Doing What We Can

For years I've wanted to get the children and I involved in a service project. You know, one we can actually participate in together.

The problem is my children are too small to truly be of service for many of the things I have thought to do. We've helped at our church food pantry as well as a local community food pantry on several occasions, but we were all too much in the way to be of any real help.

Sometimes I got discouraged because I felt there was something more we should be doing. I had to remind myself that all things come in good time.

What I have discovered is simple things we can do from home that hopefully have an impact - in the lives of others as well as our own.

Several months ago I decided to sponsor a child through Compassion International. We picked a
4-year-old girl from India named Ashuka. We write her frequent letters and have recieved one in return. Being a Compassion sponsor has created interesting discussions about poverty and lives lived in stark contrast to our privileged existence.

Another thing is using our weekly church bulletin to pray for those in our church and community battling illness and dealing with grief after the death of a loved one. The bulletin lists individuals who have been given a prayer pager. We say a brief prayer for the person and their family and then call the pager. There's no person on the other end or any type of message that needs to be left. It's literally a pager that vibrates whenever anyone calls it to let the recipient know that someone is lifting them up in prayer.