Guest Post: A Visit to Peru

Today I am privileged to have Jill, who blogs at Compassion Family. (I was honored to post on Jill's blog last week. If you didn't have a chance to read my post there, click here.)

Jill has been a sponsor since 1994 and an advocate since 1997. She is a homeschooling mama to 2 daughters. She teaches violin and loves to read, hike, garden and travel. Jill also blogs at Daily Bread.

Jill previously traveled to Peru with Compassion and willingly shares her story with us! She is also currently preparing for a trip to Thailand with her husband and two daughters. They are going to visit missionary friends and will also meet their Compassion child! I recommend check out her blog to learn more about her trip to Thailand.

Well, without further ado, let me share Jill's story:

In August of 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Peru with Compassion International. I’m always amazed at God’s providence and direction for my life, and this trip is one of many examples where God, in his providence, had something great in mind for me. Although I had been sponsoring children through Compassion for more than 15 years, I had never traveled to one of the 26 countries where Compassion works.

I signed up for the trip to Peru for various reasons – none of them included meeting my sponsored child. In fact, I didn’t even sponsor a child in Peru. I did have a correspondence child, but our relationship was new and he left Compassion’s program shortly after I decided to go on the trip. I won’t get into the reasons I signed up for the trip, but I know God had his own reasons, different from my own, for me going to Peru.

When I met the other advocates in Miami, all were eager to share about the special child they were going to meet. I felt a little left out as I would be spending sponsor fun day with two brand new correspondence kids instead of a child I had sponsored for a long-time. I was looking forward to meeting Alejandrina and David, but I wasn’t really excited about it.

This lack of excitement turned out to be a good thing. A very good thing. You see, we arrived in Peru in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. We weren’t meeting our sponsored children until Wednesday. Had I been caught up in the excitement of meeting a special child that I’d been sponsoring for years, I would have simply endured the next three days. Instead, I was able to soak in every experience and detail of seeing Compassion’s ministry in Peru.

God knew, in his providence, that this was exactly what I needed to see as an advocate. As a long-time advocate with quite a bit of experience, I thought I knew how Compassion’s ministry worked. I’d been presenting the benefits of sponsorship to crowds and individuals for more than 10 years, yet I’d never seen it in action. When I did finally see it, it was life changing.

You can read your Bible and get a pretty good idea of who God is, but when you experience a personal relationship with Him….everything changes. I can read books and look at photos of another country and feel like I know a lot about that country, but when you walk the streets, hear the language, smell the air and meet the people, you are experiencing it at a completely different level. The same can be said about Compassion.

In Peru, I worshipped in the local church where Compassion works. I expected Compassion’s name and logo to be plastered all over the church and very visible to outsiders, but it wasn’t. Compassion is there and works through the local church, but they take a back seat in terms of recognition and really let the local church do the work. I met the pastor and heard his heart for the people of his community.

One day was dedicated completely to learning about and experiencing Compassion’s Child Survival Program (CSP). I watched trained Compassion staff work with mothers and their children, learning simple skills like cutting with scissors. We did home visits and watched the Compassion staff work with the child and mother in the home. I learned that Dina (mother of Estefany, age 2) was six months pregnant and that her involvement in CSP with Estefany was also helping her through her pregnancy. We were also able to buy some of the items the CSP mothers had handcrafted, thus supporting them further.

One day I helped serve lunch to all the children at a Compassion project. I knew that kids in Compassion’s programs get a healthy, hot meal when they attend the project, but it’s quite incredible to meet the women who cook the food and watch the children give thanks to God before they eat.

In the afternoon, we learned how Compassion’s Complementary Intervention (CIV) program helped and benefitted this local church. I sat under the new roof which better insulated the building keeping it warmer during the winter months. I used the new bathroom and walked on the new tile flooring in the student center. I even visited a newly constructed home that had burned down a few months before.

One of the correspondent “children” I was meeting was actually a Leadership Development Program student who was studying at the local university. At dinner one evening, I sat with David and heard the many ways in which Compassion released him and his family from poverty. The next day I met his mother and wouldn’t stop thanking me for investing in the life of her son. Before I left, she vowed to pray for me as I continued my journey as a mother.

As we walked through the slums of Lima, it was hard to feel hope. Yet when we reached the local church where Compassion works in these communities, the signs of hope were visible to everyone. Children were dancing, learning, dreaming, playing and praying. The older kids take classes where they learn simple crafts, silk-screening, hydroponic gardening and beauty skills….all trades that can be used to generate income.

We also saw the children standing outside the gates of the church…the children who are not part of Compassion’s programs for one reason or another. It was obvious they wanted to be inside and be included in the goodness that was going on. It was heartbreaking to see how badly some wanted in. Even in their youth and innocence, they could recognize what was good.

Peru changed me. I came back a better sponsor because of a conversation I had with some sponsored children; a conversation about letter writing. One child asked why his sponsor didn’t love him. When we asked a few more questions to understand why he didn’t feel loved, he revealed that his sponsor didn’t write letters to him.

I also came back a better advocate. Prior to my trip, the focus of my advocacy was to find and connect new sponsors to children who were waiting. Peru taught me that sponsor development is equally, if not more, important. If I can help sponsors understand their ministry and get the most from their experience, they are more likely to continue being sponsors.

I am forever grateful to God for the opportunity I had to travel to Peru. In some ways, it was the beginning of my Compassion journey.

I was so encouraged hearing more about Jill's experience in Peru! If you would like to read more about her trip, you can check out her older posts here (Jill doesn't currently blog here, but all her Peru posts are located on this blog).