El Salvador Day 1

WOW!

We got up at 4 this morning to get ready and head to the airport and we landed in San Salvador around 12:30 today. We had a great trip. We were met by two sweet ladies who work for the Compassion office here. They took us about 45 minutes away and we ate lunch. It was SO good. Then we headed to the Compassion office.
We spent the afternoon there and met with all the different teams who told us about Compassion in detail and how it works. I was told so many statistics and so many amazing things and I wrote them all down and wanted to share those with you. At one point I got overwhelmed because there is just so much to share.

A street corner market

Our team eating lunch

Going into the Compassion office

I realized that what I REALLY want to share with you is that Compassion is such an AMAZING organization. I've known about Compassion since college. I've sponsored a child for about two years. But today I realized that there is SO much more to compassion than just giving $38 a month to help a child go to school and be fed and taken care of. SO much more.

So much that I pretty much cried the entire time we were in the office today. I couldn't stop. Shaun was laughing at me and saying "Kelly - this is just the office. You realize we haven't even seen the kids yet". Yeah - I'm probably going to need valium and a box of kleenex by tomorrow.

I was just so overwhelmed with all the neat things Compassion is doing and how people like you and me can REALLY make a difference in the world. What I was impressed by the most is that every person we met today from the Director of the office to the administrative assistants - they just GLOWED with joy. When they talked about the work they were doing - seriously - they lit up from the inside. I've never seen anyone smile and be so incredibly happy describing their "job".

We learned about the three different aspects of Compassion and we are going to be seeing each of these in action over the next few days. I already knew about sponsoring a child but there is also something called CSP (Child Survival Program) that touched me incredibly! This is a program for mothers and babies up until school age. Maybe it's because I'm a new mother - but as a doctor who is on staff described the things they are doing to help the welfare of these mothers and babies - I was SO overcome with emotion. I'll tell you more about that on Wednesday after we visit one of these programs. (I'm afraid my blogs are going to be novel length this week because there is so much I want to tell you about).

I think this slide sums up one of the reasons that Compassion is so wonderful. In El Salvador alone - there are 35,000 children involved. About 20% of these children still need sponsors. But if you look at this slide - 86% of children accept Jesus as their Saviour between the ages of 3 and 12. Isn't that AWESOME?

El Salvador was just hit by a hurricane and is in a state of emergency and Compassion has already been working to help. They have given food and clothing and shelter to families. Compassion has emergency funds that they use to help countries that are hit where they have children sponsored. I think this is so great. They are also teaching families here to grow corn and raise chickens and be more self sufficient.

One of the happiest workers at compassion was showing us the letters that the children write along with the letters sponsors write to their children. They handle all of this in the office. I got choked up once again as they told us that some of these kids aren't shown love at home and the letters that sponsors write them mean so much to them. It shows them that someone loves them and cares.

A whole bunch of letters from children waiting to be mailed out to their sponsors.

Yes - it doesn't take much to find a way to sacrifice $38 a month to sponsor a child. One less meal out each month, one less Sonic drink or Starbucks each day, one less new shirt that month. For $38 - you can help change a child's life by making sure they are well fed, clothed, sent to school and told about Jesus.

But Compassion is SO much more than that. It's not just changing a child's life. It's changing a generation. It's changing a nation. It's changing the world.

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