Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

  • Home
  • About
  • DISCLOSURES
    • Amazon Affiliate
    • Book Reviews
  • Published
  • Contact
  • Blog
    • Commit Poetry
    • Dared

How to Spoon Hope

January 12, 2015 By Sandra Heska King

plans - Jeremiah

 

She greets us at the door with shy hugs. The kids leave and return with plastic lawn chairs to supplement the tattered gold sofa. She wants us to sit. There are no windows, so we strain to see, strain to hear her heart through the rhythm of the rain as it pulses on the corrugated tin roof, crescendos and decrescendos. Music blasts from the street. The sky spits on our shoulders, so we scoot in closer across the cement floor, away from the concrete block wall. Through the open door, I see a young boy playing in the street. He’s naked.

 

roof

“How has Compassion International impacted your life?” one of us asks.

Juana flounders for words, and her eyes well up. Her husband died only three months ago. Now she alone cares for her five children plus a relative’s. It’s hard. When she’s not cleaning for someone else, she’s selling food in the street. Some days there’s no food for her own family. And her stove doesn’t work.

That Joselyn attends the nearby Compassion program helps ease the burden. She knows that this daughter, at least, eats when she’s at the center.

spoon hope

In church this morning, the pastor focused on Exodus 10:10. He said “the devil wants to minister to our children.” He’s like Pharaoh, he told us, who said, “Sure, you go on and party with your God. But leave your children here with me.” The devil’s strategy, the pastor continued, is to prepare an uncertain future for your children even though Jeremiah 29:11 tells us God has a plan to give them (us) a future and a hope. He tells us of his own mother who, as a missionary in Venezuala, knew her first work was as a missionary within her own home.

But what does a mother do when survival means separation? Who’s watching out for the children in a community where drugs and alcohol and extreme poverty hold people hostage in Egypt? Where teen pregnancy shatters dreams? What does a mother do when she must leave not to party but to provide? When she struggles to hang on to Jesus herself, how does she instill the gospel in the hearts of her family? How does she inspire hope when life seems hopeless?

Juana has a dream. She doesn’t speak of a nicer or larger home that houses one (not two) family or more money or even a new stove. It’s that each of her children could go to college and realize their own dreams.

Joslyn has a dream, too. She wants to be a flight attendant, to serve in the air and see the world. I wonder if she’s shared that plan with her sponsor. I wonder if her sponsor has come alongside Juana to encourage Joslyn in her dreams, if she spoons out hope with her pen. I wish I’d asked.

front door

We say our goodbyes and pick our way back to the Center over broken concrete, up rain-slick steps. As we pass by a street, someone sets off a firecracker. It sounds like a gunshot. We jump, laugh, and check our pulses.

My heart stutters and I realize my own sponsored child wrote she wants to someday be a neurosurgeon. And though I’ve shared that news with family and friends, I’ve failed to spoon hope into her dream with my own pen. I’ve not applauded or encouraged that plan. I’ve meant to. I’ve even written it on my to-do list,  but I’ve let time spit on the ink. Weeks have slipped by. Or has it been months? What if her dream withered because I didn’t water it? What if Pharaoh fed her hopelessness while I partied?

family

 

Are you a Compassion sponsor? When was the last time you wrote your sponsored child? Do you know his/her dreams? How can you encourage them?

If you don’t sponsor a child, will you? If you do sponsor, would you consider a second or a third? Perhaps you’d consider one from the Dominican Republic, a country where 70% of its people live in extreme poverty, where folks are lucky to make $2 a day.

 

In the stillness,

Sandy

Central-America-Girl-300x250_DominRep
Note: You can find all my Dominican Republic posts here.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Blog, Compassion International, Dominican Republic

Comments

  1. Patricia @ Pollywog Creek says

    January 12, 2015 at 8:28 am

    POWERFUL post, my friend. I need to make writing my Compassion kids letters a priority this day. Thank you. Keeping all of you in prayer this week. xox

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:18 pm

      I’m learning so much, Patricia! And becoming more and more in awe of the work Compassion is doing. Class act!

