I would like to introduce you to someone; his name is Mintesinot. Mintesinot is like most other young boys. He likes playing with his friends and he loves sports, especially soccer. Mintesinot is an incredibly nice, smart, kind, and mature young man. He lives with his grandmother in a city called DebreZeit, Ethiopia in a one room home the size of a small walk-in closet. And Mintesinot has HIV.
As some of you may know my wife and I recently got back from a trip to Africa. We spent a few days visiting a small church community in a village named Omo. But after finishing our work there we were able to spend a couple of days traveling around Ethiopia with our sponsored son Mintesinot. My wife and I have sponsored him since he was a young boy and he’s now a happy teenager.
During our trip we were able to take Mintesinot to see some animals, including monkeys, hippos, and camels. We even took him on a boat ride in a place called Hawasa in Ethiopia. Mintesinot had never seen monkeys, been on a boat, or even seen a large body of water before. The monkeys wanted to sit on his shoulder and eat out of his hand and at first Mintesinot was a little apprehensive, but he soon came around. 
He was also afraid of the boat and the water and it occurred to me that he had never been outside of his village and had never experienced anything close to what he was seeing. But soon he was smiling and dragging his hand through the water off the side of the boat. I can’t describe to you the joy it brought me just to watch him enjoy weaving his hand back and forth through the water as it separated at his touch.
There are very few feelings in my life that compare to knowing the little bit of joy we offered him for those couple of days. But the truth is our visit itself meant more to him than all the gifts we brought and all the things we did. The fact that we traveled the world to see him meant everything to him. We were blessed to be the first sponsors who have been able to go see any of the children who are being sponsored. In fact we are the first white people some of the Ethiopian children have ever seen.
Our sponsorship of Mintesinot is $40 per month. Less than we pay for our gym membership. $40 doesn’t sound like very much at all, and in the grand scheme of things it isn’t. 
But I won’t say it’s always easy to pay. We live in Los Angeles and I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is to live in this city. And sometimes the ends don’t meet. But the honest truth is that if it came down to paying for the few children we sponsor and paying rent, I would find other living arrangements. Our sponsorship allowed Mintesinot’s grandmother to take him in and helps her take care of him. It pays for food and allows him to go to school instead of having to work to eat. He goes to meetings and learns to take his HIV medication and learns how to handle money and how to take care of himself. Our meager donation literally gives him the ability to live.
We have traded letters and pictures with Mintesinot for years and I want to share one line from one of the letters: “If you were not helping me on the bad days I almost died, but now I am alive because God has brought you on time into my life.”
Here’s the deal. It doesn’t take much to save a life. It literally takes a few dollars and a little bit of love. In the western world we have been blessed with so much. One doesn’t need a trip to Ethiopia to see that. Even the worst off among us have been blessed with more grace than history has ever seen. But we get caught up in the day-to-day grind of trying to survive ourselves and we forget how much our two mites are actually worth. Think about this: Making coffee at home instead of getting Starbucks can save a life. Preparing your own meal once a month instead of eating out at a restaurant can save a life. Working out at LA Fitness instead of Equinox can save a life.
The truth is you can save a life. You. I’ve been sponsoring children in Africa ever since I was in college and working two jobs to pay my own way though school. And now I have seen with my own eyes the difference it makes. Help is needed more than I can possibly express with just a meager thousand words.
There are plenty of ways to save a life. Sponsoring a needy child is just one small way. I’m sure you can think of others. The important thing is not what you are doing, but that you are doing something.
Love. That is how you save a life. Love that is bound by no culture or language. Love that says you are willing to sacrifice a little so someone else can have a lot.
Love. That’s how to save a life.
For those interested in sponsorship I have pictures and stories of specific children that need someone to stand up for their life. I give you my word, my guarantee, that your money will directly give these children an opportunity to live. Most of these children have lost one or both parents to HIV and your money gives them food and teaches them how to take their medication. It will allow them to go to school instead of having to work to feed themselves and sometimes their family as Mintesinot did. If you are interested in sponsorship you can email me or leave a comment on this post and I will send you a specific child who is in need of love and help. Or go to Terry’s Kids and find out more. I would wager the letters you trade with your child will help you more than having an extra $40 in your pocket will. And who knows, maybe one day you can meet the child whose life you save.
