30,000

These are not my words, but I thought that they were too good not to share... Thirty thousand. That number could be considered huge or quite small, depending on your perspective. If you are talking about population, that is the size a small town. In regard to time, 30,000 seconds is actually only a little over eight hours. Thirty thousand grains of sand wouldn't get you very far in building a sand castle. However, if you received a $30,000 raise, you might go out and celebrate. But here's another perspective: 30,000 is the number of children under age 5 who die every day from a preventable cause. That's right every day. That's like 30 large elementary schools disappearing from the face of the earth on Monday and again on Tuesday and so on weekends, too.

What's stealing the future from so many children? It's not some mysterious plague or natural disaster. We're talking about things like malaria, diarrhea, measles and unclean water. What's unconscionable is that nearly every one of those deaths could be prevented for as little as $1 per child. Yes, we have issues in our city that monopolize the news, like the rising cost of housing, local politics and traffic delays. But we rarely hear about something as devastating as tens of thousands of children dying in suffering every day as we go about our daily routines.

It's time we started demanding more of ourselves. I would like to urge readers of this newspaper to educate themselves beyond the issues within our borders. Find out what's going on in the rest of the world and then take a step to do something about it. A good place to start is compassion.com/youcan. There are practical ways we can all get involved in the fight against poverty. Thirty thousand. What does that number mean to you now?

Thanks Giving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Ever since I started sponsoring I got a huge look into what poverty is. I have a whole different view of life now. At the store I think do I HAVE to have this? I could feed this many kids instead. My friends all think I'm nuts ;) But seriously,  I do have a whole new outlook on life. This year I am much more thankful than before. I think of little Varsha, she is living in a small tent in the slums of India. She is extremely poor. If you are blessed enough to get jobs in her village, then you make around $8 a month. I started sponsoring her when she was 4, and at the time she had to clean, run errands, and take care of kids (probably her brother) She is beautiful and perfect in my eyes. She does have 6 toes, so I'm sure she may get looked down on by many people, but she is perfect to me. Then I think of dear Sabitha. She was 10 when I started sponsoring her. Her mother, up until recently, was deaf since birth. Imagine being a young girl with many struggles already, then having a mom who can't hear. Sure you can sign to her, but it's not the same. Then I think of my 2-3 kiddos who are fatherless. They are in extreme poverty, plus they have no dad. Their burden must be a lot heavier. I think of all of the people all over who have to walk miles for water. Dirty water that could kill them. I think of all of the people who have died just while I write this, just because they don't have enough food. I think of the people who can't even afford to have clothes, let alone food. I think of the girls who are forced into marriage at a young age, even as young as one year old, to either someone their age or someone 5 times their age. Why? because of poverty. Why? Because of a lack of education. Do you know how many people would give all they had to have the education of my youngest brother Levi? Up until I started sponsoring I hated school. I didn't care about my grades, as long as I passed. I think of the people in America who struggle too. Of the hurting people all around us. I have a MUCH different outlook on life now. So to sum it all up, I am thankful for my life. I'm thankful for everything, even the little things. I'm thankful for everything I take for granted, even something as simple as a spoon. I NEVER want to be unthankful about ANYTHING again. May God bless everyone this Thanksgiving!

New kiddo!

I'm getting another correspondent buddy! Can you guess the gender and country that he/she will be from? It's as big of a secret to me as it is to you. I'm guessing a female from Rwanda. Comment your guess!

Mail time!

Little Emerson (age 8) from Haiti sent me a letter and this adorable picture ❤️

I want to help but I don't have the money....

