Today my heart is turned toward Eric, the first child we sponsored with Compassion. Today, October 1st, 2012 is his 14th birthday. He had just turned 8 years old when our relationship began. God brought him into our lives to be a blessing to him and to change us also.
I remember the first time I saw his picture. It was November 2006. We were at a Bebo Norman concert and he was sharing about Compassion. Jon asked me what I thought (we wanted to sponsor a child for a while but just was not financially able). I told him that I thought we were supposed to do this. We agreed that if God wanted us to step out in faith and sponsor we would get to sponsor a child close to one of our four children's age. Jon raised his hand and the packet passed to us was .......Eric! Immediately, I checked his birthday and saw that it was EXACTLY 15 days (to the year) older than our oldest child. We knew right then that he was the one God had for us. We were excited. We decided that we were not going to tell our children, but instead, we would wrap the packet (along with the packet of Lizet who we also decided to sponsor that night) in wrapping paper and give it to them the morning of Thanksgiving. The next couple of weeks, I would go in and pull out the packets and just look at the pictures. Finally, Thanksgiving morning came and we sat our children down with their "Thanksgiving" gifts. They were surprised and excited. They had never been given "Thanksgiving gifts" before. They opened the gifts and looked at us waiting for an explanation. We began to share with them about Eric and about Compassion. I will never forget Josiah asking, "Can we get him a pair of shoes? His toes are hanging over these." Oh, the lesson right there, Josiah was able to see someone his own age in need and that we could supply that need. We spent the day thankful for what we had and what we could give.
I will never forget his second letter to us. He shared that his brother recently died and that God was keeping them strong in this difficult time. It is unbelievable how much you and get to know about someone in letters....6 years of letters,.I feel like I know Eric. In Eric's 7th letter he began to ask to meet "face to face".
Five months ago I traveled to Rwanda and we met "face to face". I had the blessing of spending the day with him, giving him gifts, talking, and placing my hand on his shoulder and praying over him.
Eric, because of you, my life will NEVER be the same! I pray that you have a very blessed birthday, that you realize who you are in Christ, that you continue to follow the purpose and plan that God has for your life.
I will never forget the day we met "FACE to FACE".
