Thanks for allowing me take a few days before I attempted to put something so indescribable into actual words. I had to ponder the experience in my heart before I could even think about typing. Good thing I had 36 of hours of travel before me, right? Friday was the climactic moment of our trip, the day when Compassion’s child sponsorship program was fully realized and finally personalized for each one of us. We had the incredible opportunity to meet our precious sponsor children in the flesh along with a translator so that we could communicate with them. It was a day filled with laughter and tears. I really had underestimated what this particular day would mean to me. It was an incredible thing to actually see their faces and to touch their skin. All of the sudden everything became so very real. My two India sponsor-kids, Manot and Pramila, along with their two Fathers, had traveled over a day’s journey just to see me.
I have to type it again. They had traveled over twenty-four hours just to see me.
When I learned that the four of them along with translators from their village had traveled such a distance, it really intimidated me and made me feel a little bit insecure. I thought, “Are they annoyed that they had to come all this way just to see me- I am so not worth it?” Since they knew absolutely no English I asked via the translator, “Are they exhausted from the long journey?” The translator then went back and forth with them and with a huge smile on his face, he said, “No, they’re just really excited.” And I took a deep breath, opened my heart, and let it all soak in.
Here is a picture of the five of us:
The four of them were dressed in their Sunday best. It was almost enough to deceive me into thinking that they really weren’t all that poor. I was thinking in my mind, “Why didn’t Compassion give me one of the kids from the slums we visited, they seemed like they needed sponsorship more.” A little bit skeptical, I asked our near-omniscient Compassion India guide Jaiashree if she had been to the village where my children were from.
She answered, “Yes.”
And that was all she said.
And so I pulled the whole persistent widow act and said, “O-kkkaaayyy, so tell me about it. Compare it to some of the villages and slums we’ve already visited. I want a picture in my mind of where my kids actually live.”
And she said, “I can’t compare them.”
I responded, “Jaiashree, what do you mean you can’t compare them?”
And then she said words in her unforgettable accent that will continue to haunt me forever: “They are much poorer, Melissa. Poorer than any of the slums we’ve seen this week. They are very, very poor.”
Ouch. Why did she have to say it like that and why do I always have to ask so many questions?
I wanted to scream at someone but instead I just shook my head and said softly, “Don’t tell me that. Don’t break my heart.”
I came to find out that my kids live in mud-huts. Their village has absolutely no electricity. I have to clarify this because even some of the poorest slums in the city have some electricity simply because of the accessibility that comes with being in close proximity to a city. Their village needs potable water, for they often have to revert to drinking out of filthy water holes. After speaking to one of the Dads through a translator, I discovered that he makes $17 a month. In the very best of circumstances. Since he is a daily laborer, some months he doesn’t get any work at all. He supports a family of five. If you do the math assuming the very best scenario $17 is a little over half of $32, the price I pay each month to sponsor a child though Compassion. Talk about humbling. It is almost double what he makes a month. Again, this is assuming he gets work. I found this terribly discouraging and humbling but also very encouraging. Let me explain. The sobering part of the math breakdown is that $32 is about how much I spend on Starbucks coffee per week. And $32 is less than the price Colin and I pay for dinner on a handful of nights per week. Sometimes we pay less but several times a week we pay more. On the other hand, that my $32 is almost twice what a sole-supporter of a family of five makes per month demonstrates how effective my contribution can really be. In the long run, considering I keep up sponsorship for the years to come, my contribution truly can break the cycle of poverty in a child’s life. Relatively speaking, it is huge.
Now back to our day. If you read my post from last week, then you know that we took the children to a place called “Science City”. The kids had a blast and directly after we got off the seriously disturbing Gondola ride we set off for lunch. We took the entire crew to eat in a food-court at an upscale mall in Calcutta. I hate to use the word “upscale” because the mall itself would have been a very typical mall in the States. This was an enlightening time for me because I was able to ask a number of direct and personal questions through our translator, both to the children and their Fathers. My two kids are from the same village so their Fathers were actually friends, which was really neat. I asked them if they had ever been to Calcutta. One of the Fathers answered, “I am a poor man, I do not have enough money to come to the city.” I was shocked to find out that not even one of them, including the two Fathers in their mid-forties, had ever even been to a city before. It was their very first time and they were like little kids. They were having a blast. Some of my fellow bloggers had different experiences watching their kids eating the food we bought for them. Apparently some of the kids were overwhelmed or maybe even intimidated by the amount of food they were served. *Not mine* They ate for a solid hour. I was done with my pizza in less than ten minutes. But, they just kept eating and eating. I asked them how the food was and they just had these huge beaming smiles stretching across their faces. They absolutely loved the food and were literally the last ones to finish.