Imagine, you are a young boy or girl, you have a sponsor somewhere across the world. It's mail day today and you are sooo excited! You have never gotten a letter from your sponsor before, but you feel like today is the day your letter will come. You have written many letters but never gotten one back. You fly through the day all excited! The time has arrived... you sit waiting for your name to be called. You are getting worried because there's only 5 letters left and your name hasn't been called yet. 4 letters left now. 3, 2, 1. Your name wasn't called. Everyone got a letter except you and three other kids. You wonder does my sponsor love me? Does He care? He must not think I'm worth writing to. So you do the unthinkable.. you quit the program! You are tired of feeling unloved or worthless. Want to know something sad? That story is very true for many kids. They may not all drop out, but they feel like they aren't even important enough for you to send a quick note. I know you get busy, but your letters mean more to these kids than you could possibly know! You don't have the money to sponsor? That's ok because this is 100% FREE! It costs you nothing but your time. If you are willing to become a child correspondent, you will receive a child who has a sponsor, but their sponsor doesn't write to them. All you HAVE to do is write the child three letters a year. In return, you will receive the child's information, letters from that child, pictures, and you will make a huge impact on that child's life! I said you only have to write 3 times a year, but it would be nice to write more. I sometimes write once a day, but I usually try to write once a week. I know time doesn't let that happen for most of you, but you can never send too many letters! I just got a letter from my 8 year old Haitian boy "Emerson" He told me that he wants to be a police officer when he grows up. He drew me a very cute picture! I also correspond to Juma, Olivier, Stessie, and Uwantege. Counting my girls that's a total of 8. They are ALL my brothers and sisters. Sure we aren't blood related, but what does that matter? If you want to make a difference in a child's life, but don't have the money to sponsor, I really think that you should do this. It's amazing! These kids are my friends, my family. Not good at writing letters? It doesn't matter! Compassion gives great letter writing tips online! You don't have to be good to make a child feel loved. Seriously, I am not very good sometimes, and sometimes I have no idea what to say! But even just a quick note saying you are praying for them and you love them can change their lives. If you would like some tips or have questions, feel free to comment. Have a great day! God bless

My Journey begins

My name is Anna. I am a normal 15 year old teen with not so normal dreams. So for a while I had wanted to sponsor a child. Truth is, I was selfish. Plain and simple. My reasons for not sponsoring included: that's a lot of money, and I don't have a lot of money. I have things I need to buy. If it's something you want, you find the money to buy it. Ok I understand there's a lot of people who really don't have the money to sponsor, and that's ok. I'm just talking to myself. Lol so I was scrolling through my facebook and saw that my friend Rebekah had sponsored another child through compassion international. I hadn't been thinking of sponsoring for a while, but when I saw her post I decided that I was the most selfish person alive. I didn't care what I needed to do, I AM going to sponsor a child. Here's a little side note to current sponsors, I really advise you to post on facebook, twitter, Instagram, where ever about your sponsor child. Tell your friends! If it wasn't for Rebekah I wouldn't be where I'm at today. So I got on compassion international and searched kids from India. I have an extreme love for Indian people, so I decided to sponsor kids from India. I was looking through their pictures and saw all of their little faces. I prayed for God to show me the right one. I came to little Sabitha (Sà-bee-ta) I was in love with her, but needed to be sure. I scrolled passed to maybe  3 other kids,  and knew I had to sponsor her. I went to sponsor her and it said she was taken. I was CRUSHED!!! I felt for sure at that point she was the girl I was supposed to sponsor, at that point. I prayed for God's will to be done. The next morning I got up,  and found that she hadn't been sponsored! The person must have changed their mind. I loved her soo much! I was so happy. It was one of the best choices ever! I loved sponsoring soo much that I decided to try to find sponsors for other kids. I got the impression that most people didn't care, but I still tried. Well, scrolling through kids to post to find sponsors, I saw sweet little varsha sree (varshà shree)  I fell in love and wanted to sponsor her soooo bad! I didn't have the money though. I saw a post that said God's will God's bill. I saw her a few days later and said ok God I'll do this but I need two more yards to clean so I can have the money. God made that little girl stay on my mind the whole morning. She's like almost the only thing I thought about. So I said ok God I'll trust you! My little 5 year old Indian princess is the joy of my life ❤️ A few weeks later I was seeing that because of me these two girls had a chance at life. They could break free of poverty because of ME. I counted up all the money I had and saw I could support another child through the winter. So I got little Akshitha. My 3 year old rose bud. She is a beautiful little Indian girl ❤️ Sure I have had to give up some things, but I would give up everything for these girls! They are my little sisters ❤️ People say "Anna you are so great for what you do!" But guess what, I'm not! I'm obeying Jesus. He said to care for the least of these, so that's what I'm doing. I can't explain it, but I'm getting as much out of it as they are. Sure they are getting medical help, food, etc. but I'm getting to watch these girls grow up, get their letters, know that dear Sabitha is praying for me. You will NEVER understand how amazing sponsoring is, unless you do it. Remember, you can usually find money for what you want. Things don't last, people do. Follow me on my journey through child sponsorship. I'd love to hear your stories!