Thursday, November 19, 2009

Resurrecting my blog

It's been a while, hasn't it!

I have had a few days of deep introspection and am reevaluating some of my priorities - where I spend my time on the net and the kinds of relationships I want to have with other people. I am recognizing a very deep need for real face-to-face friendships over coffee or Panera.

I also recognize that my work with Compassion is without a doubt, the most important thing I have ever done. We received a request today and it contained pictures of kids who are waiting for sponsors... some of them for 5 months, 8 months and one of them was still waiting after 13 months. Breaks my heart. I can't do much more than we already are, I can only share the ministry at every opportunity.

Since I last left this blog, we had a successful series of Compassion Sundays at our church. 30 children were sponsored over the course of Lent. I am hopeful that we'll be able to present the ministry to the small groups at our church over the coming months. Our church is sponsoring a medical missions trip (not associated with Compassion) to Guatemala next summer. To carry the momentum of missions beyond that trip, we're going to have a Compassion Sunday focused on Guatemala. We'll offer sponsorships of children only from Guatemala and possibly, connect them with the general area of where the medical missions trip will be. Perhaps, over the course of time, we'll be able to establish missions trips to the Compassion Center in Guatemala to offer VBS or even sports camps. I'm the most excited about the prospect to have a sports camp in Guatemala. Sports are a very important aspect of our church's ministry and ties in perfectly with the importance sports plays in Compassion's ministry model.

Another new development is that my husband went through the process to become a Compassion Advocate. We make a great time. He's wonderful at the admin stuff and I'm good at the communication/presentation part. He is just loving the work and it's a wonderful opportunity for us to do something together.

My husband and I have also started the Elder Training Program at our church. It's an intensive three year program. I plan on sharing our progress in that program here as well.

Thanks for hanging on through my dry spell.

~~Andrea