Compassion Sunday

If I haven't met you, I'm die part of the

team here at our Mill Creek Campus Adventure. Thank you

for being here and those that are joining us online.

We're glad that you have jumped on to join us.

Today is a special Sunday for us.

I get to introduce you.

It's my privilege to introduce you to an incredible ministry,

an incredibly Jesus hearted ministry called Compassion International. Brandon and

I were first introduced to Compassion in twenty fifteen. We

jumped on a trip with about a dozen other pastors.

Mostly the other pastors were all from the east southeast

region of the country.

We jumped on that trip.

We went to Kenya in twenty fifteen and we were

going to visit a small impoverished village sort of on

the outskirts of civilization. And on the way there, our host,

who is driving our van, said, there are only three

children in this village left left who don't have a sponsor.

And we were new to Compassion. We didn't have any

Compassion sponsor kids. So both Brandon and I jumped in.

We took two of those three, one of the other

pastors took the other child, and when we got to

that village. We got to meet our boys, our sponsor boys,

James age seven and Samuel age four, and you'll see

a picture of James behind me. Over seventy years ago,

a pastor went to South Korea to minister to American

troops during the war, and his heart was crushed when

he saw the multitude of orphan children starving and freezing

to death in the streets.

He was moved with compassion.

See the word compassion means to suffer with and from

the compassion of that one minister. A beautiful partnership was

birth between believers on two sides of the spectrum, those

with Reese and those who are willing and able to

physically and spiritually nourish children. On that trip that we

were on in twenty fifteen, with Samuel and James, our

boys by our side, Brandon and I watched how the

local church, built in a village and community of extreme

poverty and resourced by churches around the world, fed life,

giving food to children while simultaneously feeding their souls by

sharing with them the love of Jesus. We got to

take our boys on a field trip. They were allowed

to get into a vehicle which one of them that

was their first time in a vehicle, the other one

it was their second. And they were driven to the

hotel that we were staying at, where we got to

host them, where both boys rode in an elevator for

the first time in their entire life, and by the way,

they thought that the most exciting thing ever. Both boys

got to swim in a swimming pool for the first

time ever, and both boys ate ice cream for the

first time ever.

This is Samuel behind me.

Eating ice cream for the first time.

Ever, singing about baby Jesus. Is what he was singing.

You and I can understand what I'm about to say.

We can understand it, and that is it is impossible

to share the love of Jesus with a child who

hasn't eaten in days. We can understand the difficulty or

impossibility of that. We understand that that child's pressing need.

Is food and water.

But we also know how helpless it can feel to

be here, so far removed from a need like that

that feels so far away. And every one of us

here I guarantee and those watching online have probably asked

the question, but what could.

I do, just me, just little me? What could I?

I do.

And that's where Compassion International comes in.

They connect us with many hundreds.

And thousands of beautiful children who are in desperate need

for help, and then feed and change the life of.

That child, one by one by one.

See, feeding a child's body doesn't just feed their body,

it feeds their mind. It keeps them in school, and

it opens their hearts to experience the love of Jesus

and the fact that God has a plan for their

life and they can be whoever it is that God

has created them to be. And our special guest today

knows that better than anyone because he's lived it. A

former sponsor child himself, Jonathan knows the power of the

compassion of strangers partnered with the kindness and love of

the local church. Would you please help me, and I

mean really really help me? Well, our special guest Jonathan

Almonta as he shares his story.

Than the morning church, But it's a lower thank you

there phone.

Wow, that's that's hard.

I thought the first service was the best. There are

many reasons I'm thankful to be with you this morning.

Number one, thank you for the weather it is. This

is the weather that we have in the dr through

December through March. That's the coldest he can get, so

you can't imagine how hot it is right now in

the Dominican Republic. Second, I had the joy of hosting

pastors your pastors both in the Dominican Republic last January,

and it is always a joy. I feel like I'm home,

and that's not usual. Thank you, Pastor die for the

opportunity and your leadership and involvement to support children in

the DR and their There are two families who have

become now dearly friends, even though they were just in

the DR last week. We worked together. Last week. You

can raise their hands. At least they came to see me,

So I'm I felt supported. Okay, So I am Jonathan

and as pastor. As I mentioned, I come from a reality,

and I think it's important for you to understand the

aspect of a spiritual warfare unserving children in need. I

come from a family dedicated to witchcraft. Both of my

grandparents were witchcraft priests. They worship bit demons. Worship bit demons,

and people came to my grandfather house for them to

read their hands and future and all that they will

consider themselves Christians, even so they worship it demons that syncretism,

and in this context there is physical abuse, emotional abuse,

sadly also sexual abuse. And my mother was abused by

an uncle, ran away from family, end up homeless, working

kind of a guad station where they will selling food

and things like that, and she will sleep in a

table in the back.

