Mahinelly

      A little over ten years ago I did something very uncharacteristic for me. I fell in love with a face. It was a face on a packet of information. A face that needed help! My daughter had invited me to attend a concert at her church. Her claim was, " a friend of mine sings with this group ". Since I like live music and gospel music I agreed to go along. My granddaughter Lily, not yet one, stood on my lap and bounced with the music. It was a great time of worship.
      I wasn't aware of the purpose of the concert. You see the singing quartet was representing Compassion International. This is an organization that helps impoverished children from around the world. They passed around the audience packets containing pictures and histories of individual children that were in need of help. This one face on a packet that was passed seemed to speak to me. Something in my heart said that I needed to help this little girl. But being a hardened skeptic I just passed it on. Later when leaving, my granddaughter in my arms, I passed a table where you could talk to representatives from Compassion. Lily reached for the table and a packet that was sitting there. Yes,  the packet with the face that had spoken to me earlier. I picked it up. The rep said you don't have to take that one we have many more you can look through. I said no it has to be this one.
       That started the ten year relationship that I have with a beautiful young lady that I now consider as much a part of my family as my grandchildren. After taking the packet home and reading it the skepticism was still there. I hadn't made the commitment. I researched the organization as much as possible and didn't find anything really negative. So I wrote my first letter and sent it to Compassion to process. I received my first letter back a few months later. It was written for Mahinelly by an older girl from the same center. Mahinelly was only five and couldn't write. She ate one meal a day, usually rice and sometimes beans, at the local center ran by Compassion. I have learned Her father is a day laborer in a farming community that has 85% unemployment. Her mother is a stay at home mother. In my communication with Compassion I have learned that her parents remain together and have been married.
       I occasionally send monetary gifts to Mahinelly and sometimes her family. Compassion supervises how this money is spent. One Christmas I sent a small gift for the family. Later I received a letter from Mahinelly's mother Ines. She thanked me for the gift and told me they used the money to buy wood for their floor in the kitchen and now the baby didn't have to crawl in the dirt. I get new pictures about once a year. In a letter from the photographer for Compassion he complained how long the sessions last when he is taking the pictures. He said he has to wait between photos because all the kids wear the same outfit. They share for the picture.
     Mahinelly has turned into a wonderful young lady. She is doing well in school, and wouldn't have the opportunity to go to school without Compassion and my gifts. As you can tell, I am so proud of her. My recent meal of red beans and rice was just to help me relate to her. It is our shared dream that one day we will be able to meet in person. Check out Compassions if you like. Take it from a hardened skeptic, it is quite rewarding.