Today I was clipping out images of Africa for my wall from some old National Geographic magazines I picked up. I came across ...
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Today I was clipping out images of Africa for my wall from some old National Geographic magazines I picked up. I came across one of the advertisements that seem to pop up so often but are so often overlooked. The top said:
"Don't think of it as charity. Think of it as hope for one little child."
And under that title, it featured a picture of this beautiful African girl. Underneath it said, "Like so many deprived children in Kenya, little Buchi depends on the kindness of other."
For the first time, it really hit me: She has a name. She is not just an image out of a magazine or one flashed on tv every other commercial break. She is a beautiful little girl, not just a face. I think that because of the consistency at which those commercials come on tv or are in magazines, I have developed an apathy to them. Yet another hurting child. I cannot help her too, have you seen all of the commercials? Each one has a different child, a different name, a different country. There are countless children who were brought into this world and do not have the basic necessities to make it through their first years of their lives. Today I am broken.
Recently I had made the decision to sponsor a little girl from Honduras. She is also a beautiful little girl. She too has a name. And I was able to finally make a connection with all of the advertisements I see. I was able to finally help the situation, but I feel that it isn't enough. I grew up with food to eat, a roof over my head, schooling, and more. I had an abundance of toys to play with. I had snacks and desserts to eat. I had more than enough. So why is it that there are children dying by the second because they don't even have food?
The picture above is the beautiful little girl who I am helping. By giving up just a little bit of the abundant gift God has given me, I am able to provide food, clothes, and a Biblical foundation for this little girl, and not only her but her family as well. Some might think that I am losing out, that because I'm giving, I won't have the money to spend on fun things to do with friends, on coffee drinks from Caribou, or on little things I don't need but would like to have. But the more I think about it, the more that I realize, I am not missing out at all, I am not losing at all. I am gaining so much. I have the ability to share the love of Jesus with this little girl. To see her grow up, which in itself is worth it, that she will not grow up in poverty, to see her grow in the Lord. I want to do so much more, I want to help so many others, but I am only able to do so much on my own.
This little girl is my advertisement, but not in the way of commercials or magazines. She is my advertisement to live life to the fullest. To realize that anything I get or make, money or otherwise, is a gift from God that I can share with others and bless them. To remember those who don't have and pray for them, that they may receive, if nothing more the Lord Jesus Christ because that is all we truly need to survive. She is my reminder that those children are not just faces, not actors and actresses, but living people, children of God, who need help. Ritsi Yaquelin Cruz Chavez. She has a birthday. She has siblings. She has a mom. She has a dad. She has a name.
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