Scarves for Service: Moved to Action

When God puts something on my heart, it's like a recording that plays over and over again in my mind until I realize that it is a direct message from Him. That's what happened recently when I decided to sponsor another child through Compassion International. I started to think about the young girl in Guatemala that we've been sponsoring since 2002 and that my 15 year old daughter Emily has recently committed to sponsoring two girls on her own. It struck me that my husband and I are sponsoring one child and we have a steady income and that our teenage daughter is sponsoring two girls without a consistent income to support her commitment. Emily stepped out in faith to sponsor these two girls because her heart could not handle the fact that children all over the world were in need. In need of love, support, financial help, and someone who was going to love and pray for them regularly, even from continents away.

So, she vowed to support them financially with no concrete means to pay for it. She decided as she sponsored her second girl that she would use all of the proceeds from her "Scarves for Service" non-profit micro-business to pay the monthly fees required to provide for these two sweet girls. Emily spends months knitting scarves for a November community sale where she believes by faith that God will provide the money she needs for the year to support these girls, which is about $940. The thing that amazes me the most is that Emily knows without a shadow of a doubt that God will provide the money. If she is faithful to do the work of knitting the scarves, God will provide the money to buy the yarn, the people to buy the scarves, and the venue to sell them.

So, as I thought about the meager one sponsorship that we had, and that our daughter had two, I felt the pang of conviction that there was more that we could be doing. That there was more that we should be doing. God's word spoke loud and clear to my heart that day. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:48b (NIV)

Thank you Lord for using my daughter to move me to action. Thank you Lord for using your Word to confirm that call.

~Charlotte Larsen

Emily's Mom