Sweet Sowjanya

"When you and I hear staggering numbers and statistics about the poor and needy around us and the world, we have a choice.  We can switch the channels on our mega-TVs and continue our comfortable, untroubled, ordinary, churchgoing lives as if the global poor don't exist.  We can let those numbers remain cold, distant, and almost imaginary.  Or we can open our eyes and our lives to the realities that surround us and begin considering the faces that are represented by these numbers." -David Platt

Sponsoring a child in an impoverished environment had been something that was increasingly on our heart.  With our research on both domestic and international adoption, my eyes were opened to just how many children in this world (both orphans and non-orphans) live without their basic needs for food, water, shelter, medical care, and education being met. 

In a parallel story that started about a year earlier, David and I have developed quite the heart for the country of India.  It started in a pretty funny manner - with food.  We started eating regularly at Tandoor, an Indian restaurant here in Greensboro.  It started pretty innocently - we love ethnic food, and this food was delicious and affordable.  Nothing more to it than that.  I'm ashamed to say that, in my over 3 decades of life, I'd never given probably more than 3 thoughts to India or it's people (and all 3 of those probably centered around learning about the Taj Mahal in school).  But the more we ate there, and the more we interacted with the owners, listened to the Indian music playing throughout the restaurant, examined the decor...the more interested in India we became.  We began to watch documentaries and read about India.  And I have to say, it fostered in me an intense heart for the country and people of India that reaches literally across the world.  One of our prayers is that one day God will provide us the right short-term mission trip opportunity to minister to the people of India ourselves in person for a week or two.

So needless to say, this thought of sponsoring a child, along with my budding heart for India, led us to this sweet girl, Sowjanya Chukka.

One day in late July, I found myself browsing around the Compassion International website, just casually looking at the children needing sponsors (Compassion is one of the top rated charities in the world, by the way, in terms of honesty in allocation of funds).  Within the first couple of pages I saw this sweet 4 year old little girl, and I literally almost jumped out of my seat with excitement.  Something about her precious face just called out to me.  I shot David a text and a picture of her as quickly as I could (even though she had been waiting for a sponsor for some time, I was suddenly afraid someone would snatch up her sponsorship) and he immediately wrote back with a "Let's do it!"  So I signed us up!

It has been amazing so far.  Sponsoring her costs us just $38 a month.  Before we sponsored her, her family was LIVING off of $60 a month.  That's $2 a day, folks.  She was not assured basic provisions in the form of nutrition, medical care, or education.  I know there must have been times she was scared and where she wondered if she would eat that day at all.

Sowjanya is from a VERY small village called Gotlam, in the Indian state of Andrha Pradesh.  Her area is mostly of the Hindu faith, although they were under Islamic rule for a short period in history and thus Islam is relatively common as well.  The average income for a family in this area is $62 a month (like I said, her family was bringing in $60 a month).  Gotlam has a train station  and some homes and not much else.  It is surrounded by mango trees.  It is warm for most of the year...right now, in December, it is in the 80s each day. 

Chukka's father was working as an agricultural field laborer.  Her mother is a stay at home mom, just like me and like many women in her part of India.  The house they live in is made of straw.  She also has a little brother.  She loves to play with dolls, just like I did as a little girl. 

Our monthly sponsorship has since ensured that her need for clean water and nutritious food is met.  She had a medical checkup and will continue to have them on a regular basis (the doctor said she is surprisingly healthy but needs to eat more vegetables...that made me giggle, because don't we all struggle to get our kids to eat their veggies?).  She can now attend a local Christian-based preschool where she learns basic educational skills and is taught Bible stories and told about the love of Jesus.  Our sponsorship money also provides her parents with further job training.  Thanks to that training, her father has learned to drive a tractor, while brings in a higher income than general field work.  And her mother, who had basic sewing skills already, has been taught how to sew ladies clothing in her home and sell them.  She is still home with her children, but contributing income to the family.  Sowjanya's life has been changed, all for a monthly amount from us that an American family of 3 may spend on dinner at O'Charleys.  We also have a prayer guide from Compassion that takes you through a different prayer need for her for each day of the month.  And we have the opportunity to send her Christmas and birthday gifts which, of course, we do. 

Another thing that you can do with your sponsored child is to write letters to them and receive letters from them.  We have written Chukka every month since August, and sent her pictures of our latest happenings.  She is too young to write, so a worker at her local Compassion center in India sits down with her, asks what she would like to tell us, and writes for us.  She always tells us how much her parents want to thank us for our help, and that she cannot wait to get another letter from us.  In her last letter to us, she drew us a picture of chocolate candy, and colored us a picture of a doctor's kit (to celebrate her good medical checkup).

Provided she stays in the program, we have the opportunity to sponsor this sweet 4 year old until she is 18.  And that's just what we plan to do.

I can't explain what a special part of our family she has become.  Here is a little girl that is LITERALLY halfway around the world from us but yet, those 8,525 miles between us seem so short when we open one of her letters.  Joseph is thus far unable to say "Sowjanya," so he calls her by her last name, Chukka (pronounced "Chookah").  He is totally obsessed with her.  He loves to run to her picture on our fridge, point to it, smile, and squeal her name with excitement.  He was carrying her picture around on Christmas eve and, when I tried to take it away from him, he became very upset.  She is very real to him, even at his young age.  I am currently putting together a scrapbook of all of the things we send and get from her.  With (hopefully) 14 years of sponsorship left, I have a feeling we will end up with MULTIPLE scrapbooks for her, and I think that will be just wonderful. 

For those who have thought about sponsoring a child through Compassion or another reputable organization, what are you waiting for?  $38 a month to lose, but one zillion dollars worth of joy and satisfaction to gain.  Could your monthly gift change a life?

P.S. - When traveling through the foreign country of your Compassion Child, Compassion will help you, if at all possible, set up a chance to meet that child.  If that short-term missions trip we dream of ever comes to reality, some small part of me can't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, we will see her sweet face in person on this side of Heaven one day.  :-)