James Naugle I’ve been a child ambassador for about 6 years now. This trip means so much to me. I’ve always wanted to see World Vision’s work in the field and this is going to be a great opportunity. I feel this is an extension of grace. Just as we receive the gift of salvation by grace, this trip represents a grace-filled gift. It’s an opportunity to commune with the poorest of the poor and open our hearts to the trials of their daily life. My wife Jean and I sponsored a little girl in Bangladesh a little over a year ago after hearing at conference how vulnerable these girls are to trafficking and early marriage. By going to Bangladesh and seeing the situation first hand, I think we all will be better advocates to get sponsorship for all countries, but especially Bangladesh. In addition, Jean and I just started sponsoring a little boy in the Tongi region of Bangladesh and I will get an opportunity to meet him. I can’t imagine the emotions that will accompany that visit! How can we pray for you, Jim? Well, we can always use prayers for safety. I’m also worried about some of the foods we may come in contact with and pray that we all can escape the illnesses that can accompany a trip like this. More than anything, I would ask for prayers that we will see what the Lord wants to show us. To be present and open to take it ALL in so we can share it with others and make it all real when we return and share it with potential sponsors and other child ambassadors. Paula Hemphill I really am an old, washed-up CA. I have been a child ambassador for 7 years, I think. And I'll be so honest right now: I have never felt very good at this. I used to compare myself to other CAs and beat myself up. I would look at my friends who were pulling in big numbers and devalue the work I had done. Then God gave me a gift: a girl named Randi Jo Rooks dropped into my life and she taught me about the stewardship of hearts. And I realized when I devalued my work, I was devaluing God's work in hearts of people I treasure. By all spreadsheets and mathematical measurements I have had seven very slow years. But in those seven years I have been seen, known, and loved by this team. I have been seen, known, and loved by my King Jesus. And I have had the greatest honor of all: I have been allowed to see, know, and love the people standing right in front of me. Because of the work God has done in my heart, I'm most excited about going to Bangladesh to listen. I want to bring back the stories of the people I see to the 69 people who have been a part of my seven years as a CA. And I also want to bring these stories back to our team. I firmly believe that this trip is for every single one of us who call ourselves child ambassadors... I just happen to be one of the ones who gets to walk it out in real time. I want to honor each of the people I meet and I want to honor your stories as well. We really are #GreaterTogether Also, the fact that I get to do this with these people who are CA hero friends, blows my mind. I love them all so very much. And I think we all know this is Celeste's trip. The story of how God brought her to this place at this time... I stand in awe and I feel so honored to stand beside her as this BIG DREAM comes true for her. How can we pray for you, Paula? Bangladesh was one of our focus countries when we did the #ChildhoodLost campaign. Because of that campaign, I found sponsors for children in Bangladesh. The human trafficking that happens there is devastating. I'm actually really nervous about this trip. Because I feel like God is preparing my heart to show me things I don't want to see (like slums, and kids at risk, and maybe even trafficked children). I'm afraid He's going to ask me to love people I don't want to love (traffickers, corrupt government officials, and people who turn away in apathy). Really the only thing I feel He's whispered into my heart as I've prepared and had friends pray over me is: they are all made in HIS image and HE is quite fond of each of them-- no matter what they've done. I think this is going to be a journey of grace for me. And I don't think it will be easy. But I am ready to lean into it. Pray for me to have the courage to not turn away from the hard things. Rachel Teodoro I became a CA just before my first trip into the field with my church. We went to visit our sponsored children in Uganda and I knew there was something more I could be doing. Seeing the work firsthand on that vision trip had me drinking the kool-aid that is World Vision. I saw how far the money could go to serve others, I saw the changes in people's health and the increase in education and I saw lives changed because of the work World Vision was doing in the community. I grew up in a family that sponsored children but suddenly the picture on the fridge turned into a real person with a real story living a life I would never fully understand. I became a teller of their stories and desired nothing more than to be able to connect people like me with children like those that I met. This trip is another glimpse into the story of the work World Vision does. I've been fortunate to get to see the work of World Vision in several ADP's in Africa. I feel like I have a good grasp of the work that World Vision does in sub Saharan Africa, but Bangladesh comes with different work. The people