Monday, January 5, 2015

Day of Compassion

Recipe for pure joy:  10 Compassion sponsored children + their sponsors + an Ethiopian amusement park.  Add a heaping portion of love and mix well.  Sprinkle with hugs and smiles.

What a fun day!  We met the first sponsored young lady, Hiwot, at her Compassion project.  We heard the details of the work there from the project director.  He was so organized-numbers of children in the program, number that have attended university and vocational school, number that are self-supporting, etc.  I believe he said that 84% of the children from their first 20 years of this ministry are self-supporting!  We got to meet several of the graduates from the program, successful adults who came along for the day to translate for us.

Then, we headed to the amusement park to meet the rest of the sponsored children, several of whom had traveled a long distance from their homes to Addis to be part of this special day.  Excitement was running high as we each anticipated meeting the child (or children) with whom we have corresponded and for whom we have prayed.  What a special moment!  Lots of gasps and exclamations from the sponsors, smiles from the children.  Some were shy at first, of course.  So many firsts for them, and they were definitely the celebrities of the day.

Things just kept getting better and better-smiles and hugs and photos turned into riding a merry go round and a ferris wheel and giant swings, sliding down a big inflatable slide, and even playing arcade games.  I bet it felt like waking up in a fairy tale.  It was awesome to watch the joy on the faces and see the kids relax and have fun.

Simon and Fillmon, 2 brothers, got to play and maybe for a little while, stop worrying about their mother who is in the hospital with "blood cancer."

Kalkidan, a beautiful four year old, loved playing the princess role.  She was so animated and expressive.

Yosef had been waiting on a sponsor for almost a year.  He just found out last week that he has a sponsor, and then found out today that he was going to meet her!

Setena, a beautiful 16 year old girl is in university prep classes with dreams of becoming a doctor.  Today she was able to meet an American doctor who gave her advice and encouragement.

Habtamu was extremely shy until he saw a soccer ball.  He even gave his sponsor a couple of kisses by the end of the day.

We ate lunch together at the restaurant there, probably another big first.  We had pizza and burgers and drank soda-what kid wouldn't love that?  To top it off, there was a bag of gifts for each child: toys, candy, clothes, toothbrushes, school supplies.

This day will be long remembered by everyone who participated.  And the sponsors know for sure today that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow, black, and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

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