I’ve just had the most wonderful week in the Philippines. Compassion took me there to record material with our Compassion Day host Vaniza Apostol—you might remember that beautiful voice that captivated us last year. I’m looking forward to an amazing Compassion Day this year, on May 15. We’re aiming to release 1500 Haitian children from poverty and with Vaniza as host, and hopefully your involvement, we will do just that.

I must admit to having mixed motives about this week’s trip, because while I was in the Philippines for work purposes, I also got to meet three of my own sponsor children: Norman, who is 10, very shy, but who insisted on wearing the red shirt we gave him to our meeting; Feliza, who is 13, and who looked just beautiful in her red dress and big bright smile; and Riza—the 16 year old who has forever stolen my heart.

We’ve sponsored Riza for over nine years now, through an organisation called Share An Opportunity, or SAO for short. Over the years our letters to each other have gotten more and more personal and we’ve developed a very special bond. When Merryn and I met Riza for the first time last year I felt like I’d discovered a daughter. There were many, many tears when we said goodbye.

On Thursday I met Riza and her SAO workers at a little restaurant in Bacolod City on Negros Island. We got to talk, laugh, eat and hug. Again there were tears as we said goodbye, but I know we’ll see Riza again. She’s already asking God for that to happen.

Every October Bacolod City holds its famous MassKara Festival. Thousands of Bacolenos (as they’re called) hit the town square wearing brightly coloured smiling masks. The festival symbolises a time when Bacolod City experienced financial depression after a downturn is its main industry—sugar. Back then, locals tell me, the masks were used to cover the sadness on the Bacolenos’ faces. Today the meaning has changed. Bacolod is nick-named the 'City of Smiles', and the MassKara festival is an icon of gratefulness for God’s provision. The tears have turned to smiles.

The Island of Negros still has many trials, and the Philippines still has much sadness. The poverty is acute. But flying back from this wonderful country, my heart overwhelmed at having seen Riza again, I couldn’t help but pull out my journal again and write my thanks to God. What a privilege it is to share your life with a child in a country not your own, and help tears turn to smiles.

www.compassion.com.au
www.shareanopportunity.org

© 2008 Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker, broadcaster and author of Unseen Footprints: Encountering the divine along the journey of life (Scripture Union, 2005). Compassion Day takes place on Thursday May 15. www.thethoughtfactory.net