I Have A Bible.

 Hi my name is Maimouna. I am 5 yrs old. I have a Bible! 

See. . .  when I was little I was hungry a lot. My father and mother would worry all the time for me and my brother and sister. She mother would cry and I wouldn't know why. I would wonder if it was because of me. 

I didn't go to school. I would help with my baby brother at home. One day when I was going to the market for my mom a nice lady told me that there was a church that could help me. She said her daughter was going  to the church and received a  meal when she went. She said the nice people at the church would help her learn school and teach her about a man named Jesus. She said her daughters favorite part of all that the church did for her was give her letters from a person they called a sponsor.She loved her sponsor.

I ran home and told my mom all that the lady told me! I wanted to go to the church the next day! Mama thought is was a great idea too. The next day we went to the church and Mama answered some questions about me. They took a picture of me! It was the first time I had ever had my picture taken! 

I went to the church once a week. I made lots of new friends, and I learned a lot too! They told me about a man named Jesus. They told me He loves me! I liked that. It made me feel special.  

One day when I came into the project, that is what the church in called one of the ladies told me I had a sponsor!!

I was so excited! I was going to get letters like the other kids!! I learned I was sponsored by a family in America! I had heard about America but now I was going to get letters from America! 

I waited and wrote letters to them.  . . . I turned 7 and had never got a letter.  I wondered why. I wondered if I wasn't pretty enough. I smiled in the new picture, but still no letter. 

I had started to not care about letter days. I thought I would never get a letter. I was talking to my friend while the other kids had their names called to come get their letter on letter day. Then I thought I heard my , name! "Maimouna, you have a letter." I let out a shout! I ran to get my letter! I read it and read it! It was so special. I learned a lot about my sponsor! I learned they had three kids, and the youngest one had MY birthday! 

When I showed my Mom she was excited for me! Then I noticed something. My mom was not a sad anymore. She had not been as worried the past few weeks. I think it is because of my sponsor. 

My sponsors write me now! I wonder why they waited so long. I think they started writing because of Jesus! I know He loves me when I get letters. 

The project gave me a bible! It is my families only bible.  My family and I read it every night. I like my bible because I can bring it home and let my family read about what I learn about at the project. I love my sponsor. . . and I love my bible. 

...........................................................................................................

This story is only half true. There is 5 yr old girl in Burkina Faso.

Her name is Maimouna. 

The only thing is she hasn't got a sponsor yet. She hasn't received a letter. She is still watching children get letters while she waits. She has waited. . . and waited. . . She has waited almost a year now. Will you end her wait? Will you show her His love? I believe you will NEVER regret it! 

To learn more about or sponsor Maimouna please click here. To look at other children click here.

All for Him,

Thank You, LORD!

Dear God,
       Lord, You did something in my heart. You moved me to action! God, you gave me a desire to touch lives for YOUR glory! I am so thankful!
               When mom told me I should sponsor and she would help it was ALL You! Lord, without You I wouldn't have my sweet Jazzy, Reggi, or Aster. Lord, You ARE changing my life through these girls! LORD, you showed your Sovereignty in placing me with each one of these girls! They are not mine. They are YOURS. You just bless me through them. You allow me to tell them of Your amazing love for them. I am so honored. LORD, as I tell them Your love for them I realize more Your love for me. It brings me to my knees. LORD,  fill me even more with a desire to spread Your love. Never let it burn out. Help me never to go numb to the hurting in this world. I want to bring you glory!
             I am so unworthy of Your unfailing, unconditional love for me! Lord, I thank you! I thank you for these precious girls You've put in my life! I thank You for their sweet letters! I thank You for their sweet love and hugs they are always sending. Lord, I can't even thank you enough! I LOVE YOU!! In Jesus name,

Amen


Compassion International. . .  SHOW HIS LOVE.

This Thing that I Love.

For a while now I have been blogging about "Compassion"  and how God has changed my life through this awesome organization. If you have ever read my blog ( or even my blog title) you know it is a huge blessing to me and my family.