When we got back to our hotel, we each went to various corners in the lobby to present our children with gift bags to take back home with them. I had a blast showing them pictures of my home, my friends, and my family. I tried to split up the pictures that I brought between the two families but the Fathers insisted upon putting them in one safe place so as not to lose any of them.
After playing with our children for about an hour or so, I realized that our leaders were signaling some message to us. Our time was coming to an end. We had been so busy anticipating meeting our sponsor children that for some reason we hadn’t even thought about the reality of having to say good-bye to them. As we hugged them good-bye for the last time my heart began to race and I noticed that Manot urgently kept saying something, the same line, over and over again to me. So, I beckoned the translator and I said, “Can you translate what he is trying to tell me?”
He is saying, “Please pray for us.”
Seriously, can one heart take it? That’s what nine-year-old Manot was trying to tell me. After all the gifts I had brought him. After all the food we had served him. After all the fun we had. This was his one urgent request:
“Please pray for us.”
I assured him through my tears that I would never ever stop praying for them.
That was the last verbal exchange we had before we said good-bye with oversized lumps in our throats and then we waved and waved and waved. I can’t count the times they looked back at me. They hung out of the window of the van, and we blew about a million kisses back and forth. As the van started to move, I felt my heart sink.
Will I ever see them again?
Will they make it?
Angie and I both looked at one another, each of us looking to the other for some much-needed consolation. I realized quickly I wasn’t going to get it from her. And she certainly wasn’t going to get it from me. We were both a mess. Both of our eyes were fixed on the van. We just kept watching it. Until the van was no longer in sight. With tears welling up in my eyes, I asked Angie if she thought we would ever see them again. Then we both broke down and lost it. That heartrending moment lingered for what seemed like forever.
And then I knew we needed comic relief so I reverted to my humor defense mechanism and said, “Considering our tolerance for curry, the reality of a return in the near future doesn’t look promising, does it?”
And so we conjured up half a smile through our tears. We just had to.
Here is a picture of the two of us in a moment far less intense than the one I just described.
I can’t tell you how badly I wish my two kids had electricity and wi-fi to go along with it. How bad I wish that they could read this post. I know I can write them but I want them to hear my heart right this very moment. I would say to them, “Manot, I love you. And Pramila, I love you. And I’m not just saying it because you need to hear it or because I know your parents probably don’t say it often. A week ago that might have been the case. But not today. Today I awoke with thoughts of you. Wondering what you are doing this very moment, so many thousands of miles away from me. Hearing the faint pitch of your sweet voices and your quirky laughter. Worrying about what you’re eating. If you drank enough water to be satisfied. Picturing you, Manot, smiling and kicking around a soccer ball in the hot sun and you, Pramila, scribbling on the new drawing pads we bought you. Your project leader told me that you are going to be a great artist. Mostly, I want you to know that I’m praying for you. Praying that you will live to declare how lavishly our God has loved you through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Praying that in spite of all that you may endure, that you will know that our God is good and that He loves you with all of His heart. Please pray for your Sponsor-Mom, too… she needs to remember how good God is in spite of all the hardship you’re facing as well.”
Oh, what a deep imprint Manot and Pramila have made on this hard heart of mine. And not just the two of them but all of the people, so deeply loved by God, in Calcutta and India at large who must fight for their survival, each and every day. I could never have prepared myself for all that I saw last week. For example, during one of my visits to a devastating slum, a half-clothed, poverty stricken crippled man with his back hunched over in a ninety-degree angle limped slowly over to me. He had purchased a coconut for me with whatever small amount of money he did have and then proceeded to slice the top open for me to drink so that I could be protected from the heat. And mind you, I was the one going back to the air-conditioned hotel. Not him. What was I supposed to do with that? And that is just one of about several hundred stories I could tell.