      I need to do better with my writing, too. I’ve heard this week of so many sad kids who don’t get mail–some sponsored for several years with minimal to even no letters! Some get angry when it comes time to having to write, wondering why they have to when their sponsor doesn’t care enough to. 🙁 I’m more inspired than ever to make my own writing a priority. xo

  2. Sheila Seiler Lagrand says

    January 12, 2015 at 8:45 am

    I look at those spotless clothes and I wonder what kind of effort is required to do the laundry.

    Some days clean clothes look just like love.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:19 pm

      “Some days clean clothes look just like love.” Can I quote you?

      😀 😀 😀

      • Sheila Seiler Lagrand says

        January 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm

        Of course!

  3. Dea says

    January 12, 2015 at 10:19 am

    I was just now praying for my kids—especially for the future daughter-in-law I don’t even see on the horizon; also thanking God for my children’s spouses. But I didn’t pray for the kid that is “ours” down in Haiti—Joel (said like Noel). He has dreams and I need to pray for them…feed them with my own hope; hedge him with my prayers against the enemy.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:21 pm

      Oh, Dea. I need to be more intentional about my prayers, too… sometimes it’s just a short “be with her” and sometimes I forget altogether. I’m so convicted.

  4. Sheila Seiler Lagrand says

    January 12, 2015 at 11:25 am

    I don’the know what our Compassion teen dreams for his future.

    I will be writing him tonight.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:23 pm

      And did you? Will you let me know what he says? You know, we should have the Frio sisters pray for our sponsored kids right along with our other family members. 🙂

  5. Michelle says

    January 12, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    Thank you for writing and sharing.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:28 pm

      Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, Michelle.

  6. Michelle says

    January 12, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    Thank you for writing and sharing. This week I am slowing writing each of our sponsored and correspondent sponsor kiddos. I am inspired to spend a little more thought and ink inquiring into their hopes and dreams. Thank you.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 13, 2015 at 10:29 pm

      “Slowing writing.” I’m inspired, too, and I’m going to do that, as well.

  7. Michelle says

    January 12, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    This week I am slowing writing each of our sponsored and correspondent sponsor kiddos. I am inspired to spend a little more thought and ink inquiring into their hopes and dreams. Thank you.

  8. Megan Willome says

    January 12, 2015 at 1:26 pm

    I do write to my child, but not promptly. My first Compassion child left the program when he was old enough to earn money, and I haven’t had my heart in the right place with this new child ever since.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 14, 2015 at 8:17 am

      Write, Megan. I’ve learned these kids hearts are so sad when they don’t get letters. And feel so loved when they do.

  9. Lorretta says

    January 12, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    Ah. You reminded me to write my dear Angela from Tanzania. It’s been months due to my lack of mind over matter and in the throes of wedding preparation. Thanks for the reminder of what our pen can do when we can’t be there.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 14, 2015 at 8:17 am

      “What our pen can do when we can’t be there.” Yes! The power of the pen.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Meet Sandra

I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

Get updates from the stillness by email

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Archives

Categories

Instagram Inspiration

sandraheskaking

A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana in the background until I downloaded the photos. That, I believe, is the one that got caught in one of the openings in the neighbor's chain link fence. We tried in several (safe) ways to dislodge it without luck and could think of no other option but to leave it. Somehow it apparently dislodged itself. We also believe this is the pair that was getting into another neighbor's garden. We haven't seen either one since the last cold snap, so we are wondering if they survived. 
🌱
Thinking some may have tumbled from their perches last night. Pretty sure it will be raining iguanas tonight since we are under a frost advisory. It's cold. And windy.
Just sing... sing a song... Singing our way into Just sing... sing a song... 