there face different hardships and different circumstances and I'm so excited to see how WV is responding in those areas. I'm also excited to get to know people and hear their stories of hope even in the most difficult of circumstances. How can we pray for you, Rachel? I was in a major car accident a few years ago and I struggle with my short term memory. I want to soak in every detail and not miss a thing, so prayers that my mind would be clear and my heart would be open to remembering and being touched by the people and situations that we encounter would be appreciated. Barb Schellhardt I became a child ambassador in December 2005, so I just started my 13th year. This trip is an unexpected gift from God. I’m honored to be part of this amazing team of lifetime child ambassadors who are going and very grateful to World Vision for this opportunity. I’m excited to meet the Bangladeshi children - especially one special little girl, and learn about World Vision’s work with child protection and their efforts in addressing child marriage. How can pray for you, Barb? Pray for stamina, good rest, and good health. Pray my eyes, ears, and heart would be open and ready to receive what God wants to show me, do in me, and through me. Pray that He would break my heart for the people I meet and fill it to overflowing with love and compassion so that it stirs me to action. Cynthia Wellington I've been a Child Ambassador since spring of 2013, sponsoring children since 2010. As a Child Ambassador for almost 5 years now, (where has the time gone??!!) I thought that this would never happen. I'd become a Child Ambassador because I'd had some health issues and never thought I'd ever be able to go on any kind of mission trip. So, I became a CA to do my "mission" here in the US - bringing the children of third world countries to my friends, neighbors, church, and community to sponsor. This trip has been in my heart for many years, and it's only a "marathon" of persistence and faith these past five years that has enabled me to be chosen to go on this trip! What excites me the most about the trip is meeting my sponsored child Sanifa, and hopefully her grandmother as well. Beyond that, the fact that we will get to experience a budding ADP, as well as one that has fully blossomed, I'm sure will be quite memorable. The entire week will be filled with new sights, sounds, tastes, and smells in the slums (where we've been told to wear hard soled waterproof boots), to the area of our hotel in the capital of Dhaka, to the call to prayer 5 times a day, to the rural areas, and to World Vision's headquarters. I'm sure we will shed many tears of joy as well as many tears of sadness as to what we will witness first hand and the stories we will hear. How can we pray for you, Cynthia? Please pray that no matter where we are, we spread love and hope. Pray that all remain healthy and strong. Pray that we have an overabundance of memory capacity so that we can carry what we've seen and experienced back with us to share with fellow CAs and while speaking to others about sponsorship. Let our faith in the Lord grow and blossom through this extraordinary trip with the awesome team I'm going with. Holly Metzger I've been a CA since 2010 and being able to go on this trip is totally a God thing. I earned a trip years ago to India with the CA team but due to a high risk pregnancy at the time, I opted to sit it out. My CA journey, like many others, has had its ups and downs - it's dry seasons and fruitful seasons. I have recently come out of a somewhat dry season with many transitions happening the past year or two in my own family's lives. Honestly, at conference, I went to see if I still had it in me to be a CA or if God was calling me to "retire" from this season of ministry and transition into something else. So many things about conference affirmed that this is where God still would have me serve and helped renew that passion for the work of World Vision. The cherry on top was being invited on this trip! I was always bummed I missed out on seeing the field when I missed out on the India trip. But, I'm getting a second chance!! I'm so excited to spend time with this team and to grow and learn together! I have been so passionate about the work of World Vision since I was in High School doing 30 hour famines. Now, I find myself with the opportunity to meet the faces I've always seen in pictures and hear their stories first hand. How can we pray for you, Holly? Please pray that God would prepare our hearts to experience what we will there. I'm feeling very much like nothing can prepare me for what I'm about to encounter. But, I'm praying the Holy Spirit would move in a way to allow us to connect with the people there and be able to process what we experience and bring back life changing stories and a renewed passion in order to bring awareness and help to the people of Bangladesh. Rebecca Losh I have been a Child Ambassador for five years and a team leader for three years. This trip means that I am actually going to see World Vision’s work with my own eyes! I have been asked many, many times if I have ever been to one of the countries where we work. Now I will be able to affirm those questions with first hand experience. I'm excited about meeting my child and learning more about her as well as her family and