September is Blog Month at Compassion International, and this year’s goal is 3,160 children sponsored by September 30, 2013. As of September 17th, 1,747 children had been sponsored during blog month. Way to go! We’re well on our way to meeting the goal! As a Compassion Blogger, my goal is to share my heart for children in poverty and encourage others to change lives through child sponsorship. If you’ve ever felt called to sponsor a child, I strongly encourage you to take a leap of faith and check out all of the children waiting for a sponsor on the Compassion International website.

When you find yourself stuck, confined and defined by walls on all sides, trapped in places never meant to be your final destination, hope’s the only thing you really have. Hope’s the only thing you really need.

But sometimes you’re in so deep, so all alone, there’s no way you can do it on your own.

You’re desperate. Please notice, I’m barely treading water. Please notice, I’m not going to make it much longer. Please notice, I’m running really, really short on hope in here. Please notice, I need help!

And then…hope comes.

You realize hope’s not so much about being found as it is in actually being released, redeemed from this prison of hopelessness.

Hope picks you up. It carries you places you’d never have gone on your own. It tips you and turns you, and gently frees you to be who you’ve always meant to be. Hope reminds you that your temporary home is just that, temporary. And hope offers a promise greater than any other. Hope saves your life.

And so it goes for children living in extreme poverty. Hope’s long gone, barely detectable at best. Families, children barely treading the waters of life – clothes in threads, food a treasure sought daily, shelter a storm away from disaster, education a luxury, and just surviving’s a battle to be won.

Hope’s long overdue, but hope shows up.

It’s Compassion International who hears and answers battle cries of poverty around the globe. Their one and only duty, to provide a message of hope and a future for children and families living in extreme poverty. (And they do it well through their Child Survival, Child Sponsorship, and Leadership Development Programs.)

After the paperwork’s been filled, the photograph’s been shot, and months, often more than a year of waiting, hope shows up in the blessing of a sponsor.

A sponsor communicates hope through words scratched, paragraphs typed, paper gifts hand-selected.

I chose you.

You’re beautiful, precious in God’s sight.

Fly high.

Dig deep.

Dream big.

You can do anything.

If God made these awesome bugs, it’s a sure thing he got every detail right when he created you.

I can’t fix your hurts, but these bandaids might make them feel a little better.

I love you.

God loves you, and He has wonderful plans for your life.

Hope.

It comes through child sponsorship.

Hope’s power, it’s undeniable, life changing.

Child sponsorship through Compassion International has the power to set a child free from extreme poverty. For a lifetime.

I urge you to consider sponsoring a child, today. Visit the Compassion International website and check out all of the children waiting for a sponsor. You’ll be shocked at the number of children who’ve been waiting for a sponsor for a year or more. Once you see their sweet faces, you’ll want to lavish on them the hope they so deserve.

 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  Hebrews 10:23

Amy