ORIGINALLY POSTED WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1

max and i had a wonderful two days here in guatemala seeing the work of compassion, international. each day we visited two projects (compassion has about 3000 projects around the world, with a rough average of 300+ children in each one), and visited the home of a sponsor child at each site also.

the first site visit was unique in that we visited during school hours, so there weren’t any children there. but we had a chance to sit with the entire staff of the project (about 25 people, i’d say) and talk back-and-forth (though an interpreter). it gave us a chance to ask all kinds of questions and follow-up questions that often wouldn’t be as easy to talk about if dozens of children were running around.

a highlight of this stop:
during our sharing time, max had mentioned that he sponsors a compassion child — a boy in equador. the staff of the project were amazed that max, a 9 year-old, was a sponsor (even when i explained that his mom and dad help with most of the money, but that he puts in some each month also, and he does all the correspondance and gift buying and such). afterward, one of the staff came up to max (i was standing nearby, or wouldn’t have seen this), got down on her knees in front of him, and, through an interpreter, introduced max to her two little girls who are both sponsored children. she explained how important it is to her that her children are sponsored, and — through tears — thanked max for being a sponsor. then she hugged max for a long time. i was crying, she was crying, max was… well… moved, but a bit unsure how to respond! but he talks about it now as a very special moment.

in preparation for this trip, i decided to sponsor a child from guatemala. jeannie sponsors a child in kenya; liesl sponsors a child in haiti; max, one in equador. so i thought it was about time for me anyhow! the paperwork was only filled out a few days ago, but we got to visit my new sponsor child in his home. more on that in my next post (pictures to come also).

i gotta prep for today (our spanish youth workers convention here, which begins at 1pm): i’m doing a 2 1/2 hour super-seminar on young teens, and then speaking in the opening general session (and i don’t have that planned yet — yikes!).

UPDATE: A PHOTO TAKEN SECONDS AFTER THE ABOVE HIGHLIGHT STORY
this is the compassion project worker and her daughters who talked to max and hugged him.