I am not even sure how to express all the things that I have been feeling this week. Have you ever come into a situation that just breaks your heart and you feel wholly insufficient to even process what is going on. Well that is how I have felt particularly this week. This week at work I have been reviewing and analyzing all the proposals we have received for the Global Food Crisis. In case any of you don't know the prices of food worldwide have escalted due to all kinds of factors, increase in the price of gas, lack of production, bans of exports into other countries, the list goes on. The main jest of it is people are not able to afford the food they used to eat. In Bangladesh I have heard reports that the cost of rice has gone up 90% this year. So many of our children (Compassion kids) are getting a bit of food because of their involvement with Compassion but their families are starving at home. Parents are pulling their children from school because they need them to work to support the family or can no longer afford the cost. Other parents are selling off their children because they can't feed them and they just don't know what to do.
This whole situation has weighed on me for awhile now. Friends, as I was reviewing these proposals for millions of dollars it became painfully obvious that we were not going to be able to provide for all these children. Compassion is working hard to find a the funds we need but as you can imagine the need far outweighs the funds. As I read the stories of these families who have nothing my heart broke for these people. I realized how preoccupied I get with not having the things I want when there are people who are literally starving to death. It brought me to tears and still does.
Today Compassion staff worldwide are participating in a day of prayer and fasting. It is honestly the easiest fast I have ever done. Not because I don't feel the hunger pains. Its just that when I do, I think of the families that live their lives with empty bellies and I think to myself, don't complain just pray. I have the faces of those children and those families in my mind and I pray that God, who knows all their names, is comforting them in their time of need.
Although Compassion does need the money right now, I don't want to ask you all for money (If you want to send some I won't object). I just want to make you all aware of the painful reality I have been discovering the past few days. This stuff is not in American media very often so much suffering goes unnoticed. My purpose in this post is to share my heart and ask for your prayers for these precious children. If you want to know more, well just ask me. If you want to check out Compassion, please do. www.compassion.com. It is amazing the things God will teach you if you just take the time to listen.
The above picture is me in Peru with my sponsor child Anabel.