Was twenty four hours open.

Therefore was convenient for her to be there because she

didn't have a home to stay. I do remember. We

eventually were living in a very small chat one room, everything, kitchen, bathroom.

Everything in the same place. And she will.

Host family that didn't have a home neither, and I

will struggle because we had no space, and I will

argue to her, like, why are we having people here?

We don't have space even for us, and she will say,

you don't know what it is to see the night

coming and without knowing where to sleep. So you get

used to that and figure it out. We're gonna host him.

I was mad at her at the moment, but then

I understood the empire of hopelinness. I don't remember I

was too little, and she got pregnant. In this day area,

I met my father who happens to be married, have

four daughters, and she saw him as the way out

of her poverty and hopelessness. That never happened because again

I was a bastard. I was born out of his marriage. Therefore,

he didn't want my mom to have this baby. I

have something called late birth certificate, which is I got

a birth certificate when I was about five because my

father was angry at my mom.

She had me.

She wanted her to have born, and that journey of

poverary begins at the womb of my mother.

She didn't have pre netle care.

Therefore she didn't have calcium, and when I was born,

my teeth were so weak. If there is a dentists here,

children need those first teeth to be healthy.

I don't know the reason they say that.

And mine we was so weak that they look even

black because they have the lack of calcume.

So, because we didn't.

Have any any way to provide that denty scare that

I needed, my mom found a way with a university

for a professor to have a real mouth for her

twenty students to practice.

So I will be.

There seven years. Yeah, seven years. They will tie into

a bed with a forced jacket and an open mouth

metal machine to keep your mouth open. I know I'm

describing a trauma and if there is a dentist that

they never raise their hands. I don't hate you anymore.

You are forgiving.

But I used to hate you badly. That healed me

so and that reality.

Uh, there is this sense of we don't we don't

have dignity, we have to. I'm a practice real mouth

for students to see my case, which which was unique.

And I do remember selling juice in the streets and

the Panadas to help my mom, being the chap where

we were it was rented, and or being a diver

that you have a lot of water here. With a

friend of mine and I from Compassion, we were driving

and then there was water on the right, it was

water on the left, and we.

Were so confused, like what's going on here? There's water

ever in front.

In the back. And I was on a diver in

the in the in the Caribbean Sea. I was a

diver in the Domsie area looking for plastic and metal

to recycle and.

That was the way I could support my mom. But

I never understood povery. I do remember my going to school.

I didn't have a uniform, but a family lend me

the uniform of their child so I could go to

school in the morning, run back in the afternoon, give

their uniforms so he can go to school in the afternoon,

which I'm really grateful that they did that. I didn't

know at the moment he wasn't a sponsored child, and

that's why he had a uniform. I didn't, and my

shoes were broken. So I do remember getting to school

some days and I'm shaking. I'm feeling coal but it's

ninety five fight and high, it's ninety percent humidity. I'm sweating,

feeling cold, feeling weak. Never understood why every time they

gave me a cookie and immediately healed.

Those cookies were miracle.

I got heal immediately. And I remember one day my

mom had a day and I show up with a cookie.

I said, whatever that do.

It heals me every day. And never understood as a

child that if you don't eat for days, your blood

should come down and your body react to that, react

to the lack of sure and that's that's why I

was trembling and checking. And they knew with a little

bit of food, I will get restored again. I had

to take carboard every day to put into my shoes.

You say talkie choose when they flip flow, I always say

hungry choose. Mine was both hungry and talkie at the

same time because they were like flipping very hard. And

in this reality. Again, I didn't understand overing. One day

my mother heard about this local churching serving children and

needing our community.

It wasn't about compassion.

It was about a local church serving children like Sunday

Bible School, but through the week. Imagine that, so children

will come through the week for three four hours. They

will provide two meals a day, the school uniform that

I needed, medical Chekhov, private dentis's care, not any more,

that traumatic setting, and I needed all of that.

Therefore she applied. I got into this compassion.

