Melissa has a dream

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Do you know what it’s like to have no dreams or hopes for tomorrow? Most of us go through difficult times when it feels like our dreams have been lost but can you imagine what it would be like to have never have had dreams?

One of the most devastating effects of poverty is the lack of hope for the future.

When people are locked into poverty they don’t see a place for higher education because they know that all life will hold for them is hard manual work, very low wages and day by day survival. The idea that life can be different or better never occurs to people in that kind of poverty because they’ve seen the same pattern over and over through their family history.

When Compassion starts working with poor communities through the local church, things start to change.

One of the benefits that Compassion brings is the ability to dream big dreams.

Children that are sponsored through Compassion fill out something called “My Dream for Tomorrow” once a year from the time they turn 12. They write down what they want to do with their lives. They are encouraged to think beyond what has happened in the past and look ahead to a very different future.

The good news is that it’s not about a vain hope. Compassion’s local church partners don’t just ask children to dream, they help them to plan towards achieving dreams and then look at how they can continue to equip children to reach their dreams.

Today I met Melissa and she has a dream.

From the age of 12 Melissa has dreamed of being a teacher. She’s now 18 and is working as a secretary for the Compassion program in her local church, the same program that she attended from when she was very young, the same place she learned how to dream. They church is in the highlands in Java, surrounded by thick forest. It’s a beautiful setting but poverty is still a very real part of the community.

Melissa told us today that her dream is still alive. She wants to get some more experience working with the children at the church and then, at some future stage, go to university to fulfil her dream. That’s powerful.

Compassion is currently working with around 1.4 million children worldwide. That means that there are hundreds of thousands of dreams waiting to be fulfilled. Where there was hopelessness there is now hope. There are now many, many children looking ahead to tomorrow instead of just trying to survive another day. If you’re already sponsoring a child through Compassion, that’s a big part of what your sponsorship is doing.

Do you realise that you can give a child the gift of a dream? Please give a child hope for the future by sponsoring a child through Compassion, and release them from poverty in Jesus name.

(In case you haven’t seen my last two posts, I am currently in Indonesia seeing the amazing work being done by local churches in partnership with Compassion.)



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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