Well, there is this cool thing going on this month called "Compassion Blogger Month" . There is a lot of cool things I could win and stuff but that doesn't even matter. Our goal for this month is for this month is to get 3,108 children sponsored. I know we can do this.
                                                                        
            God is Sovereign!! 

With his help we could get 15,000 children sponsored!! He loves these children more than we ever could even imagine. He cares for them! They are HIS

So what I want to ask you to do is to just go look! Go look at their faces! Look at there beautiful faces, and see Jesus! Through Christ blood on the cross God sees Jesus when He looks at them! 

He sees Jesus when He looks at us! All of us! YOU! They need to know that!! They need to know someone LOVES them! Will you tell them?  Just. . . . . 

                                                             LOOK.

All for Him,

Please Pray for this little Guy!

Well school started Monday at our house. I am a highschooler! It is going awesome! I really love my science!

Anyway that is not what I am blogging about. . .

Our youth group sponsors a little boy. His name is Holito, and he is from the Philippines. One of the college guys in our youth group (Dustin) sponsors him, in his name and writes him. Everyone tries to give at least a dollar a month and that pays for him. If any of us want to write Holito we can because he knows he is sponsored by a group. :)

Isn't he cute handsome?!? 

A few weeks ago Dustin  had an update to share with GPS ( Gracepoint Students) about our buddy Holito. He had received another letter from Holito's mom. She shared that they just found out that little Holito has a heart disease. :( Our hearts are so sad and we pray God heals him. One of the things our youth pastor shares about a lot is how "God is sovereign!". We have to know that God has this in his hands along with everything else ever! He loves Holito more then we ever can. 

I ask you to pray for Holito. Please pray that if it is God's sovereign will that He will touch and heal little Holito. That he would be healed completely of this heart disease. That He would use this sweet boys story, which God is the author of 

            for His awesome glory! Pray that God's peace that only He can give will be with this family.

 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

                                 

                                               All for Him,

                                                         

From: Ethiopia!!

About a week ago I received my very first letter from my Aster from Ethiopia!! I am so excited about this African Princess! She is so sweet . . . I can tell. :) 

The letter is a fill in the blank so there really isn't a full letter. . . I learned a lot about this sweet girl though!!

Aster lives with both her parents. She has one sister named Sheuase. Aster's favorite game is pretending. :) In school she is best in English. Her favorite pet is a cat, and her favorite color is red.  Her favorite bible story is about Jesus. I guess that means all with Jesus in it. :) She likes Christmas. She said she likes to learn, and she wants to be a teacher that means two of my girls want to be teachers and one wants to be a doctor. 

Beautiful girl! 

I love this girl already!I can't wait to get to know her even more!These girls are changing my life! 

Sponsor a child and change a life!

All For Him,

A Changed Future!

For those of you who don't know, "Student Life" works with Compassion International to promote sponsorship and release children from poverty. They get a few Compassion LDP , (Leadership Development Program) students from Kenya and fly them to the states. At each of the camps a student will share their story and help work the Compassion table. :) 

Maureen (side bar), my sister from Kenya came to the states for SL back in the Summer of  2010. That was before we knew her. :(  Mandi met Maureen, on her trip to Kenya in the fall of that year. -_-

I knew I would meet a LDP student at camp. That was one of the reasons I really wanted to go to a SL camp in the first place. Well my mom was SO excited that I was going to meet a LDP student ( I was pretty stoked too!) she found out who was going to be at my camp, found him on Facebook, and sent him a messege telling him I would be there. Oh my mom. . . I love her! :) 

Tony was who would be there at my camp. The first night of camp after worship I walked over to the Compassion table and looked at the beautiful faces. The guy at the table looked Kenyan and this is how are conversation went. . .  " Hi, are you Tony?". . . "Yes." . . . " Hi, I'm Lysa". . . " OH! Is your mom the one who sent me a messege on Facebook?!" . . ." haha. .Yeah that is my mom!" . . .  " She was so excited you were coming" . . .  " Oh yes!" 

