“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land”
Deuteronomy 15:11
Her name is Maria Jose Suarez Garcia. She came into my life the summer of 2009. I was sitting on the lawn at Atlanta Fest while watching the local band play on stage but trying frantically to fan myself in the 97 degree weather. Looking behind me, I noticed a shady tent full of stands that people were casually browsing. I assumed that, like me, these browsers were just trying to escape the heat. At a steady pace, the “same old same old” was on display: T-shirts, CDs, college advertisements, and key chains. Everything looked pretty ordinary, until I saw her. Well first, I mean, I saw them. Hundreds of children’s faces on their information sheets begging for someone to pick them up and look at them. I questionably picked up a profile and glanced up at the banner. “Compassion: Sponsor A Child.” My heart was beating faster as it reached out to those children who lived in such terrible poverty around the world. What could I do? I had wanted to be a part of this new and intriguing thing so badly. A local volunteer came over in response to my puzzled look at explained to me that I could choose a child and pay $38 a month to help change their life. From that moment on, something was tugging on my heart.
I ended up sitting back down wanting to think and pray more about what was just presented to me. Before I knew it, the audiences focus was on a big screen set up on stage where a video about sponsoring children through Compassion was shown. I think it brought awareness to the whole crowd, because very soon a sea of people crowded around the Compassion table to ask questions and search around. In America, we are very fortunate, and it wasn’t until I saw this video that I truly realized how blessed I am. These poor, helpless children live in homemade shacks where water is an adventure in itself each day. Diseases attack these children, and their parents are left with no job making it difficult to support a family. Even an apple was a feast to them. An apple..something so simple..something that I decorate my house with. I then understood that that tugging feeling in my heart was in reality an answer to my pray. It only took one video to understand that a 15-year old, like me, could simply respond to the cry of a hungry child somewhere in this world.
Round Two. I was making my second trip up the shady tent and back to that table with hundreds of children’s profiles waiting. In less than a minute of reading the profiles, a little 6-year old girl in a bright green dress captured my heart that day. In fact, the volunteer looked at me and said, “There should be more kids like you.” She was the most precious thing to me, and I knew that I could sponsor her until she was 18. So that’s what I did and still do. Every month, I pay $38 for Maria to attend school and church, eat healthy meals, drink clean water, and even go to a doctor if needed. In my closest, I have pictures of her as she grows up every year and pictures that she has colored me all the way from her home in Colombia. Even though I’ve never met her in person, I love her because she is a girl in this world just like me who deserves to have a life at peace. She is my sister in Christ, and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to give some of the money I make through tutoring kids to her.
Sponsoring a child is one of the biggest rewards I have ever gotten in life. I know that one day when she is old enough, I will get the opportunity to write more personal letters and meet her in person. It taught me that in this life, we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. It all begins with that tugging feeling on your heart, and end with touching someone, just like you, in every remarkable way possible. Love is what brings everyone in this world together.
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