Stories from Sponsors

Meeting my little boy

I can only describe meeting Ricardo as one of the most amazing moments of my life. I was both nervous and excited at the prospect of meeting 'my little boy'.

I decided I wanted to sponsor a child three years ago and Compassion made it easy. I chose to sponsor a child in South America, as I hoped that I would go there one day. So when I had the opportunity to join a mission team to South America, I decided to stay on to visit Ricardo and his family.

Meeting Ricardo's family was a very humbling and incredibly emotional experience. Imagine my amazement when I learnt that his parents and older brother were spirit-filled, born again Christians and have been praying faithfully for me since I first began to sponsor Ricardo. It was amazing.

His father recently had his leg amputated. All the family's savings had been spent on this operation and subsequent painkillers. Ricardo's father made beautiful guitars by hand and lived in the town six days a week to try and earn a little more money for his family.

The most amazing thing about this Compassion project, in a remote Ecuadorian village, is that they do so much on so very little money. It was truly overwhelming and I came away hugely impressed with Compassion and the impact they are having across the world.

So many charities these days can be 'faceless'; they take your money and you never really know what it is spent on. However, to see children and their families' lives radically changed and experiencing God's love in a very practical way was incredible. I felt very challenged by the fact that we have so much and they have so little, but they are so grateful to God for everything.

Sara Peachey, Compassion child sponsor