community. I want to learn their stories so that I can bring them back and share them in a way that will touch the hearts of those who hear and give people a desire to reach across the world to be a part of what God is doing for the people of Bangladesh. How can we pray for you, Rebecca? Please pray for safety for our group and for good health and enough rest so that we have the energy to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Also, for clear minds to record and remember all the we experience. Jennifer Parks I've been serving as a child ambassador for 4-5 years. This trip is a opportunity to truly obey God! I have no doubt that God has orchestrated this and even though it is terrifying in a lot of ways, I know I have to go! It is also a opportunity to surrender that much more to God and his will. I have to let go of my control over my little kingdom, children, business, parents, husband..., and know that they will be perfectly fine without me because they have a perfect Lord watching over them. Can't wait to see what God has in store for us and how we can serve the children best! I'm excited to learn! I think I understand the plight but I know I don't actually have a clue. I'm excited to see the work of WV in the field & be able to come back with the 1st hand knowledge of their work. How can we pray for you, Jennifer? Please pray for peace for my family, especially Annalyse (my 11 year old) and parents. Pray that my new assistants will be able to run the business and not have too much stress. Pray for safe travels and my fear of flying to be diminished. Courtney Crowder I became a Child Ambassador in 2011. The first conference I attended in 2014 had the theme of "Defend Childhood" and focused on the work of World Vision in Bangladesh and Child Protection. Up until then, my WV work had been focused on getting children sponsored from Democratic Republic of Congo and highlighted the WASH program (WAter Sanitation and Hygiene) and access to education. The ideas presented at conference expanded my knowledge of how deep and wide the scope of WV's transformational work really is. The impact of their work in Bangladesh and around the world in the areas of prevention of early childhood marriage, trafficking, and child labor shook me to my core at that conference. Child Protection is defined as "All measures to respond and to prevent abuse, neglect, exploitation and other forms of violence affecting children." To be able to meet the people who engage in this endeavor and witness this work in the field is a privilege and responsibility I take very seriously. It gives me chills to look back in my notes from 2014 on Child Friendly Spaces in Bangladesh and child protection and restoration measures seeing God's preparation on my heart and soul. How can pray for you, Courtney? We will be giving a devotion at the WV country office to about 75 staffers on our first full day in country! Please pray as we prepare these remarks and share our hearts and faith. I ask for prayers for my family while I am far away and the challenges that adds to a family. It is a long journey and will be physically and emotionally draining. Please pray for our team's physical and emotional health. I have waited so long to be able to see the field and I pray I am open to where God is leading and what He is teaching me. Thank you!!! Celeste Sherman Stuart and I are just starting our 12th year as Child Ambassadors. Every year our love grows for World Vision as an organization, for the people that are on staff, and for our fellow volunteers. Each year, we would have loved to have earned a VT. We have tried every year, but most years we hit a ceiling half-way there. Our first year we had over 50 sponsorships. That year you needed 100 to go on a VT. But, we still tried!!! Something was always prohibiting us from going. Almost 5 years ago, Stu was diagnosed with ALS. It was devastating, and pretty much crushed our dream of seeing the work in the field. Surprisingly, we were able to organize and go on a mission trip with our church family to see the work of World Vision in Grafton, West Virginia, and were happy to have some idea of what the work in the field looked like. After about a year, when we saw that Stu's symptoms were not progressing in a normal ALS time line, we read a book called 'one month to live,' the premise of which was, 'What would you do and how would you live your life, if you had only one month to live?' Since we already faced the prospect that life on this earth could be short, we worked through the questions, and the one that I wrote was: 'I would love to go and visit one of our sponsored children.' This had been out of my mind, since I always said that Stu and I, as ministry partners, would do a VT together, and now this meant that I would be going alone, due to his travel limitations, but, he completely jumped on it and said, we can do this!!! He has a HUGE faith, so, we sought out again to make it to 40. At that time, the Refugee Responder program came out, and our focus as CA's was on the refugee crisis. This was before the official 'Refugee Sunday,' so, we made our own 'Refugee Sunday' and hit our local churches. Churches were responding and many Refugee Responders were found. This would be our year, we thought. However, something strange was happening to me. I was