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You’re smart.  You know what’s up.  I’m not going to pull one over on you.  So let me be clear upfront.  I’m going to ask you for something.  Yup.  Did you just clench?  I KNOWWWwwww!  I’m always asking you for stuff!

So, first, I’m going to ask you for something, but keep reading, because second, it’s not going to cost you a penny.  You already give!  You’re a giver!  I love you for your precious partnership, your gracious givership.  You get it.  You’re on the team.

So, I’m not going to ask you for a dime.  Like Ursula from The Little Mermaid, I’m going to ask you for…your voice.  Bwahahahahahaaaaaa!

Whether we realize it or not, we are all salesmen.  We all pitch our faves to the people around us.  All.  The.  Time.  What do you sell?  I don’t know what each one of you sells, but it might sound something like this:

Oh my goodness, you have to start watching Downton!  I started watching an episode one Friday night and couldn’t stop until I’d watched three seasons.  It is So Good.  You will love it.

See the game last night?  Let me tell you why [insert team] is better than [insert team]…

I loooooovvvvve my Kindle.  You have to lug around all those paper books?  Please.  Look at this Kindle.  Go ahead.  Look what it can do.  Watch me download a book in the amount of time it takes you to unwrap a piece of gum.  I read more.  I do.  This Kindle has literally made me smarter.

By giving up [insert food] I have lost thirty pounds!  [Insert food] is responsible for [insert health problems].  I feel so much better!  Here’s the book I read about it.

We all do it.  We get excited about something and our passion for it bubbles over onto the people around us.  We want everyone to experience the joy of whatever it is.

I feel that way about child sponsorship.  I think sponsorship is amazing.  It’s life-changing.  An entire life, an entire village, can change when we choose to pour a bit of ourselves into a child.  We can leave a legacy and impact the kingdom of God through the simple act of sponsorship.

But you already know this.  You’re on the team.  You get it.  I’m not selling you on sponsorship, because you’re already sold.

I’m asking you to take your selling skills and use them to get one child sponsored.  Sometimes we talk about doubling your gift through matching gifts.  Well, our kids need matching sponsorships.  We have 70 kids who need sponsors.  They need people loving on them through letters.  They need to know that there’s a sponsor over here who is rooting for them, cheering them on, praying for them.  They need to know that someone cares if they stay in school, if they grow in their faith, if they live or die.

I don’t need you to sponsor another child.  I do need you to lend your voice to an unsponsored child.  It doesn’t have to be awkward.  Do you feel awkward when you talk about how much you like your new iPhone?  Try having the same conversation, but swap in your sponsorship experience.

All of the children are online.  You can show people their faces, their ages, a little about them.  Everything you need to answer questions is there.  Sometimes just putting a child on FB with a link to their sponsorship page is all it takes.  Click this magic link to become a terrific child advocate: http://www.hopechest.org/community/adacar/sponsor/

Seventy kids left, out of three hundred.  If we all use our salesmen skills together, we can watch this number shrink.  Zero children waiting for sponsors.  What could we accomplish with full sponsorship?

For those of you who have always wished that they could sponsor a child or give to one of the fundraising campaigns for the CarePoint, but money is just too tight, this is your chance to make a difference in the life of a child.  I don’t need a single penny from you.  I need your voice.  If you can’t manage the monthly payment, maybe you could make a monthly commitment to advocate for one child.  One child each month until they’re all sponsored.

Who do you know?  We all know more people than we think.  Where do you go?  The gym, your kids’ practices and rehearsals, work, small groups?  I chuckle to think about all the places I’ve ended up in conversations about our Ugandan kids.  The dentist, a wedding, the hair salon, in the carpool line at school (I talk fast.), parties, meetings…and I just start talking about the kids we sponsor and the amazing things that God is doing at the CarePoint.

One of my least favorite questions is “What’s new?”  I freeze up!  What’s new?!?  What’s new?!?!?  I never know what to say!  What if the next time someone asks you that, you started talking about your sponsored child?  I just got a letter….  We just started sponsoring….  We just heard an update….

If you’re on social media like I am, you can use that as an opportunity to lend your voice to our kids.  You can access the list here, use the filter to pull up all the unsponsored kids, pick one, and start advocating.  One by one, child by child.

We can do this.  If you’ve read my last couple of posts, you’ve seen how far we’ve come, you’ve seen where we’re headed, and to get there, we need Every.  Child.  Sponsored.

I need your help.