The Phil Files

After yesterday’s post and a few bits of feedback and some healthy skepticism about the good of donating to certain relief efforts, I would like share two things with you.

First, my own experience with the child we sponsor in Uganda with Compassion.

What you see are the medical treatment records of our sponsored child, Doreen. These records were more than an inch thick. They were carefully taken and tracked.

Doreen was brought into the Compassion’ Child Survival Program at 1 year old because she was felt to be at high risk. Without medical treatment, immunizations, regular doctor’s visits, mosquito nets for her bed, treatment for her mom, training for her mom and grandmom, Doreen and I would probably have never met because she would have not survived the two and a half years before I met her.

The second picture, of Doreen with me, reveals to you how great a tragedy that would have been for both Doreen and her family, as well as my family and me. Where God will take Doreen, how she will respond to the love of God and the opportunities she has, are really outside my control. But, I can help give her a chance at life, a group of people who will help her meet Jesus, my daily prayers, notes and cards, and the assurance of the basics of life — in other words, I can help release her to have an opportunity at life — for about 110 pennies a day!

Second, I’d like to point you to my friend, Shaun’s blog to learn more about what it means to “release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.” Check out Shaun’s clear and vivid explanation.

You see, we’re not donating to a cause or an organization, we’re helping children … we know … we’ve held … and we pray we’ll know forever.

Click the Sponsor a Child with Compassion button at the top right and see for yourself!

The wise one said it powerfully and clearly:

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God (Proverbs 14:31 TNIV).

A photo from a recent trip to Africa called to mind this passage. The color, shadowing, and sunlight called me to this message. But this image is more than that for me. I can still remember the smell of that moment … the smell of the fish being cleaned about fifteen feet to the left of this picture, the smell of the morning cooking smoke still hanging in the air, the smell of human waste barely detectable in the breeze, and the aroma of baby spit up smelling like moldy soy. I also remember the emotional smells: a faint aroma of hope celebrating the intervention of Compassion into the lives of a twenty-two year old married HIV positive woman of with two young children and the clean, prepared, and loving tenderness of the project worker who shared scripture and love, as well as her expertise on health and nutrition, with this family a world away from where I live.

Now if I can just live to honor God in this … I so want to be a person of honor, who honors, the LORD who has been so gracious with me, by being a real, tangible, fragrantly pleasing aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15). To bet a part of culture change, as Randy’s Watercooler Wednesday suggests, I’ve got to keep all the odors as images in my heart and then act personally.

While I like the Scripture graphic (aka PowerPoint background) with the text, of the three related images, I like the one without any text or title most of all. All three — the Bible text, the title, and the plain image — can be downloaded free from Heartlight.org. Check on the latest images, or use the search for color, Bible reference, or key theme. Here’s a small version of the real image:

 

Well, it’s way too late to be posting this. I should have done it much earlier today, but then we all know how plans some days. But since I have to take one of my last anti-malarial pills tonight, I was going to at least enjoy the precious memories of the recent Uganda trip with Compassion International to encourage people to sponsor a child.

God blessed all of us on this trip in so many ways. We had safe travel with few connection difficulties and little or no luggage problems. Health problems were pretty minimal, as well. Remarkably, God took a bunch of very different people and poured us together and blended us into a remarkable cocktail of grace. I personally treasure the folks with whom I spent this time and consider meeting them a great gift.

One of those remarkable people we all met was not a blogger when we arrived in Uganda– but he does now blog regularly and I encourage you to check out his message. In fact, he didn’t travel to Uganda with us. He was waiting for us at the Entebbe airport, and from that first meeting till the end of the trip, he made sure every detail of our time there was well utilized and enhanced. He covered our tardiness, helped make new plans on the fly, and arranged every facet of our time down the most precise detail. (If you have never led an international trip like this with so many different kinds of people, then you will only have to imagine how incredible his work proved to be!)

Dennis is a precious soul, whose soft and mellow voice is deep and rich, but full of passion and emotion. Dennis has a broad smile and a great laugh. Spend some time in conversation with him and you will find out that he has at least three great passions: 1) Jesus; 2) children; and 3) statistics. Dennis’ recent post on malaria as a sniper in Uganda gives you a taste of each of these three interests. He knows Scripture, the country of Uganda, and the issues at stake in the lives of the children we came to see.

One of my favorite pictures of Dennis shows him in the doorway almost portrayed in silhouette, with happy children in the background. I will carry this image of Dennis with me, because I see him as one standing near the door of hope for many children in Uganda. Most of those blessed by his efforts will never know him personally, because he is not going to call attention to himself, but their lives will be forever blessed.

While I know Dennis was sad in many ways to say goodbye to us and put us on a plane back home, I also know he was worn out and needed a break by the time we left. We can’t thank you enough, Dennis, for the great job you and the folks from Compassion in Uganda did. We will not forget you.

I ask all who read this to please pray for Dennis and the Ugandan team. Pray for peace for this country so surrounded by tribal strife on a continent that is dangerously “twitchy” with religious conflict. And most of all, if you have not prayerfully decided to sponsor a child, the greatest blessing you could give to these committed and dedicated servants of children is to prayerfully decide to sponsor a child, today — just click on this link and it will take you to the page to sponsor a child from Uganda.

If you would like to know a little more about Dennis and the children he loves, take a minute or two and enjoy the slide show below.

 

“What in the world is a BooMama?” I asked my wife, Donna, as tears of laughter streamed down her cheeks.

“Oh, she’s someone who blogs and is hilarious. All the girls I know read her. Denise turned me on to her because she’s a southern girl, too.”

Well, BooMama tries to explain what a BooMama is, but to be honest, the person, otherwise named Sophie, far outstripped any word-limited description. She is Southern Belle meets Southern Fried Chicken, with a sarcastic whit and a deep love for children, her family, and the Lord.

