If you subscribe to or buy the occasional copy of HM Magazine, you are a real, tangible and practical part of releasing a girl in Uganda from poverty. This is really a life-changing thing that is going on and you are really a foundational part of it. HM Magazine takes a very small percentage of our income (what is $38 a month for a small business? practically nothing…) and uses it to sponsor a girl named Kisakye Rhodah. She is 12 years old and lives with her family in a rural area about an hour or so away from Kampala (the capitol city), Uganda.
Did you know that only one child per family is eligible for being a sponsored child with Compassion? While my first reaction to that is, “What? How is that fair?” … it became clear when I understood that the sponsorship to Rhodah makes medicine and mosquito nets and other life-saving supplies available to the whole family when one member is sponsored. This is amazing. This is why Rhodah’s beautiful mom had the biggest smile on her face when she met us. The whole family is probably in awe and extremely grateful to the practical and much-needed help that HM Magazine subscribers, single-copy buyers and advertisers bring to their family.
Rhodah and her mom
I know that $38 a month is a lot of money. I’m so cheap that, if I had two middle names, the new add-on middle name would be “Cheap.” Douglas Gene Cheap Van Pelt. My friend Paul Q-Pek used to make fun of me when he saw what I kept in my freezer as a young bachelor. This amount of money is no big deal, though. When it’s the right thing to do, it’s not something that gets fretted about. I’ll squeeze other budget items. Stuff like this just doesn’t get messed with. It’s like the tithe. Taking 10% of gross and giving it to our local church is no big deal. It’s God’s plan and it ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.
When my wife and I went on the Compassion Blogger’s Tour back in February of 2008, we got a chance to meet our sponsored child. It was amazing. Of course, I blogged about it. And also posted pictures of the trip. I remember hoping to connect with Rhodah. I didn’t know what to say beyond small talk. I took a chance kind of on a whim. I asked her if she knew the song “Webare Jesu” (Thank You, Jesus). I sang it to her and she sang it back. We had been treated to a few songs by a local church the day or two before, so I figured it was probably a popular song in the area. Turns out I was right.
This reminds me of the impromptu decision I made at Cornerstone at couple weeks ago. We were about to go into the song “The Big M,” which I had just introduced, but the band wasn’t quite ready to kick in. I was pacing back and forth, looking at Butch to see if and when he’d begin the romping bass line that starts the tune. He wasn’t ready. I had told the crowd to sing along with us, but since it wasn’t time to begin I latched onto an idea. The previous band (Sexually Frustrated) apparently liked to have its frontman on the ground in front of the stage, so there was an extra mic stand just to the left of center stage. I told the crowd to sing along one more time, but lowered the mic stand onto the ground in front of the stage. The audience up front latched onto to the idea and they sang like gangbusters during the song. Turns out it was a great move and a risky idea that worked beyond my wildest dreams.
So it was when Rhodah opened up, beaming from ear to ear, singing a song together with me. I cherish that moment. Because of your support of HM Magazine, part of that moment belongs to you as well. Sponsor a child today. You can pick a country or just sponsor the child that will randomly be rotating on the Compassion website at the moment. Maybe you can do something similar to what HM Magazine did and gather the funds from creative sources rather than your personal checkbook. Maybe you and a friend can each partner in sponsoring a child ($38 divided into two seems more manageable now, huh?) or perhaps your band, your youth group, your Sunday school class, your family.
It’ll change the lives of people around the world. It’s kind of no big deal on your end. It’s kind of the right thing to do. On their end, it might mean the difference between early death and a long life. Think about Malaria. It’s an old disease that we’ve licked. Did you get a Polio vaccine when you were young? Apparently that disease struck fear in the hearts of parents many years ago, but medical science developed a cure and vaccine. Malaria is the same thing, but countries like Africa are so poor financially that they haven’t eradicated the threat like we have here in the US.
I tell ya, it’s a freaky thing when you’re sitting down in your airplane seat getting ready to take off to destinations in Africa and stewardesses on each aisle around you march down the aisle spraying some pesticide from the back to the front of the plane. It’s weird. Something as practical as a $10 mosquito net can save a family’s life. That’ll likely be one of the first things a sponsored family gets, besides a square meal, emotional, recreational and spiritual nourishment at the sponsored child’s church.
I love the conversation that fellow Compassion Blogger Carlos Whitaker reenacted here with photos and captions at 3′ 12″ into this video. It’s a profound truth that we experienced over and over again when we met Compassion Kids. “Do you know [insert name here]? She lives in [insert state here]?” Out of a country of nearly 300,000, these kids figured their sponsors would be well-known. Doesn’t that say something about the impact the sponsors are having all the way around the world? YOU could be a sponsor and make an impact like that.
Comments