A Compassion Journey

Today, I am going to share a guest post by Hannah with you.  She was the author to the 200th comment on my blog!  Hannah is a math professor.  She lives with husband and one year old son, Juanito.  You can find her at Because of Shamim, where she blogs about Compassion and her sponsored children.

I thought I'd share how I was introduced to Compassion! Before my parents met, they came to Christ and were introduced to Compassion. They each started sponsoring a child….one had a child from South Korea and another had a child from Burma! Shortly after they were married, Compassion left both countries (South Korea because they no longer needed help and Burma because the political situation was so bad). And so they were assigned Margaret, from Kenya, and Aaron, from the Philippines. 

So I grew up hearing about Margaret and Aaron, writing them letters, praying for them and considering them my older siblings. Margaret and Aaron always remembered my siblings and I in their letters and we had so much fun writing to them and drawing them pictures! When I was in middle school, Margaret graduated Compassion's program and she now works as a seamstress. Aaron graduated Compassion's program also and began studies at the university. My parents then added two more kids--Leslie from Peru and Lazaro from Tanzania. 

While I enjoyed writing to my parents' kids, I wanted my own sponsored child! So when my parents hosted a Compassion Sunday at our church, I studied those child packets. I was about 11 years old and most of the kids available were 5, 6 and 7. But there was a 10-year-old girl named Shamim. Shamim was from Uganda. I begged my parents to let me sponsor her and they agreed to pay me for chores so that I could afford her! (When I sponsored Shamim, it was $24 a month…when my youngest brother started sponsoring as a middle-schooler, it was up to $38 a month…my mom complains that her chore pay-scale had to go up due to inflation!) 

I worked so hard to sponsor Shamim, and Shamim and I are still in touch even though she graduated! She's a dear sister to me. And my experience with her was such that when I got my first real job, I added 3 more girls…and then 2 more boys…and then my husband's boy when we were married…and then a boy and a girl this past year! 

And that's how God led me down this wonderful road of sponsoring through Compassion!

Don't forget to check out Hannah's blog HERE!