Because we each had experiences like this and because I am sure our eyes were about to glaze over, the leaders of our group called for a debriefing in lieu of a corporate lobotomy. During this debriefing they gave us a safe place to talk about what some of us were feeling and thinking. It was great but we really needed another entire week to hash it all out. I’ll never forget the words that Shaun Groves said before we left the debriefing. He asked us this question:
“Now that you know, what will you do?”
He continued by saying, “You’ve spent your words lavishly on the blog, now it’s time to spend your lives.” Talk about messing me up. And so it was to this tune that our re-entry began.
I will confess something about myself. You know that I’m going through an emotionally or spiritually trying time when I bust out one of the movies from “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. Other girls may bust out “Sleepless in Seattle” or even “Pride and Prejudice” but I bust out Tolkien. There was one awful season in my life when along with reading the books, I actually watched at least one of the films every night for two months. I wish I were exaggerating. You can ask my Dad because he was so ready for me to get a grip. I was totally hogging the television and he had deer-show watching needs that definitely were not being met. And, yeah, I know…spending three hours a night watching movies wasn’t exactly good stewardship of my time. But it’s the truth. I nearly have the entire Trilogy memorized. And that is saying a lot since most of the proper names sound exactly the same.
Well, yesterday, it happened again. This time my victim was “The Return of the King.” Have you ever seen it? Do you remember the last scene when Frodo unexpectedly boards the ship to sail to the Grey Havens? Throughout their life-threatening journey to Mordor, Frodo and Sam kept dreaming about such things like the taste of the strawberries on the Shire but when Frodo actually does get back to the Shire, for some reason, it is like he can’t fully enjoy the normal comforts that the Shire has to offer. I’ve always speculated about why exactly Frodo has to sail to the Grey Havens. I think that Frodo has just been through too much. His scars run too deep. After years of being back at the Shire they still haven’t healed. In the movie he asks the rhetorical question: “How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? And then he explains, “There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep…they have taken hold.”
But I’m not a hobbit.
And this is real life.
I don’t get to sail off and escape from the white shores into a far green country under a swift sunrise with Gandalf.
Ironically, my life just happens to be deep in the heart of excessive American culture. And I’d by lying to you if I said I don’t enjoy it. The honest truth is that I know myself. I know that quickly normal life will pick back up and the temptation will be to forget all I have seen. To move forward without any change. While others around me may wish for me to hurry up and acclimate to normal life again, my fear is that I will too quickly move ahead. That I will forget all I have seen, heard, touched, smelled, and felt.
I know myself.
I’m just an All-American twenty-six year old girl, consumed with comfort, security, vanity, wealth, and materialism like the “best” of them. In light of who I know I am I feel compelled to ask that the Lord would perform a miracle on my behalf- that he would keep the emotional wounds that were carved during the past few weeks from healing. Now, I know you may think I’m a bit morbid, eccentric, or even just plain weird. But that’s okay, because I’ve been called far worse, I’m sure of it. So this is my prayer today- that time won’t have its typical way with me. That the sharp edge of the sting I feel deep in my soul won’t ever be dulled or alleviated.
With so much love and affection,
Melissa
P.S. Thank you for coming away with me to Calcutta. This blog community has floored me with its willingness to pray for us and also to get on board with what the Lord is doing through Compassion. I want you to know that your generosity has been noted. Those of you who are already sponsors with Compassion and are interested in visiting your sponsor child in the future should click here for more information. I know the trips might be costly and time-consuming but if the Lord paves the way or places it on your heart, then check it out. You are an amazing group of people and I am so honored to “know” you through blogland. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. By the way, I also want you to head to read a post written by Patricia Jones, one of my new favorite people in the world. In my opinion, it is one of the most powerful posts from the entire trip.
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Wow, Melissa, I spent most of the post bawling and am somewhat wordless. How beautiful a post! I love Lord of Rings too, so I completely understood your picture, but it is somewhat wonderful to know that you will never be the same. You will be forever changed more in His image, in His likeness. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Melissa~ Thank you for us with you! I will join you in praying that your scars from this trip never quite heal, and that the Lord will forever seal in your heart and mind His work in you through this journey.
