I look around me and I wonder.
I wonder a lot of things.
I especially wonder why…why, in this beautiful tropical country, one where God’s fingerprints are everywhere, I still see such need all around me.
Not just physical, but emotional. Spiritual.
It’s as if the need has become too great and no one knows how to help.
Each day is the same for me.
I put on my one pair of tattered flip flops and trudge to the market.
I pass children in their school uniforms. Carrying backpacks with books. Pencils. Paper. They’re excited.
Oh, how I long to be one of them.
There’s so much to learn…do…see…discover. And I want to sit in a classroom and soak it all up right along with them.
I arrive at the market and find my father…the man who sells fish.
Sometimes he sells enough to provide for our family that day. Sometimes not.
But I help him. I love him and am so proud of him for doing what he can for our family.
That evening we go home. Short on sales that day, our family has a bit of rice for dinner. My parents are tired, worn out, discouraged…and we go to sleep early on the corner mattress we share.
I lie there in the dark…and I wait.
I’m waiting for something. Someone. I’m not sure what or who or how, but I pray every day that it will happen.
That someone will choose to help ME. That they will sacrifice a little so I can go to school. And wear red shorts and a white shirt and sit in a classroom and learn all I can. So my family can eat. So my parents can rest easy each night knowing that our basic needs are met.
Maybe they will even have enough energy to join me at church on Sunday.
It’s a beautiful dream and one that could come true, but I need that person. Someone to say, “Your life matters. You are worth investing in. And I want to be that person.”
It would truly change my life forever.
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Sometimes, even as a writer, I find it impossible to fully find the perspective of someone.
A child waiting for a sponsor is one of those people.
It’s almost a place I don’t want to go. Most of you know that I’ve seen this very situation…walked right past it many times, I’m sure. I’ll never forget the sight of those students in their red shorts and white shirts on their way to school. And near them, the children who didn’t wear their school uniforms. Didn’t go to school…not because they didn’t want to but because they couldn’t afford to.
I saw need. In the eyes of those children whose lives were spent begging at the corner of Jalan Sukajadi and Pasteur. I wanted something different…better for them. I hope and pray that somehow they found it.
Tomorrow marks the last day of Compassion’s Blog Month. As of Friday, there are still over 400 children waiting for sponsors.
It’s never too late to change the life of a child.
Because every child deserves a chance.
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