Attributes Of CompassionSample

Faith – The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Faith. It’s the most important component to the Christian life. We can’t purchase it or sell it. Thankfully, we can’t obtain it on our own. It is simply given to us by God.

Blogger Shannan Martin traveled with Compassion International to Ecuador to a borrowed home of a family who belong to the indigenous Quechua people group. Let’s hear about how her understanding of faith changed:

Thirteen people live under the tin roof, eleven children in total, three of whom are sponsored by Compassion. Dressed in their everyday attire of hand-embroidered blouses and long, dark skirts, they took my breath away…

The depth of their material poverty was clear …

"What do you dream for your children?" we asked the mother.

She sat quietly, her face lined with the pain of lack. "I wish I could have big dreams for them, but I cannot. I have no hope."…

The thin air thinned again. This cannot be.

My trip-leader, Bri turned the question to the girls, "What do you dream for yourselves?"

They want to be a doctor, a teacher, a fashion designer.

"What gives you that hope?" she asked.

Without a beat, living water spilled from their lips. "Jesus."

The enemy was in Ecuador today, working hard on my heart…He would like to convince us some people are beyond hope, and for a couple of hours today, he met me half-way there. They will never make it out. They live miles from civilization. They climb mountains for dirty water. They eat nothing but corn…

When I said these things out loud to Bri, she gasped. "No, Shannan. No! They are Compassion girls! Maria is already in high school. This is a big deal!... This is what Compassion does! They've introduced them to Jesus and He is all the hope they need. They are being fed two meals a day at their program, but they are given a future. They have sponsors pouring into them. They truly believe they can go to college because they can. When Compassion says they release children from poverty, they mean it. They will not give up on them."

High in the Andes mountains I discovered the cliff-edge of my faith. Conditioned to track potential and success by American, middle class parameters of opportunity, money, and luck, I faced their absence and jumped.

Ana, Maria, and Ashley's faith is so much greater than my own. Jesus, who offers eternity in the span of a seed, grows hope in the smallest spaces. They know He holds them, too…

We encourage you to read the entirety of Shannan Martin’s blog post.