Singing our way into the weekend.
"We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramse "We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind
Now you see me... now you don't. Now you see me... now you don't.
"I started looking and listening. I realized that "I started looking and listening. I realized that work, like life, is shot through with poetry. It was everywhere. I was so taken with what I discovered that I wrote a book about it." @gyoung9751 
🌱
Whether you work in an office, a retail store, a restaurant, or at home... Whether you work on roads or on power lines, or on high buildings...Whether you collect trash or preach sermons, or care for your kiddos. Whether you do art, or weave words, or take photos of a common gallinule AKA moorhen AKA swamp chicken--it's all shot through with poetry.
🌱
So pay attention. Find a poem.
🌱
Read more at https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2023/01/10/its-poetry-at-work-day-2023/
Rising… Rising…
Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe Everyone needs a little balance in life. And maybe a beauty routine. And breakfast. Especially breakfast. I wonder if it consists of a few fire ants. I hope so. (Well, not mine. I'm having oatmeal with chia seeds. What are you having this morning?)
🌱
P.S. Happy Friday!
"Though your destination is not yet clear You can "Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life's desire." ~John O'Donohue 
🌿
A blessing for a new beginning in a new year. I'm sure he wrote it especially for me. At least I'm claiming it. Maybe it will speak to you, too.
🌿
Also, I'd really like this skirt --> 
🌿
Read the whole poem--> -->
🌿
Well, bummer... The whole page didn't print. Read it in the comments below.
"What precocity, a bird half the size Of an Anjou "What precocity, a bird half the size
Of an Anjou pear." ~ Stephen Kuusisto in "The Mockingbird on Central" (Find it in The Poets Guide to the Birds edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser)
🌱
"The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery." ~ Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way. 
🌱
I've been in a long creative drought, so I started morning pages--again. This time I've got a bit of an accountability group through @refineretreat's Refinery--which I finally also joined this year. I'll turn 74 this month. I'm not ready to grow old while I age--though everything does seem to take longer while time goes by faster.
🌱
#aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Tonight’s walk in the neighborhood. I’m still Tonight’s walk in the neighborhood. I’m still kinda amazed that out of all the places we could have ended up after moving from a place I said I’d never move from), here we are—planted right next to the northern Everglades. Six-plus years, and I still shake my head in wonder.
"So fancy is the world..." ~ Mary Oliver in "This "So fancy is the world..." ~ Mary Oliver in "This World." #aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Look, Mom! I can walk on water! #aweandwonder #tsa Look, Mom! I can walk on water! #aweandwonder #tsaweandwonder
Gazing into 2023 like… Let’s take it step by Gazing into 2023 like… 
Let’s take it step by step with hope and courage. Also I hope to be posting again more often.
🎉
Happy New Year!
The morning before the last morning of 2022. 🌴 The morning before the last morning of 2022. 
🌴
71 degrees. Heading to 83. I can live with that.
From the top of Brasstown Bald—the highest point From the top of Brasstown Bald—the highest point in Georgia at 4784 feet.
Winding roads… Winding roads…
Tonight's moon. It's kinda okay. Tonight's moon. It's kinda okay.
Don’t mind me. Just storking by. Don’t mind me. Just storking by.
I’ve gotten several messages asking if things we I’ve gotten several messages asking if things were okay. Yes. I’ve recovered after 3 weeks in Covid jail. Also, I’ve been a bit scarce on social cuz we’ve been finishing up house renovations, and there is SO much that now needs to be cleaned and stuff put away. Also, we’ve had the second oldest grand with us for two weeks. I “should have” at least shared some stories about our adventures, but we’ve relished the time and kept busy. One can’t leave South Florida without a gator encounter, though, right? Tomorrow the two of us fly back to Michigan, and then I will spend a week with my sister where I expect I will be put to work in the chicken house and the gardens and become a glad(iola) roadside proprietor for a day at the Four Star in while she and my BIL attend a family reunion. I’ll also get to see my dad in the nursing home and spend a couple nights with my daughter. D will hold down the fort here. Then maybe by the first of next month, I’ll be able to finish putting things in order, breathe, find some writing space and get back to normal. Whatever that is.
I tossed and turned all night. And then the storm I tossed and turned all night. And then the storm started. I finally got up about 5ish and sat outside to watch. Until a couple mosquitoes found me. Also, the jasmine hadn’t gone to bed yet and smelled heavenly.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get the Mug

Embrace the life you have t s poetry mug

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy is available HERE.

I Read Light

TSP-Red button

bibledude-net



Sponsor a Child

Join the Compassion Blogger Network

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2023 Sandra Heska King · Site by The Willingham Enterprise, LLC on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress · Log in