Meeting of a Lifetime

My wife, Kaity, and I have the privilege of sponsoring a child here in Ethiopia whom I have sponsored for the last 5 or 6 years. We sponsor him through an organization called Compassion International. Using monthly donations from sponsors, Compassion provides food, supplies, medical care, and schooling for children in developing countries throughout the world. Sponsors and their children are able to write letters back and forth in order to develop a relationship with each other. Today, I had the opportunity of a lifetime, as I got to meet Philimon, the child Kaity and I sponsor. I was extremely excited, and even a little nervous, to meet him this morning. He lives in Sheshamane, which is a four hour drive south of Addis Ababa, and the director of his Compassion program had accompanied him to Addis for our meeting. It was only his second time to the big city. It was an exciting moment as we met for the first time, having only previously communicated through letters. It was pouring outside so we went up to the restaurant here at our hotel to sit and talk for a little while. Today is Philimon's 14th birthday, and it also happens to be my birthday. We exchanged happy birthday greetings in our respective languages and I presented him with a backpack full of assorted goodies, including some Hopkins gear (thanks Marybeth!). He was very appreciative of the gift and excited to see what was inside. We spent some time talking using Atkelt, a worker for Compassion here in Addis, as a translator. We talked about our families and some of our favorite things to do and he told me he wants to be an engineer! Perhaps he'll be a Hopkins man in the future. The rain finally let up and we went outside to play frisbee, which was one of the gifts I'd given Philimon. He'd never played before, but quickly caught on. A crowd of about 15 or so kids all gathered around to watch us, most of whom wanted to clean my shoes after we were done playing in the muddy field.

Next it was on to an arcade where Philimon schooled me in the art of foosball and I taught him a thing or two about air hockey. We also had fun racing motorcycles and playing some other games. Following the arcade we went to eat some lunch before Philimon and his program director had to leave for their journey home. I introduced Philimon to his first ever piece of pizza, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Our time at lunch was spent learning more about eachother, as well as about Atkelt. Atkelt was sponsored by a couple through Compassion while growing up here in Ethiopia, and the experience touched him so much that he now works for Compassion. At the conclusion of lunch we said our goodbyes and wished eachother well, not knowing if we'll ever have the opportunity to meet again. The experience of meeting Philimon is something that's difficult to put into words. It's a very gratifying feeling to get to meet a child, whom you have a hand in providing for, and see that he is living a happy healthy life and has major goals and aspirations. The fact that we got to meet on both of our birthdays, was icing on the cake. It really is a great feeling to have such an impact on a child's life, and I would encourage others to consider sponsoring a child as well.

Life doesn't get much more rewarding than today.