One of My Favorite Hats
I wear a lot of voluntary hats, and had a chance to talk about one of them at the Compassion blog today.
What I didn’t know was the surprising turn of events that would occur last week while I was writing that post. I’ve corresponded with Junior since 1999. I’ve visited him twice on sponsor tours — once in 2002 and again last January. As you know, I have many close friends in the Dominican Republic, so I was jealous to hear that my friend, Tina, was going there the first of this month to meet her sponsored child, Keila.
Well, due to a particular post in March, Tina realized about a week before leaving that her tour group would be visiting Junior’s student center! Although I’ve been there three times, I’ve never been able to visit his center because he lives so far North of Santo Domingo. Tina’s group “happened” to be going to his center to do some maintenance work, such as painting and carpentry work. I put quotation marks around the word because I don’t believe anything happens by accident or coincidence! I honestly believe God is doing a huge work in Junior’s heart and life, and that includes the correspondence we’ve been able to have with each other! Letters can have a huge impact in the life of a sponsored child!
Hearing that Tina would be visiting Junior’s center, I sent some gifts for her to take with her, but since they were doing maintenance work rather than visiting children there, I did not expect her to meet Junior. However — take a look below!
Rubia, Junior, Tina -- Special Delivery
That little zip-lock bag holds all the love I sent to Junior & his mother, Rubia — except for the hug I asked Tina to deliver! Probably the most important item in that bag is the letter of encouragement I sent to him. T-shirts and knick-knacks for the family are not all that important, but Tina’s and my love will go a long way to build up this young man. Here are some things that have resulted from our recent correspondence:
- Junior accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior
- He loves studying the Bible
- He enjoys attending his church
- He returned to his student center after a years’ absence
- Junior is now attending a technical school where he’s learning motorcycle mechanics
- He’s smiling and looking more happy and confident
- Many needs are being met by Junior’s attendance at the Student Center
- The family has drawn closer together
- Finally, they even answered my request to have someone take a photo of his siblings; don’t they look great?
Rubia, Luis Francisco, Junior, Ana Irma
I have a Compassion child in the DR who attends Ebenezer Student center. How would one go about trying to find someone going there who might take a small package for you? So far I haven’t been able to find out where her home is located: Burende, LaJoya. I don’t think my health problems would allow me to meet her on a Compassion Tour unless it was an individual tour where I flew to someplace and stayed in a hotel.I wanted to begin by finding her location, to see it’s nearness to a city I might be able to fly to. Can you give me any websites as I’ve just wasted time trying to get this information. Thanks.
Here is a website that shows where the various child centers are located for Compassion.
http://blog.compassion.com/maps-of-child-development-center-locations/
If I knew someone going to the DR soon, I would hook you up with them, but I can’t think of anyone right off. You might call the Compassion offices and ask them, although I don’t think they probably help with getting packages to children through travelers. But you can always try! The number is 1-800-336-7676. Also, Compassion is really good about taking care of travelers, especially those with health problems, so you might talk to them about a sponsor tour when you call. It’s life changing for sure — not only for you, but for the child as well!
That is very cool! God has amazing ways of encouraging us.
Next time, I hope you are in those pictures too.
I agree! Tina and I are actually talking about going to the DR together one of these days –