Earlier this week we were finally able to have our family meeting about choosing our Compassion child. We decided on 3 criteria as a family-location, gender and age. The location we chose was the Dominican Republic. We chose the DR because both my oldest son and I have been on mission trips to the DR and we have a connection to the country. We chose to sponsor a boy because we have two boys. We chose to sponsor a teenager because both of my boys are teens and I have read a lot about how the teens are harder to find sponsors for.

Aderlin Hernandez Ozuna-Our Compassion Child

Thursday I went to the Compassion Sponsorship website put in our parameters and 4 young men’s pictures and information popped up. I prayed as I read about each one, wishing I could sponsor them all. In the end I felt led to choose 17yo Aderlin. Aderlin’s birthday is next month and we are excited to begin corresponding with him!

This week’s blogging assignment is to write a letter, poem, or prayer from the perspective of a sponsored child. I chose to write a haiku.

Chosen

God answered my prayer
A Christian family chose
To love and help me

I hope and pray that you will click the link above and prayerfully choose a child to sponsor and join us in helping children who live in poverty.

The post Compassion Blog Month Coming to a Close appeared first on The Mom Maven.

This week Compassion is sponsoring a Pinterest Contest! There are 2 ways you can enter so read carefully.

1. Create a Pinterest board titled “My Sponsored Child.”

On the board you create…

a) Pin the above image to your “My Sponsored Child” board and associate the following link with the pin: compassion.com/my-sponsored-child.
b) Pin any one of the following and tag this second pin with #mysponsoredchild.

• A photo of you and your sponsored child together.
• A photo of you with a letter from your sponsored child.
• A photo of you holding a photo of your sponsored child.
• Pin anything else you want that is relevant to your sponsored child or Compassion.

Once you have created your board, share the URL with us, along with your contact information, using the form on this page.

You will receive one contest entry for every repin your “Pin It for My Sponsored Child” pin receives.

2. You can also enter the contest by sponsoring a child via compassion.com/my-sponsored-child during the contest period. You will receive 30 contest entries for each child you sponsor.

All winners will be chosen randomly. Ten separate sponsors will win a $25 gift for their sponsored child. Five separate sponsors will win a $100 gift for their sponsored child’s family.

The contest runs from Sept. 17 to 23, 2012. Courtesy of Compassion International: http://blog.compassion.com/my-sponsored-child-pinterest-contest/#ixzz26poXzv00

We will be sponsoring our child this week! I hope you will be too. I’d love to help you gain entries by repinning your pins so please leave your board’s URL in the comments so I can help you help kids.

The post Compassion International Pinterest Contest appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Lord, we have spent a lot of time together this week. As I have prayed for Sierra, Katelyn, Garrett, Alex, Aaron, Brandon and Tiffany, their families, and our entire church as we walk through this difficult trial, you have been faithful. You are always faithful, You never leave us. It is us who move away from you. Lord, as I lift up “my kids” after this accident I also think about the fact that they are Your kids and You love them even more than we do, which is a concept I sometimes have a hard time grasping. As each of these 7 are precious to you, so are the millions of kids around the world who have never heard about You. Kids living in poverty who need food, clothing, education and a relationship with you.

Lord, I’m amazed at your infinite love and mercy. Lord, as we as a family choose which child to sponsor, I pray for your direction and guidance. You have a specific child set aside for us and we want to make that connection.

Photo courtesy of Compassion International

I am grateful for the 837 children who were sponsored last week! Please bless every family who took this step of faith. There are 2,271 children left to reach the goal for Compassion Blogger Month. Please stir hearts, as you have stirred mine and send people to the Sponsor a Child page so they too can touch a life.

Thank you for the opportunity to share Your Message and the message of Compassion International.

-Cindy

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In the past 5 days, with the events of this past weekend’s accident and its aftermath fresh on my mind and in my heart, I have spent a lot of time where I belong, at the feet of Jesus. That is the best place to be, even though most of us don’t camp out there nearly as often as we should.

Last week I had the opportunity to preview a new video, “Be Still” by Lisa Chan (wife of Francis Chan). This week, in the busyness of life, the message of the film has come to me several times…Be Still.

Lisa Chan believes that in our quest to do it all, women are missing God. In the first film of her new series, True Beauty: Finding Your Identity in Jesus (David C Cook/Flannel, September 2012), Chan focuses on what it means to Be Still. Be Still addresses the issues that confront women when they forget to spend time with Jesus—something that, like most women, Chan struggled with herself.

As a mother of five children, co-founder of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, and wife of best-selling author and pastor Francis Chan, Lisa knows firsthand what it means to be overwhelmed, overcommitted, and out of time. It was an unplanned, extended time alone with God that fueled her desire to encourage every woman to see the beauty of coming before the Lord in stillness. She has seen firsthand that women in the church are suffering from depression, anxiety, and stress at alarming rates—and recognizes that women need to make the choice to find hope and healing and truth from God’s presence and through His Word.