Program and things were starting to change. I stopped working

in the dumb side, which I hated, and there was

abuse and human trafficking there going on with kids. I'm

in this local church with two meals a day. My

mother is bleeding at nights because she's going through a

stress on how to provide. So not anymore you have

to worry about three meals, just one.

The church is providing two.

And then I have the blessing of a sponsor, which

I didn't understand neither how those letters.

Got to the church.

I just knew they came. And so Jamie Boyle Emma

my sponsor, twenty six years old student.

Trying to go back to college. She was a struggling financially.

She told me that she was in this festival and

then compassion was promoting to a sponsor a child, and

then by the grace of God, she said yes and

sponsor me that day.

Then the letters started to game.

I have all my letters from Jamie fourteen years that

she sponsored me, and I.

Would like to chose some of you, some of those

letters with you.

So this letter is very important Number one letter because

it's one paragraph. And then she says, good afternoon, Jonathan.

I wanted to send you a little not to let

you know I was thinking about you. That was really impactful,

simple letter. But my father had never called me to

say he was thinking about me. And second, it was

weird to read that Michigan was warming up. Like imagine

for a child with no geography and it's getting warm

off in Michigan if it's worse than the dar as hell,

I was like, I don't want to be there. The

second letter that the children mindset apologize me for that.

So the second letter, she says, happy hello Jonathan, Happy

fifteen birthday. I cannot read the whole letter, but my

father has never called me for a birthday, and these

young women from Michigan is writing happy birthday every year.

That really make my day. Growing up in poverty, families

don't say I love you, and I think children get that.

For granted, your parents, I get it now with my family,

but for me listening that happy birthday, that was the

best day of my life. Those letters, that's why I

keep them. But then at the end, you can said,

keep on preaching. I hope you get that that is wonderful.

That happened after I got baptized and she didn't know

she was promoting heresy because I put Jesus in the

woman of the season, Jonah in the cross. But I

always say children got saved that day, so I hope

that count. This letter came in a very difficult moment

in my life. I don't want to portray the beautiful

story that everything changed when I got into these local

church and the compassion program. It wasn't like that I was.

I was. I wanted to be a game member growing

up in the reality that I was growing up. If you,

if you will ask me Jonathan, what was your greatest need,

I will have told you I need Jordans. Remember my

choes flipping and putting cardboard inside because my food were burning.

There were guys in my ghetto selling drugs and they

had air Jordans. I will have told any air Jordan

and I thought that was my greatest need.

It wasn't.

Thanks God for the local church because for five years

I was fighting. And this letter came a year after

a friend of mine end up being coma because I

was in a fire. He fell down, knocked his knee,

end up being in coma, and I almost lost the

best opportunity of my life. And that's a decisive moment

for me to see their gospel, what God has been

giving me through to me through this local church and

eventually getting baptized my friend woke up from the coma.

I wasn't charge by by the family and all the police,

and I've remained on the program and I'm deeply thankful.

As I speak, people see me and say Jonathan, congratulations,

great story. But I don't want to portray that it

is all about me, but it's about the local church

and the people who make me a disciple of Jesus. Dulci,

my Compassion Center director, die a year after that FI,

and she never saw the Jonathan that you were seeing today.

That's why I say when I get to heaven, I

want to hug Jesus. I have some theological question for Paul.

And lastly, I want to say thank you to DULs

and I want her to rejoice on the sacrifices that

she made. And that's the reason actually I'm with you today.

The last letter is the most important one because another

question that I wanted just to ask me is what

was the worst poverty that I faced? And I will

say here is the emotional part of my story of

my life. My father and I had this weird relationship.

We used to meet.

Once a month for five minutes. Remember, he wanted my

mom to deliver me, so we were meeting in different places.

Never understood why until one day I got introduced to

his family through my uncles, two of his brothers, me

and his family and realized they didn't know that I existed.

They had no idea fourteen years old and they had

no idea a year passed, and my father seems that

they talk. I've never asked about that till today, but

it seems that they talk because we got into this

corner where you where we used to meet, and then

immediately he said why you did that? And I was like,

why I did what? And he said, you met my

family without my permission.

I was about just saying something.

He interrupted me and say, neither you or my brothers

have the permission to get involved in my life. You

have to understand your mistake in my life. And if

you ask me, that's the worst pover I have ever faced.