Crying, crying, crying. Thank you for this beautiful post and for sharing God’s work through your words. I’m sure your husband was thrilled to see you! Thank you for opening our eyes in such a raw way. Kelly S. in Nashville
Melissa,
I’m still trying to grasp my feelings after “traveling” with you to India last week! You have brought to life what compassion is all about – giving of ourself; wanting a better life for another; feeling joy/pain of meeting and separating – you have brought us all along with you – oh, that we would never be changed is RIGHT! Your trip opened my eyes to imagine what life my Compassion child has in the Phillipines. I don’t think I will ever meet her, but to think that my small offering of money, letters and prayers will have eternal impact on a child is now more apparent after being part of your trip! We have so much – too much – and we take it all in with such ease. How would we react if the tables were turned?
This has truly been a journey that I will remember –
Thank you for being transparent.
Thanks, Melissa. I’ve prayed the same prayer–my the wounds never heal. May my heart always be broken for the poor and hurting. Thanks for tearing at those wounds a bit…they were getting a bit scarred over. It has been a privilege to share your trip through this blog.
What a beautiful post. Thank you so much for sharing, since most of us will never get there. How blessed are you to have seen with your own eyes the children you sponsor. That’s just amazing. I’m sure your life will never be the same.
Melissa,
Your words have truly spoken to my heart over the past week. God is certainly using you…continue to be obedient and pliable sister.
After reading this post, I will be talking to my husband about sponsoring a child though Compassion.
Thanks for being honest, real, transparent, etc. It has given your posts such authenticity, such power. Again, God is using you.
Definitely.
Prayers and blessings,
Rebecca
Melissa,
Your posts through out your India journey have resonated deeply within me. My heart and mind are forever altered. Thank you for exposing the things we don’t want to think about, the tough things, the ugly things, and may we be better for it.
Well done.
Jill S
Melissa:
Thanks for keeping us posted through the wonderful invention of bogging.
I have to say, you are one brave young lady. To go so far without your family, knowing what you are about to experience will rock your world like nothing has, and will stay in your memory for the rest of your days.
thank you for the pictures,they helped me see where you were. Oh and by the by, you will be in those kids memories all their days as well.
Glad you home safe and sound
Becky
Melissa, you amaze and inspire me and my 3 girls (15, 12 and 8). We read your blog daily together and cried more than once. India will never leave you. Once you “Taste and See” you are forever changed. Thanks for your openess and love…we’re still praying for you.
We are hoping to get back there one day…you have blessed us so with your words…
Thank you!!
Melissa-I haven’t read the other post from you friend yet but your posts have been pretty powerful – God has so annointed you to describe into words what you experienced and then to so move in our hearts that it causes us to react. Through your posts I have been changed and I don’t want what has been going on in my heart to stop either. I will so miss your posts-I looked forward to them everyday and have been in Compassion limbo since your last one. So glad you made it home safely and have prayed for you. Because of your trip and posting I wrote notes to my 2 kids from Africa for the first time on my own-not the ones they mail from World Vision the birthday cards etc. for us to sign and them deliver but one on my own asking them questions about how they are doing? I feel ashamed that I have not done it before but this past week put some “realism” for me that my kids need more than just a sponsorship of money but someone they know will write to them and pray more diligently for them and their familes. Thank you Melissa-you have so touched my heart. Praise you God for people who get out there and make a difference -I pray that more of us would.
Thank you so much-
Blessings and love,
Jennifer
Melissa,
You are exactly where you are supposed to be. God has a plan and your place is where you are. Will time temper this experience? Yes. Will time give you new perspective after a few months? Yes. Will time and distance soften the raw emotions of the knowledge of the journey your sponsor children are living? Yes.
Will time temper the new level of love you feel? NO
Will time fade the new perspective you have? NO
Will time and distance remove the knowledge of the journey your sponsor children are living? NO
You have been changed. Your world has been expanded, broadened, given new depth. You will be a better person for this trip. More sympathetic, more empathetic, more understanding, more patient, more tolerant. You will be less anxious, less attached to your things (you’ll still love them, want them, etc.) but from a new perspective, less self conscience.
You will be a better Christian for having glimpsed what this world must have looked like to Jesus. Needy, wanting, people living in a poor, desolate place (as compared to His home).