Be Still, which weaves Lisa’s teaching with the story of Susan, an amazing woman who found that being still with God was what she needed in order to overcome her struggle with a broken marriage, is intended to challenge women who are struggling and help them to find power and strength in just being quiet and listening. With this film, Chan comes alongside women in their walk with the Lord to give them the tools they need to be the person God intends them to be. True Beauty: Be Still is foundational and can be life-changing as women are convicted to take stock of their own reasons for not spending time with Jesus.

I know you need this video, the first in Lisa’s True Beauty series, as much as I do. You can order your copy of Be Still or…I am delighted to be able to give a copy to a reader of TheMomMaven! The giveaway is open to US residents only and will end at 12:01am on 9/27/12.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please share this giveaway with your friends!

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Suddenly, my phone rang, it was my boss, my Pastor, he asked if I was in town and I said that I was. He said he needed me to go to the church and send out a phone message and an email blast, there was an accident on the way to Rock the Universe, several kids were injured at least 2 seriously, Garrett was one of the more seriously injured. He didn’t have any other details. He would be heading to Lakeland Regional Medical Center and he would keep me updated and I was to keep the congregation updated and get people praying.

Katelyn

I immediately reached out on my personal Facebook page, before heading to church to start the prayers coming. As I grabbed my purse and keys to head to church I called my kids at Disney World to get them praying, I called my husband, as I jumped in the car I started calling family members and as they answered I heard, “The kids already contacted us, we are praying call someone else!” I arrived at church and tried to calm my spirit so that I could record the message that needed to go out. My husband met me at church and prayed over me while I recorded the message that would alert our church family of the horrible accident. It was the most difficult thing I have had to do in a long time. In my message I told everyone to watch their email and the church Facebook page for updates, that Pastor would update me and I would update them as news came in.

My husband and I went home and prayed and cried and prayed as I started to receive messages from parents who were heading to the hospital to be with their kids. It was almost 5 hours later before I received a report from Pastor. Seven people were in the SUV, a tire blew and the SUV flipped into the median, 2 teens were ejected from the vehicle. All 7 were transported to one of 2 hospitals. Tiffany, Brandon and Aaron were treated for minor injuries and released. Alex had a concussion, Garrett had head injuries and a bruised lung. Katelyn has 6 fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle, a broken thumb, a bruised kidney and a bruised liver. Sierra is on life support with traumatic head injuries.

Sierra

Our church is in shock. Late Saturday night it is decided that Sunday morning’s service will be a prayer service. It was a surreal morning. TV news crews in the back of the church, community members who have never been in our church coming to pray for our kids and support our church. It was a beautiful service. My husband went out and got red roses and put them on stage, 4 on either side of the altar for the 4 with minor injuries, 1 on Garret’s microphone (he plays keyboard & sings on the worship team), 1 on Mark’s microphone (he is Katelyn’s dad and he lead’s worship and plays guitar) and 1 on Sierra’s microphone (she sings on the worship team). It was a beautiful and powerful visual throughout the service.

I am writing this post to ask you to pray.These kids, especially Sierra, Katelyn and Garrett are “my kids” they have grown up with my kids, they have been in classes I have taught, camps I have led. Their parents are my friends. Pray for Sierra-she needs a miracle. Pray for Katelyn-she is in a lot of pain. Pray for Garrett-he came home from the hospital yesterday but he is in pain. Pray for Alex-she is also home from the hospital but is in a lot of pain. Pray for all of the kids that were in the SUV their lives have been forever changed. Pray for the kids in the other vehicles in the caravan. They witnessed their friends being taken on stretchers, they saw Sierra being put into the helicopter-they are scared and hurting. Pray for the parents of all the kids involved, this is a very difficult time for them. Pray for Pastor Carter-he needs God’s strength and grace to minister to these kids and their families as well as the entire congregation. Please pray for our church Journey Assembly of God in Bradenton, FL, we are all hurting. For everyone associated with these kids, life changed in an instant.

If you would like to keep up to date on what is going on you can follow the JourneyFacebook Page. Sierra’s family has also set up a Facebook page Prayer for Sierra Johnson there is also information on that page as to how you can donate to her family. A friend of mine came up with the idea to sell wristbands that say “This Too Shall Pass” which is what is on the tattoo Sierra recently got. Unfortunately, we would need an initial $250 investment to order 600 bands that we could sell for $2.00 and raise $1200 for Sierra’s family and neither of us have that money to give at this time. We are also trying to use the #PrayerforSierra hashtag on Twitter to spread the need for prayer.

UPDATE: In the 2 hours since I wrote this post $500 was donated and we have ordered 1600 bracelets. Praise the Lord!! I will be setting up a page to sell the bracelets on and I will let you know where you can order yours.

UPDATE: Sierra drew many closer to Jesus in the last days of her life. She went home to be with her Savior 9/13/12.

Please share this post with everyone you know. God delights in the prayers of His people and we need those prayers right now.

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