Thursday, January 28, 2010

God Just Called To Say I Love You

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I caught tiny bits of a sermon on the radio the other day that captured my attention. I didn't hear the whole story, in fact, I heard less than two minutes of the sermon in total... but I heard enough to understand the message.

Have you ever had someone call or write to you for no other reason than to say "I just wanted you to know that you are loved..."? I think we've all been the recipients of those messages at one point or another. It gives me the warm fuzzies -- kind of like being wrapped in God's fleece.



I've been thinking about how God does this for me every day. It's in the little things He shows me or does for me that make me smile and say "That was a God thing!" or "God, I feel You near, I am humbled to know You did this for me..."


That's Him, sending me a little love note, just to show me that I'm loved. He certainly doesn't have to, but the thought that He wants to... brings me to my knees. How great is He?!




It doesn't have to be extravagant or complicated... sometimes, the simplest ones are the sweetest.




I saw His love for me expressed in a sweet way yesterday. I had received word that two of our Compassion girls, Emily & Martha, would no longer be part of the Compassion sponsorship program.

Emily's family moved outside of the area that Compassion serves, making it impossible for her to attend.


Martha has stopped coming to the Compassion center, and all the efforts of the Compassion staff to counsel, advise, and encourage her to return have not been fruitful.




I will be honest, my heart is heavy. The relationship we have built with these girls over the course of the last few years have made the end of these sponsorships very sad, but the Lord we serve wouldn't allow this to happen without a plan, even when we don't understand. He knows our hearts are hurting. I'm trusting that He will provide for these girls, and I'm praying that they'll not only remember how much we love them, but even more importantly, how much God loves them. I pray I've made a positive impact in their lives. I'm also praying that God will send them love notes and messages to remind them that He is near to them and that He loves them.



Compassion offered to choose two new children for us to sponsor, but I wanted to be involved in choosing them, so I told them not to add two new children to our profile just yet...

I went online to Compassion's website to do a search by date, but none came up for the date I was looking for on Compassion Canada's website. Not one to give up, I decided to see if the other Compassion websites had any children with this birth date, and I finally found one on Compassion Germany's website.

A little girl, with the birth date of March 25th. She's from Bolivia, and her name is... Lizbeth. A date that's very close to my heart, and a part of my best friend's name.


God just called, to say, "I love you..."





We're waiting for Germany to transfer her file to Compassion Canada so that we can start sponsoring her. The lady I spoke to at the Compassion office hadn't been asked to transfer a file from another country before, so I'm sure they're, uhm, appreciating the challenge right now :o} Actually, I've also asked them to transfer a child's file from Compassion Australia as well. [You know, just for extra practice.] The file from Australia is for a little girl named Suwanna from Thailand who stole my heart (with my permission, of course!)




Compassion has been so wonderful to work with. Everyone I speak to at the office (I know most of them by name!) have been fantastic in all the years we've been involved with them. If you've ever considered sponsoring a child, please consider Compassion.


If you can't afford to sponsor a child, please pray for the children waiting for sponsors, that God will match each of them up to the perfect sponsor for His purpose. Pray that in the meantime, they'll get glimpses of how much God loves them too.




For more information, please visit Compassion's website!

(If you are in the U.S., please select the U.S. website HERE!)


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2 Comments:

Tami said...

JD,

Just stopped by to say I love you too:-).

Definitely sounds like these children were Hand picked for you....definitely a blessing that flows both ways to sponor a child.

Hugs,
T

Adria said...

(((((HUGS)))))

I'm glad things are working out with Compassion. I know that incredible things are in store for you and those you are sponsoring and I can't WAIT to watch it unfold.

Love you,
AJ

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