“Let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen and Amen”
(Psalm 72:19)
I met Olga today.
I don’t even know what to say after that.
My mind and my heart are excited and exhausted, and to sum up our day into a single idea feels trite and impossible. It hardly felt like real life.
The storyteller in me wants to talk about how I felt like the biggest wimp walking Olga home from school.
(They warned me it was a thirty minute walk, but it wasn’t. It was a thirty minute vigorous hike up the biggest, most beautiful mountain I’ve ever climbed. We were winded, y’all!)
The mother in me wants to tell about how we transcended our double language barrier with a blank pad of paper and a box of crayons.
But my position as a daughter of the King – with a Kingdom vision – that is the part of me that has my brain and my heart swirling.
Climbing the mountain with Olga gave me a new perspective of Seoguis and child sponsorship.
When we decided to sponsor a child in Guatemala, it was mostly about answering a call to send money to meet very real, practical needs (schooling, food, clean water, etc.). But meeting Olga and her family on the top of the mountain today, looking into her eyes and overlooking the entire village of Seoguis, I finally understood that we now have a stake in her, and an entire community.
Not only do I feel my care for Olga broadening across her community, but it has extended far into the future. Olga’s mother was too sick to come out of her bed to meet us. Her brothers were getting married. Her siblings (she is one of nine) are learning to read and write and eat nutritiously. Spending those hours with them made me realize that this is the little girl who will grow with us. This brown-eyed beauty is the Olga my own children will pray for and send letters to. I will be able to check on her mother’s health and ask if her siblings are working hard in school. She will be a household name for the next ten years and so far beyond.
It’s real. Flesh and blood, dirt floors and bagged water real. And she’s ours.
Charles Spurgeon said of Psalm 72:19, “To intercede for a whole city needs a stretch of faith, and there are times when a prayer for one man is enough to stagger us. But how far-reaching was the psalmist’s dying intercession! How comprehensive! How sublime!”
Friends, I encourage you today to consider child sponsorship. In the small community of Seoguis, there are 160 children eligible for sponsorship, and 128 of them already have families who call them “ours”. Sarah and I had the privilege of visiting the first grade classroom today – some of these children need sponsors and one of them could be yours.
This link will take you to children only in the village of Seoguis. 32 of them still need families. Intercede with me on behalf on this community. Make one of these children a household name, that Christ might be theirs! Make the stretch of faith – it is indeed “sublime”!
“Let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen and Amen”
(Psalm 72:19)
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6 thoughts on "she’s ours"
Oh, Raechel … that is SO UTTERLY AWESOME! My husband and I are leaving this Saturday to lead a team to serve with Common Hope in Guatemala. We've been involved with Common Hope for 15 years, and have been blessed to watch our "Godson," Rene, grow from a boy of 6 to a young man who graduated high school last year. So I know, know, know what you are speaking of when you say that you have a stake in Olga's life. Good for you for recognizing the true profundity of sponsorship.
We have been to Rene's home several times over the years and every time, when his mother and I look each other in the eyes, we acknowledge both silently and out loud how we are all part of a Kingdom "team," if you will, working towards providing Rene and his family with care and opportunity that they wouldn't have without us playing our part.
I know, of course, that they bear the biggest burden … but acknowledging our part brings us all to the same place, rather than having it be "us" giving charity to "them." We've also supported an amazing young woman, Mayra, through five years of college and have had a very similar experience. When Rene and Mayra graduated, we all shared tears and gifts with one another as a celebration and recognition of the part everyone played to get to that place.
PS … One of the most amazing experiences of my life? Last Sunday, when we were being commissioned by our church for our upcoming trip. Our seven year old daughter, whom we adopted from Guatemala when she was an infant, stood up at the pulpit and helped the pastor with the send-off ceremony before laying hands on us to pray. Oh God is good!
From your position as a ‘Daughter of the King’, you should acknowledge that you are honoured to be able to assist a fellow human being to attain basic standards of living and education. From your privileged position as a – relatively speaking – wealthy American, you should consider that we all have an obligation to help our fellow man and to ‘do unto others as you would be done by.’ Make no mistake, though. Olga is not yours. She is a bud on the vast tree of life that, I hope and pray, will bloom to her own potential. She will be thankful for your help but shouldn’t feel beholden to you. The gift is yours, in the giving, and the ability to give. In doing so, you become hers. One of her stepping stones to a new life.
My Bible Fellowship Group has been talking a lot about the impact one person can make by sponsoring a child. This fits right in and is God just making it so right for my family and I to do – thank you for sharing!!
Yes, sponsoring a child, life giving and breath taking. Meeting the child you sponsor, priceless! Be blessed and praying.
What an incredible experience! What a work for the Lord and His kingdom you are doing! Bless all of you for your time and effort to give these beautiful children a chance and to call others to this worthwhile need. It's positively wonderful to see the result of your love and caring- it lights up these kid's faces in all these pictures. It's a lovely reflection of His love… Keep shining! :)
How wonderfully blessed you are to be able to do this and actually see the fruits firsthand. Olga (and the children in that community) are lucky and not forgotten by God indeed!