Compassion in Peru – Day 1

There’s so much on my heart today. So much I want to tell you. I’m struggling to put Day 1 into words though, so maybe I’ll just start with something simple…

We’re in Lima, Peru with Compassion.

We’re learning about what they’re doing to release children, one-by-one, from poverty. We’re witnessing firsthand how they work holistically with individual children to address their spiritual, economic, social and physical needs, and how they give each and every one an opportunity to become a responsible and fulfilled Christian adult. We sponsor two children through Compassion, and we’re so grateful for the opportunity to see how everything works up close and personal like this.

Today, on day one of five, we dove heart first into Compassion’s Child Survival Program. We spent time with mama’s and their (under 3 year old) babies and it was so incredibly awesome to hear what these women are doing to help each other and each other’s children.

The community we visited this morning sits high atop a mountain of dust.

Since infant mortality is extremely high in parts of the world like this, Compassion has made it their mission to promote effective child development to ensure that children survive the early years, when they’re most vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. They educate mothers and primary caregivers, before and after their children are born, about how to provide critical care for their babies during their earliest years.

First we visited a church, then some of our group walked over to this little girl’s house…

Yes, that’s the inside of her house, and no, it didn’t have much in the way of a floor or a ceiling.

I wish I could really, really describe to you how it felt inside that place. I’m trying so hard to string the right words together, but every time I line them up, they don’t seem to explain it quite right. All I know how to tell you for sure is that that place was overflowing with Love.

I will never forget hearing about how much Compassion has changed her mama’s life for the better…

I will never forget how much I wanted to tell her that she changed my life for the better, too.

Right before we left, I led my first ever (out loud) group prayer right back there next to their table. Shaun asked me to do it, not knowing I’d never done it before, and I’m so glad he did. I left with a feeling of hope that something Better is coming for those women and their children…

…and it was in that moment I realized just how blessed beyond belief we are. Not just because we’re able to do so much for them for so little, but because of the gifts they give right back to us, too.

For more posts about our time in Peru, visit Shaun Groves, Angie Smith and Jen Schmidt.