Through My Eyes: Missions, My Sponsor Child and Where I Want to Go

(Abby has recently started her own blog inspired by her love of writing this series. This blog was originally posted on Through My Eyes...)

Hey everybody! Today, I’m going to talk about what I have been thinking about doing with my life for quite a while. Missions is something that I used to look at and think “All the bug bites those people must get…” and I really never looked at the bigger picture. Last year at Bigstuf, I gave a bible to a little boy in Kenya named Bilha Njeri. That was when I first realized that missions were more than bug bites and living in a clay hut. Over the course of this past year, I have grown to love missions. I mean, at first I wasn’t like “Oh my gosh, I need to go save all the little children NOW!”  But now I’m definitely all about it.

I really started loving it about two or three months ago. One day, I was aimlessly walking down the hall at Bayshore when I came along this table with these pictures of kids on them. I look at each picture, seeing how old the kids are, where they live and stuff like that. So I venture back to my mothers desk and I say to her “Mom, I want one of those children.” On the way home, she goes “Call your nana, and maybe she will do the money part of everything.” So I call my Nana up and after various moments of explaining what it is and what I want, she agrees. That weekend, I make my sponsorship happen. I did it with One Child Matters and now, for 31 dollars a month, I sponsor Juana F. Reyes Fuentes, a 12 year old girl from Honduras. Juana lives with her parents and her four brothers and sister in a simple concrete blockhouse which lacks many amenities. Her father is a factory worker and their family appreciates what the Casa de los Ninos Child Development Center does for Juana. (I believe Casa de los Ninos is Children’s home in Spanish..) The place where Juana lives is in the community of La Joyada. In this agricultural region of southern Honduras, unemployment is very high. Malaria and worms often affect children, and medical treatment is expensive. Children have limited access to education and may be forced to work.

I cannot tell you how happy I was when we got her and Juana definitely means the world to me. I had to wait to get a packet to write Juana her first letter, and that took only forever…but when mom posted on my Facebook wall that my packet came while I was at Bigstuf, it only made my week so much better. Right when I got home, I made sure to write my letter perfectly. It took me almost 5-6 tries and several pieces of paper before I was confident enough to send it. I put the silliest picture of me and Lily, my dog, so that she could see me and put a smile on her face first thing, and the best picture of my family. I don’t know if she got my letter yet, but I hope Juana keeps it forever. I can’t wait for her first letter to me. I plan on writing her at least once a month, or however often I can. Really, Juana just boost my want to go places and meet kids in need.

This title also says where I want to go, right? What I have wanted to do since Bigstuf, is go to Uganda in Africa. Bigstuf this year really focused on missions, I feel, and Bob Goff made me want to go to Uganda. I want to go and help all the people and meet them and talk to them and its something I plan on paying for and doing before I turn 20. Yes. Before 20. I tell people this, and most of them are like “No, no! That’s dangerous!” but really, its just what I feel like I want to do. I feel like its what God wants me to do. I plan on asking for another child for Christmas, which is something I definitely want, and if that is my only Christmas present…I will think that it is the best Christmas present anyone has ever gotten me.

 

Through My Eyes…..God’s path is the one I am running down, and there is no way to stop me!!! 

Abby