This is Anggie, a beautiful little girl from Las Lagunas, Ecuador. Las Lagunas is one of the four villages where Stadia partnered with Compassion International and Camino de Santidad (an Ecuadorian church planting organization) to plant four new churches in 2011. The new church has been up and running for a little over a year now. Along with its regular weekly services, the church also hosts the Compassion Child Development Sponsorship Program (CDSP).
Anggie has been registered in the CDSP and has been attending the after-school programs offered through it and the church. Through this program, Anggie receives medical care, tutoring and school help, she learns about God and receives spiritual guidance, she gets hot, healthy meals and clean water that she may not otherwise enjoy without the program. And all of the children in the CDSP receive these things through their participation in the program. As the program has been running for a year now, many of the children in the Las Lagunas CDSP already have sponsors, and they also draw pictures and write letters to be sent to their sponsors while attending the after-school program. This is also where they receive the letters that have been written to them. For the kids, this is the best part of the program. They LOVE to receive letters from their sponsors. Reading those words of love and encouragement gives them hope. It lets them know that there really are people who care for and who love them. But as of last week, Anggie was one the few children remaining in Las Lagunas without a sponsor.
This past week, we (Compassion Ecuador) hosted a group of Stadia church planters on a vision trip, and we had the opportunity to visit Las Lagunas and to meet Anggie. Anggie was very excited to meet us, and she had every reason to be. That morning when she woke up, she shared with her mother that she had just dreamed that someone had finally chosen to sponsor her. Of course, it was just a dream, so she went on her way to school, probably without a second thought about it. Then God rocked her little world. During a regular morning at school, an irregular thing happened - the Compassion project director came in to find Anggie and take her to the church to meet someone.
Debbie, one of the ladies that came on the trip, brought with her a request from a friend back home - "find a child for me to sponsor." The night before we headed to Las Lagunas, Debbie was looking through a few of the packets of children without sponsors, and she was drawn to Anggie's packet. She didn't really know why, but she felt that Anggie was the child for her friend. Imagine Anggie's surprise when she found out that the person she was to meet was going to tell her she had a new sponsor and was going to make her dream come true!
As awesome as that is, it gets even better. Not only had Anggie dreamed of finding a sponsor the previous night, she had also prayed (as she had every night for some time), that she would have a sponsor before her 5th birthday. Now take a moment to look at the above photo again and note the birthdate. August 24, 2007. We visited Las Lagunas on August 21, 2012, just 3 days before her 5th birthday.
What an awesome God we serve who faithfully answers the prayers of little children and makes their dreams come true!
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