Two years ago in the summer of 2008, my son Aidan had a dream. He wanted to see water come to a small village in northern Ghana. So he helped raise some funds and we flew with a team of people to the north. Unfortunately, we didn’t find water, and now, two years later, we’re praying for a pipeline to be brought in to that village. Please do pray for Sankpem that water would flow freely there.

As I’ve written before, one of my highlights was watching Aidan dance with his new African friends, followed closely by seeing a Compassion International project in action. I’ve been a sponsor for 24 years. I started with a little girl in India while I was a college student. I never knew when/how/if the money would come in during those lean years, but every month, by God’s grace, the money came. And Sasikala grew from a tiny girl to a graduate. Our family has a new boy now, from Uganda. We write him letters. We pray for his provision.

So you can imagine how excited I was to see a project. We flew to the south of Ghana to Accra, its capital, and spent several hours with the project at All Souls Baptist Church. There, hundreds of children greeted us. One of the teachers there greeted them loudly. “And how are you?” she asked the hundreds of children.

“We are fine, thank you very much. And how are you?” They said it at the top of their lungs, all in unison.

Then several children recited memory verses. We were blessed with a dance, and some worship. I greeted the children, and some of our team danced/praised with them. They loved getting their pictures taken.

Then they took us to a house in the area, at the home of Regina and her mother Abigail. Regina was not yet sponsored (she is now), which made me sad. The scale of need is staggering with hundreds and thousands of children around the developing world living in abject poverty who could benefit from sponsorship.

Regina liked to play games and her favorite subject is math. When we asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, she said, “I want to be a doctor.” Her home was a ten by ten foot room, a single fluorescent light dangling from the ceiling. She shared it with three of her siblings and her mother. The walls were painted turquoise, and the room seemed very, very dark with little ventilation. But Regina’s smile lit the room.

I’m so thankful I had the chance to see Compassion blessing kids. The children were blessedly alive, filled with joy, and very sweet. I could see they were learning respect, and they were learning about Jesus. I am thankful, so thankful for the visit.