Thank you for sharing your experience. You are a gifted communicator and I have enjoyed coming along for the experience.
Time will have its way, but I think it won’t be in the way you may fear. Time will be your friend and I am confident that the Lord has big plans for using your experience.
My first memory verse for your mom’s challenge is 1 Cor. 15:51-52. It is not totally applicable but when I read your post it was the first thing i thought of….
“Listen I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep but we will all be changed-in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.” (NIV)
Be encouraged,
Lauri
Yes, thank you so much for sharing with us your journey and letting God use you. I think it's safe to say from all the comments that God worked through & in you and the other bloggers very powerfully, not to mention how He did that through the children & workers in India. Over and over, God used your posts to break my hardened heart. I was overcome by how much He loves the most vulnerable and poor. What did me in on this post was when you learned about the depth of poverty your sponsored kids lived in, and as I read it, I was overcome by His overwhelming love for them and the poor.
On a related note, shortly after reading your post, I got my sponsored child's info in the mail today. My first Compassion child. Your post made the impact all the more meaningful when I read that my child also lives in a mud-hut, and his parents are "sometimes" day laborers. I am thrilled to get to be a part of this boy's life. And what a blessing and privilege to see God's heart for the poor, whether materially, spiritually (me included), both or otherwise. Thanks again for inviting us to join you on this journey up-close.
Much love,
~Amy 7634
I couldnt even get up from my computer to get a tissue, so I’m sitting at work with my nose all stopped up now and tears streaming down my face!
I thank you so much for sharing all that you have shared with us.
You have done a great service in making people aware of Compassion International, the great work that is done through the program, and the need for so many more sponsors.
I could so relate to so many things you have felt!!
Why would these people want to see me? Was I just disrupting their lives and routines?
And then praying for God to help me to never forget. I too, knew I would be happy to get back to my comforts at home. I wasnt going to go home and sell every modern convenience I had. But, I have prayed for God to remind me daily of what I experienced so that I may do something positive!
Today you helped to remind me again.
Again–thanks so much for making the sacrafice to go on the trip,and to also take the time to share everything with us!!
Melissa, I prayed that while you were in India God would so peirce your heart that you would return with everlasting fervor to reach the destitute. I prayed God would show you ways to use your influence to influence the world. I will pray for you now as you have asked, to never forget and never return to “normal” life. I have a strange thought…perhaps you can check out the podcasts on http://www.congocast.org (an atrocity in the world that is close to my heart and I am sure to the heart of God.) God Bless you.
I have been reading the whole week too, and this is the best post yet, and although my heart was touched by each post the tears welled up after reading this post… Wow!!!
I can so relate to what you said about being caught up in this world and enjoying it… I like my comfortable life, but as I grow closer to the Lord there is this nagging that tells me to be free from the world.
I may never get a chance to experience what you have this week…a picture that will stick in my mind that will remind me to let go of the treasures of this world, but I have hope because I know if I seek to know Jesus, He can do the heart work I need so much.
Thank you so much for sharing your life…I love your whole family!!! What a blessing you all are to the world.
PS… The pictures are wonderful and beautiful!!!
have been reading each day, haven’t commented, but please know that you have been in my prayers and I am so humbled reading through your posts. I am sharing your journey with my children and they are asking when they can adopt a child! HUGS
Melissa, I thank God for you. Your willingness, your honesty and your courage. Not because you went to India…because you have clearly chosen to trust HIM. The most courageous choice of all. To let Him have His way is so brave. To ask for Him to do what needs doing makes me SCREAM hallelujah! You inspire me and I thank you. Praying for your transition. One of my favorite advocates for the poor is Bono…he and his wife, Ally,went to Ethiopia for a month in the 80’s, served in the camps where people were dying everywhere from starvation. He’s often quoted as saying that he went back to normal life, forgot what he saw, didn’t do anything until late 90’s. But what he proceeded to do in the 90’s through today is extraordinary. He gets so much criticism for being a wealthy rock star,not a good example for Christ etc. But he’s certainly gotten busy helping the poor, the orphans, the widows…from his large homes in Dublin and NYC. The seeds that have been planted in you in India will bear much fruit in God’s time. Already have. I can’t wait to see or read or just know in my heart that the good work begun in you will be brought to completion. So glad you were sent to tell the story. May God’s blessings abound.
