Forever Changed (Feature)

Forever Changed (Feature)

She captured my heart with her smile, and I am forever changed.Those are the first words you read on Laura “Lola” Zinger’s blog. Above that sentence floats a picture of Ruth, Lola’s sponsored child. The bearer of that life-changing smile. But to understand the story of Ruth and Lola, we must start at the beginning.

Lola says she can’t quite remember what first drew her to Compassion. Maybe it was a concert, or an event at church? Lola just remembers sitting with her husband and three sons at their computer and choosing an Ethiopian boy, Gosaye, who was the same age as her middle son.

“I don’t know that I really ‘bought into it’ at first,” says Lola. “It was really just making a card for his birthday, for Christmas, looking at his picture on the refrigerator. Initially I did it for my boys, but gradually I could feel God tapping me on the shoulder. Planting a desire to connect with him deeper. Accepting him as a fourth son into our family.”

One of those “promptings” Lola felt was to host a Compassion Sunday event at her church. That yes began a journey that Lola could never have imagined.

When Lola received the box of child packets for her event, she prayed over each child. But one of the packets made her stop. A young woman named Ruth, the oldest child in the group.

She seemed to radiate off the page and I wanted to know her, wrote Lola on her blog. But she shook her head and put Ruth’s packet back in the stack, focusing on getting the children sponsored – not sponsoring them herself!

Read more at the Compassion Blog.

Someone Take Care Of Me (Magazine Feature)

Someone Take Care Of Me (Magazine Feature)

It is morning, but Noelia Espinoza squeezes her eyes closed, pretending she’s still asleep. If she had a blanket, she would pull it over her head.

But there are no blankets.

In this crowded bedroom in Cochabamba, Bolivia, there are no pillows or furniture. Just a row of stained mattresses on the floor.

Six people sleep here. Bodies pressed tight. One child turns over, setting off a chain reaction. Knees curl into backs. It might be fun if it was just one night. But this is no sleepover. It’s every night. And 6-year-old Noelia is sleepy.

She hears her aunt, Maria, move in the next room. The sound of a spoon scraping against a pot is a good sign. Today, there will be breakfast. Slowly, the mound of children in the middle the floor untangle and boys and girls yawn and stretch.

Noelia and the five other children stumble into the next room where Maria stoops over a steaming pot of rice. She peels a few bruised banana and stirs them in with the rice. The rice was given by a kind neighbor. The nearly spoiled fruit brought cheap at the market. Even then, each child will only get a small scoop of food to eat. Maria knows in a few hours they will be hungry again.

Read more of this article from Relevant Magazine.

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Cooking With Kids (Magazine Article)

Cooking With Kids (Magazine Article)

Some of my favorite memories from childhood took place in the kitchen. I vividly remember standing on a kitchen chair, spreading butter on toast while my mom scrambled eggs for our Saturday breakfast. To me, the memory is rich with the smells of toast, the sounds of the knife scraping across the bread, and the taste of warm butter.

To my mom, the memory is slightly different. She can see the piles of toast crumbs in the butter dish, taste slightly burnt toast, and hear the knife as it clatters to the floor just inches from her slipper-clad feet. But the memory is equally pleasant to her.

Read the full article from ParentLife.