It is this thing a church. They were saying that

God is a good God and that he loves me,

and yet my early father hates me and everything from

the very beginning. It's against me. Nobody gave me a

menu to be born when I was born. I was

just born, and yeah, that the ology in the church

didn't make sense for me and my everyday life. And

that's why this letter is the most important one, greeting

Joinathan from Michigan. Pay attention to that because she mentions

Michigan in every letter. She's very proud of At Michigan.

We receive our first known today on Thanksgiving. Today is

a great day to reflect on all the things that

I am thankful for. And you are one of those

that I am bravely thankful for. That's in my mind.

I wish you and your family Merry Christmas. And then

she goes to look to eleven today in the town

of David, A savor has been born to you, Christ,

the Lord in Christ love Jamie Boylemma two things in

the letter no idea what Thanksgiving was, but she is plain,

I love I wish we could have turkey we don't have.

But then she said, Americans are thankful about things on Thanksgiving,

and you are one of those reasons I'm greatly thankful for,

not just thankful, but greatly thankful for.

And this is what God was talking to me.

Even though God didn't provide a father, he provided a

local church. He provided Jamie overseas who make the sacrifice

to support me so I can be taking care of

this local church in the body of Christ. God didn't

provide a father again, but he provided a community. And second,

my hope and assurance never came from my early father,

but from the finished work of Jesus in the cross.

Do you see the gospel in the letter. That's why

I believe.

This. This is the invitation for you this morning to

prayfully conceive their sponsored child. But it's not about transaction

money that you can give. It's about making children disciples

of Jesus. Imagine without the gospel, with my reality with

my father, I will only be an angry young man,

forgiven and being fed, but yet with hatreds against my father.

Here's what the gospel play a big role. Jamie is

pointing me out to his ephicients too. File one of

my tutors invite me with this letter and to eat picks.

You don't say no to Pisa was Piza once a year,

and then suddenly he asked about my father, how are

you and your father doing?

I'm so many them, I'm crying.

And then he said, Jonathan, the Bible doesn't say honor

your father.

They love you.

If they honor you, if they are thankful about your

sayshonor them. You have been forgiven and understanding that idea

that God gives me a whole community, and he gave

me cries, and I was fy away from Christ and

therefore I was born near because of his blood and sacrifice,

who I was not to forgive my father. That's the

importance of the gospel in serving the poor. I called

my father and cry and said that I'm sorry to

be a mistake in your life, but you have to

admit that and the best mistake you have made. God

restored our relationship.

Jamie's in her forties. I want you to put.

A face on you, because Jamie told me. I met

her in twenty sixteen and she said, Jonatha, I never

imagined that a simple mom will make such an impact

in someone's life. Again, second thing, it's not a transaction.

It's about making children disciple of Jesus. And I told her, Jamie,

discipleship is as supernatural.

It's never a simple thing.

And you're not a simple mother. And while I was

attending the center, my mother went to university and today

she's a professor to her ten years, but she's not

impovering anymore. She's teaching. It's that repal e fe Oh God,

releasing not only me but even my mom from both

these material povery and also that spiritual povery because the

Gospel we both received. She praysed to my grandparents who

die as followers of Jesus, not any more worshipers of demons.

And lastly, I have the joy of being a father

and a husband. I am blessed to have one wife.

My wife hate when I say that making my wife

happy so high, So no, just kidding, and we have

to boy, Jonathan Edwards and Jonathan David, here's why what

I wanted to take home today. And then you reflect

on that I got a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, whatever,

that's nothing in comparison with the joy of being a

husband and a father to break that cycle of powary.

But on the other hand, now I have the.

Joy to serve in the leadership of compassion in the

Dominican Republic. I'm flying back from tonight and we're serving

two hundred and thirty three local churches, serving children in

the same reality that I grew up sixty six thousand.

Can you imagine God had a plan and I didn't

understand at the moment. God had a plan for you today.

These children are from the border with hating the Dominican Republic,

and my invitation for you is to consider their greatest need,

just like mine. Isn't choose clothes or anything like that.

But Jesus, well you prayfully consider that as fastor as

I come, and guide us in this process.

God bleake you give him a hand.

Jonathan, thank you for sharing your such an incredibly personal experience.

Let me read from scripture.

Then the King will say to those on his right,

come you, who are blessed by my father inherit the

kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you fed me. I was

thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a

stranger and you invited me into your home. I was

naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and

you cared for me. I was in prison. I was

in prison, and you visited me. Then these righteous ones

will reply, but Lord, when did we ever see you

hungry and feeds you were thirsty and give you something

to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, were.