Melissa, Thank you so…. much for being a beautiful vessel for Christ. I have only recently been reading your blogs, yet Christ used this to touched my heart for His people. If you had not gone I would have missed God’s call on my life to sponsor a child. What a blessing! We(you,me,and Rupesh,the boy I am sponoring) all are blessed by one single act of kindness and obedience.
Mary White
Melissa, I am a mess. I have tears the size of Texas in my eyes from your entry today. I felt I was saying good-bye to them too… almost like I was standing next to you. WOW!!
Thank you for sharing your honesty & prayer for yourself about allowing yourself to feel what you feel now for always. I am the same way. I come back, get re-acquainted with American life and forget. I hate that about myself. But I will be praying for you for sure. It helps when you can relate.
I am hoping to go on a Mission Trip to Cambodia in August with aim4asia.org, IJM.org and cwfestival.com, to help restore an Aftercare Center for little girls who were rescued from Child Sex Trafficking brothels. I just heard about this problem this weekend at the "Ignite 09" concert series & I was shocked, enraged, touched and set on fire to help do something about these little girls. I haven't heard back if I've been accepted to go or not, but I am praying that I do. I haven't stop thinking about these little girls (whom i've never seen) since Saturday night. My heart is there with them & I hurt for them.
All this to say, the Lord is really Igniting people to serve & help save these children around the world through some really great organizations like Compassion & aim4asia… and I am so blessed that we, as Americans, have the means to help. PRAISE THE LORD!
Thank you again for sharing your journey with us. It has touched me more than you could know.
Hollie (aka: Groovewoman)
Granbury, TX
Your week long journey profoundly affected my week as I read. Thank you for allowing us to travel with you, the Lord did a number on “life as I knew it” as I read – Praise Him! My fiance and I sponsored a little girl from India. As I wait for my packet, I have found myself thinking about what she is doing, what she likes, what she doesn’t like… I thought I was weird for thinking so much about someone I don’t even know yet. But, I firmly believe that this (my wandering mind) would not be the case if you had not taken me with you to India! Thank you for showing me what I get to look forward to!
Welcome home, Melissa! I feel like pumping my fist in the air and yelling, “Yes, Jesus, Yes! You did it again! You’ve taught one more of your daughters about extravagant compassion and the world will never be the same!”
Also praying that you won’t heal from the wound and humbly asking the Lord’s forgiveness for my own sometimes lackadaisical attitude toward our Compassion kids. Good heavens, my 9 yr. old faithfully prays for them every night and yet it’s been WAY too long since I took the time to write them a letter!
Lord, please don’t heal my wound either.
I’m with you Melissa.
Change me Lord, and make it stick.
I am nearly speechless. Bless you, Melissa for sharing this with us. It matters. It deeply, deeply matters.
I hadn’t heard of Compassion until this blog but I do sponsor a child through Children International. Like many, finances haven’t allowed me to visit yet but I know someday God is going to provide a miracle for me to go. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into their lives. I’m glad God touched your heart so tremendously on your trip!
Thank you.
Sweet Melissa,
I just want you to know that your words are life-changing. We all may slip back into our own sense of normalcy, but we have become more sensitive to the need in our world today because of your journey posts.
I’m counting you in a small group of writers who have changed my life:
God and His Holy Word
Max Lucado
Henry Blackaby
Beth Moore
I know these children have a hard life, but I have been struck with the pure joy and love they spill out. You and your fellow bloggers captured this in your posts and in your photos.
Makes me wonder if poverty isn’t a gift to mankind.
I cherish all of my creature comforts. But sometimes the more we have, the less happiness we have.
Still pondering the beatitudes today…emptiness filled by Him.
Thanks for loving Jesus with abandon and serving Him so beautifully, Siesta Melissa. We love you and your dear sister Amanda.
Melissa, I just love your heart. And I love your willingness to search it (or to let our Father).
I am a LOTR fanatic, and have watched those movies 750 trillion times with my sweet hubby, too. So I definitely understand your comparison.
We ALL need a good dose of reality here in America, don’t we?
