The Gift of Sponsorship

     I can still remember it like it was yesterday. My two little girls ages 6 and 4 were snuggled securely on my lap as we sat in front of the computer looking intently and heart-wrenchingly at the vast sea of beautiful, anticipative faces who were created in the image of our God. Each set of eyes looking back at me pierced my heart as we read story after story searching for the one God would place on our hearts to sponsor. Etched into each yearning face is a story. For some it is the loss of a parent, others it is living in a “high risk” aids infected area, the majority reside in malaria ridden areas, and many are the tiny hands and feet working for survival yet hoping one day education would be written into their lives that the cycle of poverty might be broken. Though the stories may be diverse, each one began with hope sworn identical words, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God is acquainted with every single story and every single child and his very knowing of them guarantees hope. As we painstakingly narrowed down the pictures and stories that tugged at our hearts, we made our decision and chose little Anna, age 6 from Tanzania. 
          

          Now it has been 6 years since our family sponsored our first child and we’ve gone on to add several more sponsorships to our family. Last Christmas, after my children began asking to become sponsors themselves, they each sat down at the computer and once again chose that special person whose lives they would impact. Because the truth of the matter is our very existence is a “mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14) and our existence is not about making a life, but changing a life. Allowing our children the gift of sponsorship has given them a sense of responsibility in the transformation of a life across thousands of miles through prayer, letter writing, and gift giving. Addy, my oldest daughter, has become a beautiful spokesperson for Compassion, advocating on behalf of the children, speaking before her peers on Compassion Sunday, and forever looking for the next sponsor for the life of a child. 

     Last night I sat captivated at the Gift of Christmas Tour enthralled  with the beauty and passion of three sisters in Christ, Amena Brown, Ellie Holcomb, and Ann Voskamp. Yes, this event was sponsored by Compassion International, but sponsoring another child was the furthest thing from my mind. We had recently lost a couple of our Compassion children because their families had moved out of the Compassion service area and we had chosen new children in their place. However, as Ann Voskamp called the Compassion representatives forward, each carrying numerous folders containing the lives of children in desperate need of hope-my heart was stirred. Because during this advent season, isn’t that what we all need? What we all are starving to behold? Just a glimmer of hope in our messed up world? For some of us, we are hanging on by our last thread and we need someone to come and reweave our story and sow hope in our dark places. We need the light from heaven to peel back our darkness because light always over powers darkness. As I looked up, a beautiful young lady named Hope stood before me and her name simply beckoned me to extend the gift of hope to one of the lives in her hand. And then I saw her, a tiny girl child with braided hair with the words Central America scrawled across her card. My heart was pressed to choose her, just as Christ chose me and whispered, “You are mine” across the dark recesses of my longing soul. But, alas a moment of doubt, a second of hesitation and she was gone. The evening continued and my loving Father insisted, “Sponsor her,” but I wrestled with the internal dialog of my heart thinking surely she had been chosen by another since much time had elapsed. However, I sensed the gentleness of my Father asserting, “She’s still there.” So at the end of the evening I made my way through the crowd to the Compassion table and began swiftly scanning the sea of hopeful faces peering back at me from their folders, searching for the tiny girl child with braided hair from Central America. Then all of a sudden my eyes landed on her precious face and I gasped, not really believing, and I clutched her packet, thankful the Lord had extended a second opportunity for obedience to his will. Tears slid down my face as I clasped Holanna’s packet to my heart and I said to the representative, “I want her.” And with those words, Holanna became Cianciotto sponsored child #7…God’s perfect number. 

     Ever since I was a child I have held a deep longing to adopt and yet, I’ve had to learn to thank God for the desire while it goes unfulfilled. Although God has not given me more children to mother in my home, he has blessed me with what I like to call my “spiritual children” through Compassion. So, I have two children in Africa, one in Haiti, India, Bolivia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. He has called me to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves (Proverbs 31:9) and who are otherwise ruined by their condition. I am called to grasp hope and extend hope because if I don’t, I will pass through this life and never really live it. Hope is where the journey begins.    
If you would like to begin your journey of sponsorship, would you please consider sponsoring Francisco Emmanuel Bountin Jimenez from the Dominican Republic?

Addy is advocating for the Speak Up Compassion Campaign whereby she is "speaking up" for one child in poverty and looking for Franciscos's hope giver. Please contact me today if God has placed it on your heart to be his sponsor!