Naked and give you clothing?

Lord, when did we ever see you sick or in

prison and visit you?

And the King Jesus will say, I tell you the truth.

When you did it to one of the least of

my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.

Matthew twenty five thirty four through forty. This passage at

the end of the Book of Matthew contains Jesus's description

of final judgment, and it's compared to what a shepherd

would do, where a shepherd would bring their sheep to

them and separate out the sheep and the goats, and metaphorically,

the sheep on Jesus's right are the ones who cared

for others. They're the ones who fed the hungry, and

gave a drink to those who were thirsty, who welcomed strangers,

who clothe the naked, who cared for the sick, and

visited those who were in prison. And Jesus praises them

and invites them into his kingdom, saying that whatever was

done to the least.

Of these was done as unto him.

And in contrast, the goats would go to his left,

and they are those who failed to show compassion because

they neglected to care for others.

They're condemned and they're sent away.

This passage emphasizes I believe that true faith is shown

through acts of love and service to other people, particularly

to those in need. It highlights that our treatment of

others is a reflection of our faith in Jesus. Compassion

International is a child advocacy ministry that pairs compassionate people

with children living in extreme poverty to release these children

from not just physical poverty, but spiritual and emotional poverty

as well. It's the link between us and the least

of these. It's the bridge between us and the suffering.

It's compassion in action combined with sympathy. It's an active response.

It's where we don't just have a feeling, but we

have an action that goes with it. Compassion provides the

opportunity for you and I to do something. When Brandon

and I came home from Kenya in twenty fifteen and

put our two sponsored kid pictures on our fridge and

I started writing letters. We both wrote letters to our kids.

It was about six months later that I got a

phone call from a staff person at Compassion and she

was calling to regretfully inform me that our sponsor kid, James,

had passed away because of about with pneumonia that he

was not strong.

Enough to overcome.

And I sobbed because this poor child was born into

poverty outside of his own control, Because this precious baby

went to bed hungry so many nights before we were

able to come on the scene and help support him.

This baby knew suffering like I would never know. And

in his short little life, he wrote an elevator once.

He swam in a pool once, and.

I kept crying on the phone to the compassion person,

poor lady, saying he only ever got to eat.

Ice cream one time.

And she, in her attempt to console me, said the

most powerful words that she could have said to me

when she said, and he got to experience the love

of Jesus because of your compassion and your generosity. Since then,

we've added more kids. In fact, I grabbed another one

this morning, this precious little guy named Wayner from Off

the Wall.

They're part of our sponsor family.

We get regular updates about their health and how they're

doing in school. They draw us pictures, they thank us

for they offered to pray for us. They write Bible

verses to us, They encourage they could encourage us. And

when I write to them, I tell them things like

I love you, and I'm proud of you, and I

believe in you, and Jesus loves you. And I think

it impacts me, maybe even more than it impacts them.

Before I introduced Jonathan, I describe Compassion as a Jesus

Hearted ministry, and I chose those words very specifically because

I believe that caring for children embodies the core principles

of love and compassion and service that Jesus demonstrated not

only in his life but in all of his teachings

as well. Compassion International serves the least of these.

Now.

Sponsoring a child is not the only way to.

Love or serve another person, but it is a way

to love and serve, and it is the way that

is an opportunity that's right in front of every one

of us right now today. Each one of us can

make a difference in someone else's life, one child.

At a time.

We can break the grip of poverty, and these precious children,

with full bellies and the confidence in their heart that

Jesus loves them, can go and become whatever it is

that God has called them to become. I think that

when you and I partner with the Jesus Hearted Ministry,

we make caring for the least of these a profound

expression of our faith. Before I wrap this up and

give you some directions, you may have noticed, even as

you were walking in that all of the children on

the walls, and if you didn't notice, you will on

your way out that all of them are from the

Dominican Republic. In fact, they're all from a very small region,

a cluster of little villages right on the border between

Dominican Republic and Haiti. And Dominican is where Jonathan also

is from. And you might be wondering why we chose Dominican. Well,

Brandon and I had the privilege again of traveling with

Compassion to Dominican this last winter, and once again our

hearts were wrecked. We have compassion for kids in dire need.

You'll see picture scrolling behind me of just some of

the things that we saw. But we got to feed kids,

and we got to hold them in our laps. We

got to hug them and tell them that someone loves

them and somebody in this world cares. We prayed with kids,

We fed kids, We went to their homes.