I was blessed to go on a blogging trip to Uganda with Compassion International — find out more by clicking the Uganda with Compassion tab above. Among the 15 or 16 very talented folks who came along was BooMama — I often had to pinch myself to see if I was really blessed to be along with this group: I think I was included as the token old geezer, blogging talent certainly didn’t get me in, that’s for sure! Not only did BooMama add spice, charm, humor, and an outstandingly delicious Southern drawwwwl, she was a mama blogger personified. She was great with kids and translated that love for children to her readers, many of whom sponsored a child.

Last night, after playing a week of catch up on sleep, work, writing, sermons, visits … I was sitting in the TV room watching my daughter laugh as she stared at her laptop. “You must have had quite a time with someone as sarcastically hilarious as BooMama!” Megan said. Yes, I’m in a house with two BooMama fans, but Donna has gone to BooMama land to speak with The Coffee Group on a ladies retreat at the Homewood Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

We then proceeded to laugh together as we read two of Sophie’s recent posts, Our Great Big Wilderness Adventure and My Afternoon Outside in Nature. I especially appreciated the latter, since I had gotten her to pause to show me her Southern Belle rock climbing shoes, pictured to the left — yes, I know they are Crocs, what did you expect?

While you can’t know the meaning of all of the pictures below, this is a little video summary of BooMama from my vantage point. What tells the whole story for me, however, is not something funny or crazy or Southern. When most of the group got to meet their sponsored child, I had already had an in home visit with our sponsored little girl. Having a big BooMama heart, Sophie made sure that her the little boy sponsored by her brother’s family was included in the lunch. So she made time for “Little D” and then shared him with me while she held, cradled, cuddled, and loved on her family’s little girl. Many of the pictures of Sophie and this little girl were actually taken by “Little D” who loved using my camera. Sophie’s little girl didn’t say a word until “goodbye,” but snuggled up and shared the love only a BooMama can give.

 


 

One week ago today, I was in Uganda making a home visit to the precious little girl we sponsor through Compassion International. One week! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and yet with jet lag and all the emotions, it seems like a month ago. But the emotions of meeting this precious little girl are as fresh and real and powerful to me today as they were one week ago!

For those that have asked, here’s a video of that visit. It took place over about seventy minutes. As you watch the video, you can detect at the beginning the nervousness on her part as well as my own. I’ve got a full video of the first few minutes and it’s painful for me to watch in its entirety because I experienced all of range of emotions as this little girl tries to figure all of this out. (You are spared all the nitty gritty minutes of this dance as we got acquainted — but she didn’t speak English and had never been around a white man.) What you don’t see are the first stages of the walk into the slum.

As this video shows, however, our interactions moved to a more relaxed, then fun, stage. At the end, we went inside the tiny little house, visited, and then came back outside and prayed together.

This precious little girl easily sat on my knee while we prayed and I got to see the smile on her face when I received the pictures from Keely about our visit — her photography is great and we were privileged to have her to ourselves for this treasured visit. My friend from Compassion, Tom Emmons, used my camera to get the digital video as unobtrusively as possible — thanks bro! Most treasured of all is the final picture that shows a joyous little girl, a loving mother, and an old preacher guy from West Texas grinning like crazy. Sweetness indeed!

Of course, no video of a Compassion child would be complete without a Michael W. Smith song in the background. This incredible artist is one of the leading advocates for children and Compassion.

I don’t know if these images tug at your heart, but I know it brings tears to the eyes of everyone in our family. It also drives us to our knees praying for God’s blessing on this child, her mother, grandmother, and siblings. (For more on this visit, please see the Heartlight.org article written immediately after the visit!)

God, please bless this child and use us and others like us to make a real difference, and eternal difference, in the lives of Your precious children. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

 

“Tonight,” Stephen said, “we are going to put the icing on the cake. Tonight, we are going to put the roof on the building.”

We had made our way to a wonderful evening dinner. While the food and atmosphere were good, we were anticpating something much more exciting. Our table was about to meet Dennis and Atofia. We were a bit nervous, but mostly excited. For several days, our band of weary bloggers had seen the first hand work of in the trenches. Now we were going to meet the finished person of Compassion. Completely overwhelmed with the need and the incredible work being done and the commitment of the Compassion workers — volunteer and paid — we were ready to see where all of this would lead.

For me, I needed some tangible hope to hang onto. I still would cry everytime I thought about leaving our Compassion child in that innermost, darkest part of the slum where she lived. I needed hope that she had a chance at any kind of life, much less the life I will pray for her to find.Our Compassion child had begun her relatonship with a Compassion project through CSP. CSP (Child Survival Project) involves internvention in high risk situations for very young children. The purpose is to rescue children in bad health situations — situations often involving an HIV positive mother and a deceased or sick father. Intervention often occurs before the child is born to prevent the mother’s HIV condition from being transmitted to her child. Health, hygiene, and habits are key parts of the education, mentoring, and help. Proper nutrition and immunizations are key as these children stay in the program until they are between 3 and 3 1/2 years old. We had seen some of the work that goes on in the neighborhood church/Compassion CSP projects on our home visits where we met children and their parents. We were always invited to pray with them and learn about their lives. From CSP, children are moved into CDSP (Child Sponsorship Project). CDSP is where those us who have been sponsors participate directly. This is more than sending a monthly check to help these children receive education, hygiene/nutrition help, spiritual training, including exposure to Christ if they have not already learned about Jesus. A sponsor also gets to write the children and pray for them regularly. We get to help with Christmas and birthday gifts, as well. This caries the children through their primary and secondary educations in a well monitored and surpervised program through a local church.