On my 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom mirror, written in dry erase marker, I read, “Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead.”
She posted this reminder when she returned from a mission trip to South Africa, where she played with children in a Capetown slum, served beside teenagers much like herself from Johannesburg, served a daily meal to children at a “feeding station.”


But what can she do now, a half a world away? How does an ordinary American teenager become a difference maker? She’s an athlete—so she decided to use that strength to make a difference.
This Sunday, my daughter and several friends will don the bright orange tee-shirts of Team World Vision and run the Chicago Marathon. (I’ll be on the sidelines, cheering her on.) She’s running to raise money for World Vision, an organization that works all over the world to feed the hungry, assist the poor, and provide help in times of disaster.
Being a part of Team World Vision requires her to sponsor a child. She works a part-time job, and part of that income goes toward the monthly sponsorship cost. She’s grown up in a home where we always sponsored a child through World Vision as a family. So it feels normal to her. One way I’ve tried to raise compassionate kids is not just to talk about it, but to try to live a compassionate life.

But she’d like to do more.  The only way that will happen is if people sponsor her. Read her story on her World Vision web page. If you like, you can sponsor her by making a tax-deductible donation to World Vision. Here’s a direct link to her page: http://support.worldvision.org/goto/melaniekent