Your post was so beautiful, girl. One that I hope will stay on our minds for a very long time.
My goodness, Melissa…you sure do have a way with words. Must run in the family. I am SPENT from reading your entry! Amazing! I am humbled by your honesty and so thankful for your transparency. You have shared with us an unforgettable experience and I have been changed by what you’ve shared…as well as moved to action. I am anxiously awaiting my sponsor information packet and looking forward to writing my first letter to my little boy. So exciting! Thank you again!
Blessings, Shelly
I am totally speechless, in great AWE, and have much water leaking from my eyes.
Thanks
Debbie in SC
PS Melissa, you rock!
GOD BLESS YOU!
wow…i have so many tears i can’t even write…God is good!! i can remember back to my experience of visiting our compassion child and all that we saw while there…i wonder did they make it? are they still there? being there my life has been changed forever as i know yours has been too….
Beautiful post Melissa, I savored every word and felt like I lived this last week with you. You make me want to go to Ecuador and meet our sponsor child. Thank you for faithfully posting about what you saw, what you felt and what you learned. I know you won’t forget your time in India, but thanks to you, many of us won’t forget it either. Many blessings to you…
Melissa, my friend, there are no words to express how God has spoken to me as I have followed you and all your teammates through India. Thank you for going on our behalf, and know this: For my part, at the very least, two young lives in India (and one not-so-young life in Kentucky) will never be the same.
Dear Melissa,
Looks like you went on the “field trip” and the rest of us are sobbing from the “video version.” I can’t begin to thank you enough for your correspondence or adequately express in words how full my heart is from reading your post.
It has been heart-changing for me and like you, I pray I will never be the same again.
It started with choosing James 1:27as my scripture memory verse. Then Kiran, in front of her door, became permanently fixed in my brain and heart, which led me to sponsor two beautiful girls – one in India and one in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
I already feel so connected to them. Is that possible? I can hardly stand waiting for my sponsorship packets to arrive.
Your experience has also led me to sign up for a local ministry in New Orleans. Your words lit a fire girl. I am eternally grateful.
Thank you again Melissa. Will continue praying for you, your family and LPM.
See you at Siesta Seminar in January,
Elaine in New Orleans
Melissa,
God has given you a heart of love…thank you for sharing that with us today and last week…your post was absolutely beautiful.
Much love,
Tisha
Melissa,
Thank you again for sharing and bringing to life your trip and the people you met and saw and the Compassion ministry.
Not only has your trip affected me and convicted me; but also reminded me HOPE and how it does not disappoint.
And love. We are called to love.
It just isn’t any simpler.
And I would not have sponsored the two little girls my family has decided upon if I had not been reading your blog. I had many times visited the Compassion site but never followed through.
But when I read your post right before you left for India and Angie’s as well, I could not not sponsor a child. This trip just made all this so real and I thank you for that.
Patricia’s post was so powerful and beautiful too. As all the other bloggers as well.
Thank you again for sharing.
Love and Blessings,
Michelle in Vermont
Melissa, Thanks for letting us come along on your journey. It felt like I was there. Thank you for letting God use you and your life in this way.
Peace,
Kim Feth
Apex, NC
Melissa,
Isn’t that the cry of the heart? That the Enemy won’t lull us back to sleep with the trappings of our world, that we’ll STAY AWAKE and alert to the groaning of those around us?
It is for me. As weird as it may seem, I too want to be broken- hearted over the same things that break our Father’s heart. There’s simply no other way to get around it.
Yes, now that we know, we’ve got to do something with it.
Praying your heart stays open. Mine too.
Melissa,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Reading what you have to say makes me want to run out and sponsor a child myself. The part where you pray that God doesn’t allow you to forget what you have seen and that He leave the emotional wounds still there makes total sense to me. I am reminded of Point of Grace’s song Heal the Wound. The chorus I’m sure you are familiar with says “Heal the wound but leave the scars. A reminder of our merciful you are” I think we all need scars and wounds left on us sometimes to remember what He has brought us through and what we are here to accomplish on this earth.
Thank you again for sharing.
Incredible post Melissa. Thank you for finding the words so we could read them. And I understand about not wanting to forget or go back to normal too quickly.
Glad you’re home safe.
I wish Colin could have gone with you.
