What does it look like...

So I found out a couple of weeks ago that I will be returning to Kenya with Compassion International in February!!! Words cannot express how excited I am to go back to the place that forever changed my life. I do not know details of the trip, yet, but I absolutely cannot wait. I don't think that the sights that I saw while in Kenya this past year will ever leave my mind. The faces of the children, the sights of the slums, and the smells of the shanties I visited, haunt me to this day. They are ingrained in my senses...in every way possible. I cannot escape the overwhelming feeling inside of me to reach out to these people...

...But what does that look like? We are talking in church right now about James and have focused, in particular, on James 1:27. What does it look like to reach out to orphans and widows? What does it look like to change the life of a person living in poverty. I know that lives can only be changed through Christ Jesus - but what can I do to bring them to Christ as I live on the other side of the globe? The same goes with my other love...Los Mochis, MX. Again, what does it look like to reach out to these people living in poverty when I am so far away from them? Is it short term missions? Long term missions? Prayer? Financial support? A combination of those?

This is the reason that I love Compassion International. They are providing answers to the questions mentioned above. They are providing a way for people, just like you and me, to reach out to those living in poverty and bring them the one thing that they so desperately need: hope in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They are providing them with their basic needs and then raising them to find their hope not in their current circumstance, but in the fact that they are a child of God. Praise God for the work that he is doing in 26 countries around the world through Compassion. I cannot wait to return to Kenya with Compassion and see the impact they have made in even the year it will have been since my last trip there.

I recognize that there are so many ways to help those in poverty. I continue to search out what that looks like for me. But for now...I am confident that the work that God is doing through Compassion is a reflection of James 1:27.

This has always been something that I have firmly believed, but it was confirmed that much more when my church (The Church at Brook Hills) decided to focus much of their resources on funding Compassion International's Child Survival Programs in India. And by programS...I mean the ENTIRE COUNTRY of INDIA! Seriously?! When David shared this last Sunday my immediate reaction was to of course tear up...ha...but then just sit in awe of God's glory. What an amazing opportunity for Brook Hills! To read more about Child Survival Programs through Compassion International, visit this website: http://www.compassion.com/contribution/csp/faq/default.htm.