Guatemala Posts:
1. 2/14/12 – Valentine’s Day Vacation & Pre-Trip
2. 2/20/12 – Funny Story With Gringos, Girls, & Oversized Bags In A Small Guatemalan Airport
Have You Ever Considered Sponsoring A Child?
Maybe you’ve seen the commercials on TV with the malnourished kids in Africa, or you heard a presentation at a big event. I can attest to the fact that extreme poverty, disease, & malnourishment are a very realistic reality in a lot of places in the world. We can all take a step to change that for the better though, one person at a time. For me, one of the steps I’ve chosen to take is to sponsor children in impoverished areas through Compassion International. They are a top rated 4 Star Charity, have been around since 1952, and they are responsible for over 1 Million children being sponsored which provides food, education, medical aid, biblical influence, & more!
You can get more information on their website at www.compassion.com
As a believer in Christ I strive to follow His word. Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said to be a servant, to give to others, and to take care of the least of these. Sponsoring a child in an impoverished area is one of the many ways in which you can take care of God’s children. It’s also extremely fulfilling and will bring a lot of joy to your life as you get to change the life of a child with the blessings that God gave you.
I started sponsoring my first child in the Fall of 2010 after hearing a presentation at a MercyMe & Phil Wickham show. I had been meaning to sponsor a child for a few years, but the strings just never fell into place. One time I even requested a packet of a child online, but then failed to send in the form with my information to start the sponsorship. Fail! I picked up a packet during intermission at the show and have been sponsoring the same little girl in Ghana, Africa ever since. You receive letters from your child and pictures sometimes too which is a lot of fun! You’re allowed to correspond with them, write letters, send postcards or small gifts, and give gifts for their birthday & Christmas. I’m not married and don’t have any kids, so my Compassion children have pretty much become my own. I always love coming home from a vacation or a long tour with the band to see a letter or two from one of my children! Speaking of them, in December I started sponsoring 3 more children through Compassion. I have 3 boys in The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, & Guatemala.
My Child Visit In Guatemala:
As you may know, I’m actually in Guatemala right now as I write this, and I was able to visit with my child 2 days ago!! This was an incredible experience and honestly was worth the whole trip! He is just the cutest little guy ever!! If you sponsor a child through Compassion they allow you to visit the child. You can setup a visit with their local Compassion team based off your own travel schedule, or there are packaged trips scheduled for certain areas all year that you can join. I already had a trip booked for Guatemala when I started sponsoring Jonathan here, so it was perfect!
Being the sizable company that Compassion is, you have to fill out a few forms as well as pay for a criminal background check before you can finalize details of your visit. All good precautions that any responsible company that works with children should take. After that, you set up the final details with the local team, you get a budget for the trip (food, transportation, translator, etc.), and then lock it in! They have a whole department just for child visits, so they give you plenty of information including a gift guide on what to bring for your child. My boy is a 5 year old Guatemalan, so I of course brought him things like a soccer ball, Transformers backpack, baseball cap, Hotwheels, Cars coloring book, etc… All things that young boys love! I actually had a blast shopping for him, which means I’ll probably end up spoiling my own kids someday 
Check out the pictures from my visit. I hope they inspire you.
After lots of playing in the park we went to McDonalds to eat and so we could play some more in the play area. This was his first time leaving his small pueblo which is 5 hours away, and it was also his first time at McDonalds, or “Mac” as a lot of Guatemalans call it! Very special day for all of us.
Earn Miles For Sponsoring A Child:
It’s easiest to setup your child sponsorship through an automatic withdrawal from your checking account or by setting up an auto-payment on your credit card. Obviously to earn miles, you want to use a mileage earning credit card. You can help kids through Compassion and hit minimum spends on cards as well. You don’t have to pay monthly if you’d prefer to pay a lump sum. For example, if you just want to prepay for 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc. of sponsorship in advance, that’s totally fine! For me I use my American Express SPG card for all of my charitable donations, b/c I don’t have any cards that give category bonuses for charitable giving, and I value SPG points very highly.
Info On Sponsoring A Child:
- Go to www.compassion.com and click “Sponsor A Child”.
- $38 a month
- The website says it provides food, clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, important life skills training, & they share the message of Jesus with the kids.
- You can pay an entire year up front, or less, or more, or just have re-occurring monthly payments.
I hope this post has inspired you today to not just travel for pleasure, but to travel with purpose. $38 a month sounds like a lot to some of you, but most of us spend triple that at Starbucks every month!
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