10 Images of Where Children Sleep Around the World

This boy (who remains anonymous for his own safety) was a child soldier during the war in Liberia. He became a soldier because the offer of food and money was too hard to refuse. He goes to a school for ex-child-soldiers. He is an orphan and has three brothers. He wants to be a teacher when he grows up.

Click below to view:
Where Children Sleep
After viewing those, consider sponsoring a child. For the amount of money you spend a month on burgers, you could change a child's life. We sponsor through Compassion and the group of little girls I work with on Wed nights at New Hope has just recently sponsored a child through Mayan Families. The adults of New Hope sponsor from Amazima. The point isn't which organization you sponsor through, but that we stop saying it needs to be done and actually do it. You can check out each organization through Charity Navigator to see how they monies you give are spent. But, again, make a difference and do something.

Compassion International 

 Mayan Families  

Save the Children 

 World Vision 

 Amazima

Rice and beans for a week

From It's Like Herding Cats:

I can remember the first time I heard about what God was doing in Uganda through Katie Davis. Admiration and amazement came to me in equal amounts. How this young woman would see caring for orphaned children in Africa as better than life here in the USA and then how in the world was she able to do it?

Once I spent some time reading her blog and hearing her stories, it was obvious that God was using this woman to teach a lot of others about living for Him. Amazima Ministries is the organization that grew out of her desire to love and care for these children.

Read David's full post "We'll Hold the Ropes" and learn how rice and beans can make a big difference.

Worth the Sacrifice

The King will answer, "Whenever you did it for any of My people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for Me." Matthew 25:40

This morning begins our challenge of eating rice & beans for a week. Our breakfast here consisted of plain white rice and coffee. This is a part of New Hope's effort to see what it might even start to be like to eat like the more than 800,000,000 who go to bed hungry each day.

God has been working in ways we've never seen Him work with New Hope before. From individuals sponsoring children via Compassion or World Vision to a group of little girls crafting their hearts out in order to sell their items to church members with monies going to hungry children throughout the world, to our adult couples class sponsoring Worth the Sacrifice - the Lord is changing us. He is growing our hearts bigger and deeper in our love for The Least of These.

It's one of those things that is so easy to not think about. We live out our incredibly God-blessed lives turning on the tap for clean pure water, grabbing a snack, and eating meals large enough to feed an impoverished family 4 times over. We take our daily bread for granted simply because it's always been there for us.

It's staggering to find out the stats on how many people do not have clean drinking water or how little some have to eat. We've found that once you actually take the small step to coming to know a child through a sponsorship or simply reading a blog written by someone who is devoting his/her life to caring for those who have nothing, there's a shift in the way you view the world. It brings you closer to the Father...and there is no better place to be.