It was so funny!! 

It was great getting to know him.  

 Tony grew up in a slum in Nairobi with his mom and two siblings. His dad died when he was very young. He is the youngest of the three children. In Kenya women without husbands and have kids are looked down on. Tony's family needed a place to live and sometimes their own family would not let them stay with them.

They were able to rent a little house in the slum ( a hut). One of the things he said that almost made me cry ( It takes a lot to make me cry. BTW) was that his mom would have nothing to eat for dinner, but she would not want to tell the kids so she would put water on to boil and act like she was cooking and just wait for the kids to fall asleep. Tony said the next morning he would realize they never ate. 

One day when Tony was walking on street a guy told him he should go to the church and they will give free food. It was the day Compassion was registering kids! He would go to the project a few times a week and hear about God and how He loves him. He would get a meal and medical care.  Then one day, when Tony was a teen he came home from school and his mom had died. :( The children were older and able to care for themself but it was hard for them I am sure. 

Because God intervened through Compassion, Tony now has a degree in finance and accounting!! How AWESOME is that?!? 

YOU can do that! You can change a life for Christ! You can make a difference! Sponsor a child! 

It is amazing what God has done and is doing in Tony's life! I am so thankful I was able to meet him and get to know him over that week! 

All for Him,

This girl!

This is Chanley! 

Chanley is one of my sweet 2 yr olds from the CDA. ( Read the last post :) 

We first met all the kids the first day on the playground. Chanley and a few of the other kids kept picking up sticks and little acorn things and would bring them to me and Katie and say " Popcorn" . Then we would play along and pretend to eat it and they would laugh and giggle. :) It was super cute! 

I love all the kids but I got more attached to Chanley then any of the other kids because she got more attached to me then any of the other kids.<3  After the end of the first day Chanley knew my name but she would say. . " What your name?"  then I would say, laughing " You silly girl. You know my name." . She would laugh and the say " Alyssa! " . She wanted attention. :)

 The end of the second day Katie and I were giving the kids hugs bye. When I got to Chanley she grabbed both my hand, looked with her pretty brown eyes and said " Don't go home".  I told her had to and that I loved her and would be back tomorrow. I wanted to stay though! 

:) 

By the time the next day came I was ready to get hugs from Chanley and the others! We got there and as we were getting out of the van a little voice piped up and said " Hi!". It was Chanley with her head poked out of her car! :) She ran and gave Katie and I hug and then went inside. It was SO sweet!

That day was water day! The kids got their swim suits on and went to the water arch thingies they had behind the building. I didn't know it was water day so I was in jeans and a shirt. I played with the kids any way! I love them to much to just let them play without me. :) Chanley would grab my arm and say " Come on!" as she pulled me through the water arches. It was so fun. I played with all the other sweet kids but none were as excited as Chanley! We all had a blast! 

Chanley with my glasses on. :)

Pretty girl!! 

I was having having a great time with the kids,but I knew in the back of my mind I would have to say goodbye soon. When it came time to say goodbye I gave all the kids hugs, told them they were special and that I loved them. I longed to tell them God loved them. . . all three days I longed to tell them, but it was against rules to talk about any religion or use the name Jesus or God there, and I didn't want to make Jesus loving people ( who we told them we were/ who we are ) look bad by breaking rules.

When I got to Chanley she held her hands out for me to hold he. I picked her up and she said it again . . " Don't go home. " I was on the brink of crying. Again I told her I had to and that I love her so much! Then she said "I want to come to your house!" . WOW!! The fact that she had only known me for two days, but wanted to come home with me hit me hard. She is only two but she wants to leave her family to come to my house!?! 

All kids want, is to be loved. Chanley showed me that. We want affection. That is just how God made all of us. You can show love to a child that may not see it. . . You can show them the greatest love ever. . . You can show them the LOVE of Christ. It is so deep. It is so awesome! He LOVES us!! 

Sponsor a child and SHOW LOVE! 

All for Him,