Cornaille Ottis

Here he is! Our new family member...sort of. We're sponsoring him through Compassion International. We should get his info soon and be able to send him a letter and some pictures, the girls are so excited! Look at the little smile on his face, he looks like he's about to get into some mischief. I thought he'd fit right in! He's from Burkina Faso, which is a French speaking African country, so maybe, just MAYBE my years of French will do me some good...
I wanted to say also that our experience with Compassion has been really wonderful and their emphasis on correspondence with each child and in sharing the gospel really resonated with us. We had noticed that our sponsorship through another organization meant that our child was getting "spiritual nurture" and we also noticed that after almost 6 years, we still received all of our letters addressed to "dear sponsor". It didn't even seem like we were really supporting a child. Sometimes I would get her progress report and it would say everything as "he" instead of "she". We had just had enough and we wanted to have a relationship with a child that we knew was really helping THAT child.

We researched Compassion and I read their website from top to bottom. I'm just really impressed. Also, in the few days that we've been sponsoring, I've checked back to see what children are still listed for Burkina Faso and it went from 63 children on Tuesday with 2 kids that had been listed for over 6 months to 55 children with no children being listed over 6 months. Praise God!

I met a friend of a friend in the blogging world who works at Compassion, and within a day she had e-mailed me lots of extra info about Cornaille (the girls call him Corney Ottis) with a large picture of him. Wow. I'm just blown away.

These children, once sponsored, really get a chance for them and their families to be lifted out of poverty both physically and spiritually. The program is run through a local church where the children hear, probably for the first time, about the saving work of Jesus and his care and compassion for them. If my money went just to make sure they heard this message, I would be blessed! But it does so much more for them. The children who aren't allowed to go to children can learn to read. They provide food if necessary, and clothing and school tuition and most importantly, discipleship through bible study. This country is primarily muslim and many children go to muslim school. Only 10% of the population is "Christian" and that is primarily Catholic.

Through compassion I can send small gifts directly to my child and his family. I can even arrange to go meet him! This isn't just a little face on the screen, this is a living, breathing little boy with a spirit and soul that is precious to Christ. I believe that we will be changed just as much, if not more than he will be through this experience.

If you'd like to be part of this amazing experience too, you can go to www.compassion.com or click the link next to this post. Blessings!