Francis by Ian Cron
• The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Radical by David Platt
• Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman
• Me, Myself, & Bob by Phil Vischer
• Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman

Well, since the end of March, I have read 16 books, which brings my total to 28 books for the year! Woo hoo! Guess I should have upped by goal a bit.

Of course, this does not mean that I am going to stop reading for the year, that just wouldn't be right. So you might be thinking, what is in my book pile right now? Glad you asked:

I pulled out our copy of Operation World, so I can really start learning more and praying for the countries where our Compassion sponsored children live. Not really sure if I will read the whole book (it is a really thick one!), but I am thankful for resources like this one.

The Time Machine and I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist are books for our upcoming school year (which we plan on starting next week). And The Best Yes and You and Me Forever are books for me to read and learn from.

Hey, do you have a Goodreads account? If so, you can find me there and follow along to see what books I am reading next.

I would love for you to share what books are in your book pile. Won't you share them in the comments below?

Back to School with Compassion

One thing I have been learning as a Compassion sponsor and advocate is a better sense of geography!

And I don't feel bad admitting this, because we learned at the Experience Compassion Conference at the end of June, that even Scott Todd didn't know where the Dominican Republic was when he became a Compassion sponsor in college.

As Compassion sponsors, I believe one way we can build a better relationship with our sponsored children is to learn more about the country where our sponsored children live. Compassion's web site has a Where We Work link with access to help us learn more about each of the 26 countries where Compassion is currently working to release children from poverty in Jesus' name.

So I want to challenge you to earn a gold star!! Do a little research and tell me the following in the comments below:

1. What is your sponsored child's name and what country do they live in? You would be surprised the number of times I ask people where their sponsored child lives and they can't tell me!
2. What is the capital of the country where your sponsored child lives?
3. Tell me one unique fact about the country where your sponsored child lives.

See this book? If you answer all three questions above, you will earn three gold stars! Each gold star gives you a chance to win this amazing book, Too Small to Ignore, by Dr. Wess Stafford. 

But in order to be eligible, you must leave your comment prior to Thursday, September 4th at noon Pacific time. Winner will be notified by e-mail, so please leave your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner.

Tackle It on Tuesday: The Craft Room

I have a love/hate relationship with my craft room. What a blessing it is to have the space in our home to have a room dedicated to be filled with many craft supplies, tools, and books to complete the many craft projects that I love to work on.

But unfortunately, I am a Queen of Unfinished Projects! Which leads to piles of projects all over this room, well, because there is room in there to pile them up! Since our trip to Mexico in January, I have really been thinking about how much unused stuff we have in our home.

I love to cook and bake, but when I have two shelves of cookbooks in my home that I haven't used in years, should I keep them?

And as much as I love to sew, do I really need to buy all those patterns just because they were a dollar each? I mean really, how many jumper patterns for little girls does one mom need?

In all of my decluttering tasks, I found these treasures that were printed at least two years ago. Rather than enjoying these photos of my children up on my wall, these have been hiding in one of many piles in my craft room. Really sad, isn't it...

Now don't get me wrong, I do really love my craft room. Knowing that I can go in there and find craft paint, felt, scrap fabric, and many other craft supplies keeps me out of the store spending money that I shouldn't be spending. But when I look at the piles of projects that have not been finished, or some even started, it makes me uncomfortable. As my daughter would say, that money could have been spent on a Compassion child. 

Thankfully, most of the items I have been clearing out of my craft room are still in really good condition, and I am hoping to sell a lot of stuff at an upcoming yard sale with the money to be used toward my upcoming trip with Compassion to Colombia. 

So what am I going to tackle this upcoming week? Getting those precious photos matted, framed, and hung up on the wall, so I can enjoy the blessings that God has given me here.

What will you be tackling this week?