Melissa: Thank you so much for allowing us siestas to take this journey with you by way of the blog. It was my joy to pray for the team.
I just can’t get it off my mind and heart. Just this past Sunday at my home church, we had a guest preacher in for “senior adult Sunday” and I wasn’t really pumped about it – you know? UNTIL…he shared with our congregation about COMPASSION and when the service was over, I made a bee-line to talk to him in our church foyer.
When I found him, he was asking for someone to help him with all the Compassion packages to sponsor the kids.
I yelled across the foyer (truly I did) “pick me, pick me!” So he did and I got to help talk up Compassion to my OWN church family! I told tham all about your trip and about my little boy in Colombia and the guest speaker was pleased as punch to have a Compassion sponsor helping him! I know a dozen or more families went home with children to sponsor and my heart was so full.
Girl – you are something else and I so love your transparent and tender heart.
I was keeping my little 8 month old grandson Ezekiel the next day after reading your post about the 6-month old baby being left alone – and I could not quit bawling about it. I wrote a post on my own blog entitled “A Contrast in Babies…USA and India.” The contrast is more than my heart can take in.
Thank you again sweet girl,
Mrs. Jan
Melissa~
Your words wriggled there way into my heart today, and I am touched in a way that demands action on my part. We do sponsor a precious little 6 yr. old from Guatemala, and I would love to sponsor more some day when the finances allow.
Until then, I will add Manot and Pramila to my prayer list and wait for the day God appoints for me to go and meet our Juana face to face.
Thanks for sharing your heart so openly. You have ministered to me deeply. Know I am praying for you, dear one.
My prayer for you has been that you will never recover from this experience – I will continue in that prayer for you.
Thank you, Melissa, for sharing your heart and letting the rest of us look into the world of Compassion. In highschool, I sponsored a child with Compassion. But, that was a long time ago. I think it is time to do this again.
I am speechless! Thank you for your posts through out your trip. Thank you Lord for bringing Melissa home safely and please guide her in what to do with her experiences.
Love,
Sacha
Dear Melissa, I have cherished your every heartfelt word. Although I may never see that part of the world with my own eyes, I have seen it through yours and am touched forever. I know I’ll never think of India, especially Calcutta the same. I’m glad you are home safe and sound. I hear we have more thunderstorms coming our way here in Atlanta. Great weather for reading and thinking about the greatness of our Father and His Son Jesus.
Thank you again for sharing your journey!
Melissa – thank you for being the real deal with us this week. Like so many others, I have been deeply touched. I could hardly read the screen today through the tears. I like Kim Safina’s mother’s day/birthday wish: children. I think I will copy her. There is not one thing I want that can compare to life for a child. Thank you, dear one. Thank you.
Wow Melissa – words can’t express the emotions reading all your blog posts about your trip. My eyes have been opened, and my heart saddened and even guilty for worrying about my “have nots” when they truly truly have NOT! thank you for sharing and moving our hearts into action.
THANK YOU MELISSA FOR THE POST THE PICTURES OF YOUR SPONSOR CHILDREN ARE GREAT WHEN MANOT SAID PRAY FOR THEM MY HEART BROKE I CAN’T EVEN BEGIN TO KNOW HOW YOU FELT. I PRAY THAT THE LORD WOULD CONTINUE TO KEEP OUR HEARTS SOFT AND THAT EVERYDAY THAT WE HAVE THAT WE WOULD THANK GOD FOR ALL THE THINGS WE HAVE AND COUNT ALL OUR BLESSINGS AND EVEN WHEN WE ARE DOWN TO OUR LAST DIME THAT WE WOULD STILL THANK GOD. THANK YOU MELISSA FOR SHARING WITH ME YOUR JOURNEY TO INDIA WHAT A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE FOR YOU AND IT IS CHANGING MY LIFE AS WELL. I MAY NEVER MEET YOU THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN BUT WHEN I DO MEET YOU I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SIT DOWN WITH YOU AND TALK AND GIVE YOU A BIG HUG. YOU AND AMANDA AND YOUR MOM ARE AWESOME AND SO REAL YOU ALL ARE THE REAL DEAL THANKS YOUR SEISTA IN ALBUQUERQUE NM CAROL