developing a cough that prohibited me from speaking 2 sentences without a violent coughing spell. Every time we had a church presentation it was covered in prayer for our prayer team, and every time, we were able to get through the Sunday, with God's help. I went to see a doctor, and after an X-ray, a CT scan, PET scan, and a biopsy it was determined that I had stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I went through 6 months, every other week, of chemo treatments, developed a toxicity to one of my cancer drugs, which landing me in the hospital for 5 days, pumped with steroids, and the rest. Following that I went through daily radiation, and was finally done and by August, I was cancer free, and aside from routine scans, it is all behind me. We went to conference that year, and I was again renewed in my passion for the refugee crisis and couldn't wait to go home and get started again. Nothing... not one church, not one person, small group, nothing! When the Global 6K happened, I was SO excited. This is IT. This is what is going to get us to our 40. Well, that was kind of a bust. Not one sponsorship. Not one church. That year we had our lowest number. I cried out to the Lord. What was wrong? What was going on here? OH, and I cried to Megan, too!!! I confess, every year at conference, when the trip was called up, I was jealous for those going, and, a bit bitter. I had worked hard, too. Come on, Lord, really??? After praying before going to conference, the Lord showed me that a VT was not something I needed. I knew and loved the work of World Vision. I did not need to see it on the field. I gave it up to Him. In fact, I said, even if I earn a trip, I'm not going to go, I am going to give it to Courtney, our LT partner in our area. I told this to Courtney and Megan at conference. When the Uganda trip was called up, I cheered and clapped and was proud that I was genuinely happy for this group. The Lord had blessed them, but He also blessed me. Then Megan started talking about the Life-time achievement award. She called my name, and I was ready to receive a plaque that I could put on my WV bookshelf. I turned to go and sit, but Laura Li told me to go back. When the next person and the next person was called, I thought that this could be a trip and in my mind I thought: I'll be able to give this to Courtney. And then, she called Courtney. Yikes. It took a while to wrap my head around the fact that I AM GOING TO BANGLADESH. Bangladesh has a huge place in my heart! At conference four or five years ago, we talked about child protection. My heart was burdened for girls, particularly in Bangladesh. We had already been sponsoring Lupa, our little girl in Bangladesh, for about 12 years, and after learning at conference about early marriage, child trafficking, etc., we would be so happy to get Lupa's yearly updates. We knew now, that because of WV's work in her community, she was going to college to be a teacher. When Lupa's community graduated, we still wanted to sponsor from Bangladesh and we found Mim, whom we've had for about 2 years. She wants to be a doctor. The thought of going to see Mim was more than I could fathom. On the plane on the way home from conference this year, the Lord laid on my heart to find sponsors for 12 girls from Kotalipara, the ADP where Mim is. (12 is a big number this year: 12 years of service, 12 years sponsoring Mim, 12 CA's honored to go on this trip...that is where I came up with #bangladesh12. LOL!) We did a MT 25 Sunday at a church the week after conference. I told them about my trip. I did not have my picture folders of the 12 Bangladeshi girls, but the pastor challenged the congregation to sponsor these girls, and 9 were sponsored that day, sight unseen. It was a gift to be able to pray over the girls when they arrived and prayerfully match them to the sponsors on the MT 25 cards that I had. I asked the Lord to show me who I should ask for the remaining 3. He did. I asked. They said yes. 11 girls are sponsored. The 12th said yes, but her husband said no. Oddly enough, she has not returned the pic folder, tho she keeps saying that she will. I am praying, believing that God will work on her husband's heart and one day she will come to me and say: he said, yes! How can we pray for you, Celeste? I believe with all my heart, that satan does not want this group of CA's on a trip. I believe satan has blocked us from going and caused us to hit a ceiling year after year. This group has not given up and year after year we pursue. I believe that this group will make a difference in the lives of the children, families, and communities in Bangladesh. God is a BIG God. Just look what happened with the original 12!!! I am preparing by consecrating my mind and focusing on Him this month, to be prepared to see God move in a mighty way. Prayers for Him to move us and open up the opportunities so that His work will expand and He will be made KNOWN in Bangladesh. This trip is a blessing and it is also a HUGE responsibility. As I feel the weight of that, I ask prayer for opportunities so that His work can expanded by Him "The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Comments are closed.
|
AuthorsGreater Together is a collaborative blog written by volunteer Child Ambassadors for World Vision. Categories
All
Archives
November 2020
|