Children

Over the weekend, I had a chance to volunteer with Compassion International and a great team at a local church to encourage folks who came to see the passion to considering sponsoring children.

There, I had the chance to meet a sponsored child from Kenya who was there to share his testimony with the audience. He is now an adult and is traveling around the US to share his testimony on how the sponsorship turned his life around. Thanks to his testimony during the event, many folks came to our booth, ready to sponsor a child. We were literally quite swarmed! At the end of the night, exactly one hundred children were sponsored! How amazing!

My favorite story of the night came almost at the end, when the crowd had dissipated and a 10-year-old boy walked up to me and started looking at the many photos of children on the tables. He was part of the passion play and still had his makeup on when he came over. At first, he didn't have any questions. But as he looked at the photos, he began asking many great questions about sponsorship, writing letters etc (he even asked if he could meet the child!), and he became increasingly excited about possibly sponsoring a child. After getting his answers, he was ready to make a commitment (by doing extra chores at home to start with!) and I asked him to talk to his parents. His mom told him that if he found a child with his exact same birthday, they would sponsor the child.

With the help of a couple of his buddies, he found her! The girl from India had the exact same birthday. He was very excited about it, and his countenance was beautiful (which had nothing to do with the makeup). He was going to make a difference in his new friend's life.

It was an incredible testimony. This boy had such faith that he was not thinking at all about having to do extra chores to help someone he had never met. He was not afraid of making the commitment. He received the calling and he went with it with confidence and joy.

It might be said often, but volunteering is not all about giving; volunteers are often blessed in unexpectedly marvelous ways. That night, I was blessed beyond measure to meet a young man who was once a sponsored child, and to see one hundred families made commitment to sponsor children, to make a difference in their lives. I didn't know the stories of all one hundred sponsors, but I know the one about this 10-year-old boy who is going to make an eternal impact, one child at a time.

Cheesecake

A few years ago, I began observing Lent occasionally by cutting out one thing that I usually ate or did or use, in order to help me adjust my focus during the weeks leading up to Easter.

This year, I cut out sweets (desserts, candy, chocolate etc.). I did not have much of a sweet tooth, but I did need to consciously not grab a cookie in the break room at work just because they were there, or have a bowl of ice cream at home after dinner. I had actually anticipated a more difficult time, but a couple of times after I began doing it, it was seemingly going well.

Until two weeks ago.

I was at a work-related lunch event and we were at a fancy restaurant on campus where the full buffet was served. When I was getting my soup and salad at the beginning, I passed by the dessert bar and the cheese cake looked fantastic. Towards the end of lunch, I went to get a piece of that cheesecake, without thinking twice about it. I had forgotten I was not eating sweets!

The cheesecake was great, but I did not enjoy it. I fell quite casually - all because I was not on guard and not focused. I have since then become more aware of bypassing the sweets and it has been going great. Last week, my colleague offered me a handful of candy and I had no problem saying no at all.; and there have been cookies in the break room for a few days and I just walk past them.

The point here is not how much "my effort" counts. If anything, it is about how much "my effort" does not count. It does not matter whether I skip the cheesecake or devour the whole dessert bar, if my heart or my motivation is not right. Doing something external (choosing to eat or not to eat something) is only a personal reminder for me this season to focus and to think more deeply and seriously about Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, what He went through for me on the Cross. The cheesecake incident was a slip, yet it also was a great reminder of the wonderful grace that I was trying to ponder during this Lenten season. I was no more a Christian five minutes before eating that piece of cheesecake than the five minutes after.

God's grace is available to all who trusts Him and receives Him, whether we eat any cheesecake or not.

Radical

It's been a long time since my last post.

Thanks to Spring Break, I had a slower schedule and got a chance to read a few books outside of school, including the following two great books. I had been wanting to read Radical for quite some time and once I finished reading it, I jumped right into Radical Together. I am not a fast reader, but I read both books pretty quickly. I didn't want to put them down.

Have you read one or both of these two books? If so, please share your thoughts! If not, please read them and share your thoughts!