Meet this little guy from Bangladesh named Dipok who is about to turn 5 years old. He’s part of the Compassion International program where people like you and me can sponsor a child from a multitude of impoverished countries. They are a Christian child advocacy ministry and they help these children grow into responsible, educated and fulfilled Christian adults.
We got the heads up about this place from Anne Jackson’s blog, who regularly tries to get her readers to become part of this process.
I’m thankful for her promotion of this kind of work, because I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a long, long time. My parents used to sponsor a girl in Venezuela I believe and that always stuck with me. I can still vividly remember our family receiving a letter from this girl, complete with pictures and updates from her life. Even at a young age, it made a huge impression on me.
So Jina and I decided that we needed to do this and Dipok is now a member of our family. It’s simply amazing that $32 a month, a tiny amount for most of us, can give children like Dipok food, education, clothing and healthcare. Everything he needs.
And you want to talk about possible omens? We’ve all been predicting Lyla’s birthday for late next month, and guess when Dipok was born?
November 25th.
I suddenly like that date, even if it’s pretty early. Jina found out she came early as well, so it could all line up.
Our next step with Dipok is to send him a photo of us and write a letter of introduction in a way, telling him who we are, what we like, etc.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to do this and to see what he writes back. He’s fairly young, but the amazing thing about this is that you can stay a part of their lives up until they graduate high school.
It will be a true blessing to see how he grows into a young man and hear from him along the way.
I encourage any of you out there in a position to help one of these kids to check our Compassion International and see if it’s something you’d like to do. What a simple way to make a HUGE difference in someone’s life.
Interested in buying a print? Click here for my price guide.
Wow! You would have thought, 2 kids in one year…
Love it… I did something like this when I was 17…sponsored a kid for a year…
=) Kudos, for making a difference in the world…
Why did you stop? Any reason?
I'm only asking because I really want to try and stick this out and watch him graduate from high school. From the stuff I read, it seems like it might be important to the child.
Of course, helping in anyway possible is awesome…
Can you send him presents, clothes, school supplies, etc? Or do they just want you to send the $? Our church sponsors a child, we have never done it personally. Always thought I would like to but John's priorities and mine are different so it never worked out.
You can send extra money for gifts, etc., but the project is the one that
goes out to buy the actual gift I think.
There is also a pool for all the kids that are part of the project for a
Christmas gift…extra money sent to this pool gets distributed evenly.
This is awesome Mike! YAY!
Incredible, Mike. Thanks for sponsoring Dipok and blogging about it so others might be inspired to do the same. Let me know if you ever need anything from Compassion.
Compassion and I are taking a group of bloggers to Dominican Republic next week – Nov. 2-7 – so if anyone is interested in learning more about what Compassion is doing in countries like the DR, you can head over to CompassionBloggers.com/Dominican next week and read along.
Thanks again, Mike.
-Shaun
CompassionBloggers.com
Thanks for blogging about it!
No problem Shaun, good luck in your next “blogger” trip
Sounds like fun, and must be a life-changing experience, much like Anne has said.
My understanding is that they create a community there with the kids involved in the program. Some families have a couple of kids sponsored and a couple more waiting. We went automatically to the section of the website where it lists the kids who have been waiting for a long time (more than 6 months) to be sponsored. That's how we found Dipok. I can't wait to get to know him…. and hopefully this little bit of money will make a difference in his life.
WOW! What a Blessing! This is really neat! Picking it up where your parents left off. I'm surprised you remembered that we did this. The girl we sponsored was about your age (5-6, maybe younger) if I remember correctly. But due to my faulty stewardship of Gods funds for our family we were not able to continue very long. Make it a priority in your budget, you will be very blessed.
Love, Dad
Thanks Dad…things happen, hopefully we'll be able to keep doing this for a long time. Thanks for doing it when we were kids and helping influence me to do this later when I grew up
We do this with World Vision for a boy named Negesu. He's getting pretty old now! It's great, but reminds me we haven't written him in a loong time.