We saw their.

Bedrooms which don't exist, We saw their sleeping mats, and

we saw the opportunity, and we.

Also saw hope. Because we can make a difference.

Sponsoring a child changes the entire trajectory of their life.

And because compassion doesn't just take care of the needs

of the child, but it essentially adopts the entire family.

As you saw in Jonathan's story. It changes the trajectory

of an entire family's life, and for an island, a

small country like Dominican, it can change the entire trajectory

of a country. In a moment, I'm gonna pray, and

then I'm going to give you an opportunity to be

part of the solution that provides hope and compassion, that

suffers with those who are suffering.

But I have to say a few words first.

First of all, you may be here right now this morning,

and you are just simply not in a place where

you can financially support someone else. And I want you

to hear me say there's no guilt for that. There's

no guilt for your circumstances. In fact, as I close

in prayer, we're just going to ask the God of

Provision to provide for your needs as well.

But there will be a few.

Moments and you don't have to rush out the door,

and I'm going to challenge you to say a prayer

that God will meet the needs of the children lining

the walls of this room.

Maybe you're in this room.

Secondly, and you already sponsored Compassion Compassion child, or you

have multiple children, and while I would invite you to

consider taking another, you don't have to. But again, the

room will be a place where you can think and pray,

and I would invite you to stop and pray for

your sponsor kids or your sponsor child. And if you

have the Compassion app, which if you don't, I encourage

you to download, you can write them a letter right

now before you leave this room this morning and tell

them that Jesus loves them and that you're thinking about them.

And you can have just a piece of what that

does in the life of a child, just by hearing

Jonathan's story. In fact, when we were in Kenya, the

kids showed us the letters from their sponsor families that

they put under their pillows and slept on at night

to be close to the words of belief and hope.

And lastly, of course you may be willing and now

your heart is stirred to sponsor a child, and we

want to provide this space in this room is a

place for you to look around the room to prayerfully

consider which child you may sponsor, how you can show support,

and I want to give you a couple of inns

instructions how to do that. But I just want to

ask that you would please leave this space as a

place of reflection in prayer. So if you have conversations,

if you could carry those outside of the room, But

if you'd like to sponsor a child or more than

one child, you will pull their packet down off of

the wall.

It looks like this. It's inside of an envelope.

We're going to ask that you don't take this with

you and tell you've actually done the sponsorship part of it.

So don't take it and think I'm gonna do this

at home later, because this is the only packet for

this child in the world. So if it goes home

and sits on your desk for two months, it's not

helping this child. But if you'd like to sponsor them,

you can either rip off this little perforated section, fill

out this card, and then you will leave it at

the table right outside the doors.

Please leave that before you leave.

That will begin your Compassion sp sponsorship experience. You'll get

a packet in the mail and the rest of the

envelope you can take with you with the picture of

your child. The other way to sponsor the child right

now today is to scan the QR code.

Same thing.

You're filling out this little piece here, and you take

the packet with you because this is now your child

to love and pray for and encourage. If you have questions,

you can ask any of our staff, or you can

ask those at the table in the lobby.

If you do the QR.

Version, you don't even have to stop at that table,

just fill it out and take your child out the door.

Would you join me?

Oh, and online, there's a link for you right now

in the chat that you can do this online.

And if you want to spread the word.

To people you know or maybe your business would like

to sponsor children, great, that event is on our event

to have on our app that you can do that

for the next week or so.

Would you join me as I pray.

God in the next few moments, as our hearts have

been stirred, we're going to consider how we respond. And

I'm asking that every person in this room will at

least take a moment to pray. That you provide for

the faces that represent precious lives around this room, for

the families that are represented by these faces that are.

Around this room.

So God, together we unite our hearts and say, we

understand we can do something. We're asking God provision that

is supernatural, beyond what we could do in and of ourselves.

We're asking for supernatural provision, and it's not just in

the form of finances and food, but spiritual nourishment to

children who need to know there is a God who

sees and knows and loves them.

Lord.

For those who are going to take the step to respond, Lord,

I pray that you would speak to them as they

move around this room, that they would feel drawn to

a child that you have divinely orchestrated a connection with.

And Lord, for.

Those in this room who have needs of their own,

we simply say, God of all provision and healing and resources,

meet the needs. It's in your name that we pray

a Amen.