I handle the sound and video for the children’s ministry at Brookwood Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. Lately, I’ve been serving both on Saturday nights as well as Sunday mornings.
December 1st we began our campaign of giving for Compassion International. Our intention was to allow our 1st through 5th graders to give $384 over the month of December for the purpose of sponsoring one child through Compassion International. That night, after viewing a video about Compassion and hearing of the goal, one young boy named Josh began to come under God’s conviction and decided that a child in an impoverished village needed his birthday money of $85 more than he needed the Guitar Hero game he’d previously been saving for. Last Saturday night, he asked if he could contribute his savings.
That touched me, and God began to speak to me as well. I had recently become debt-free and was sitting on a lot of money for this time of the year. I thought that if a young child could give what must’ve seemed like a huge amount of money, surely I could give as well. I’d first intended to grab $100 from an ATM the next morning and give to the cause, but I later felt God’s leading that that wasn’t enough. I decided I’d match whatever the children gave, up to $384, provided they wouldn’t know it was me doing so (I didn’t want to become the focus) and that they’d choose 1 boy and 1 girl.
Rosalyn, our Children’s Director, contacted the boy’s parents to be sure they’d be okay with their son’s generosity. Not only were they okay with it, they each matched his amount, bringing the overall total to $639, just $129 shy of our new goal of $768.
Next, we began hearing stories of children raking leaves, cleaning around the house and doing other things without being asked to earn their allowance or otherwise earn money. At the end of today’s services, they’d given an additional $551, bringing our total to $1190 toward our new goal of $1920. Our intention is to sponsor 5 children; one for each grade.
Finally, one of the parent’s heard of Josh’s sacrifice and told of their child’s Guitar Hero game that is no longer used, and they’re planning to give it to Josh as a Christmas present next weekend.
If this isn’t the textbook definition of a “God thing,” I don’t know what is.
Update 12/23/2007: We added $102 toward our goal this weekend, meaning there’s $628 left to go.
Update 12/30/2007: Things have changed: We’ve decided to focus on 4 children; a boy and a girl for 1st and 2nd grades, and a boy and a girl for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, meaning $1,536 is our new goal. We’re at $1,428 as we start 1st hour church, so $108 left to go
Follow up 12/30/2007: We met our goal of $1,536 and change was raised. The kids are sponsors 4 children total, and they’ve already chosen who they’ll be sponsoring.