World Vision AIDS Experience

Wow. What a powerful presentation by World Vision as you see a snapshot into the life of a child in Africa who has been affected by AIDS. Whether they have it themselves, or have been orphaned by the terrible disease spread across the continent, it is a very real way to bring it closer to our hearts and minds. Our church (Westover) hosted World Vision last week and I had the opportunity to walk through the experience on Monday night with my Dad, who was sweet to come with me. Suddenly my hair doesn't need a haircut quite so desperately, my socks with holes are just fine after all, and I am even thankful rather than irritated to have dirty dishes in the sink from dinner! (which by the way, dispenses tap water that I am always complaining about being too polluted for my taste... but what all suffering children and adults in Africa would give to have the quality of our tap water!) How humbling the whole experience was. They travel all over the US year-round and I strongly encourage anyone that has the oppotunity to go! I guarantee, that at the end of the experience and prayer time, you will not be able to resist adopting a child to sponsor. For just $35 a month you can sponsor a HopeChild in African countries and other countries around the world affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing things such as clean water, food, health care, education, and spiritual nurturing (among other things!) For just $5 more a month, you can sponsor a whole family. To me, that is a very worthy use of $35-40! If you are interested, the link is http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvDoChildSearch.jsp?xxwvOrphan=HOPE or you can just go to http://www.worldvision.org/. It is just mind-boggling how blessed my life is and sometimes I feel so out of touch with my surroundings. World Vision's founding president, Bob Pierce, was said to have what I am about to paraphrase written on the outside of his Bible, 'May my heart be saddened by that which saddens the heart of God.' I thought that was a simple, yet effective gauge in figuring out what is truly important in life and whether time/energy is being invested there.