It was 1995 when 20-year-old Bonnie picked up a child sponsorship packet from a table at church. She looked down at the photo of the young girl in Uganda who was waiting for a sponsor.
“For some reason, I was drawn to her.” — Bonnie
After reading that Norah’s birthday was almost 10 years after her own and that the two of them shared a love of singing, Bonnie decided to sponsor Norah.
“The Spirit moved and said that I was able to actually do this, even though at the time I didn’t have a steady job or anything. But I think it was just something I felt called to do.” — Bonnie
Twenty-six years would pass before Bonnie would see the magnitude of her decision to become part of Norah’s amazing story.
Haven’t met Norah from Uganda yet? Read Part 1 of her incredible story.
“The Front-Row Seat”
Four years after Bonnie sponsored Norah, she married her husband, Jeff. Vaguely familiar with Compassion, Jeff began to learn more about child sponsorship. When he saw Norah’s needs and his ability to meet them, sponsorship made perfect sense.
“It was just a matter of going, ‘Holy cow, check out this need. If I can help do something about that, why wouldn’t I?’ It just made sense.” — Jeff
Together, he and Bonnie exchanged letters with Norah. Letter by letter, the Colorado couple got a glimpse into Norah’s life — what she was learning at her Compassion center and how her family was doing.
“I felt like I got a front-row seat to watching her grow.” — Bonnie
They learned that Norah’s father had died in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. But Norah didn’t share many details about it, and Bonnie didn’t know if or how she should bring it up in letters.
So, she and Jeff focused on what they had in common with Norah: their faith. In one letter, Norah shared that she had memorized her favorite Bible verse.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” — Jeremiah 29:11, NIV
“I remember that letter so specifically,” says Bonnie, “because that was my first memorized verse as well. And of course, she wouldn’t have known that.”
Over time, Norah’s letters revealed how she was maturing in communication skills and faith. “As she was growing and starting to share things, the excitement came through in the letters,” Bonnie says. “It was fun because at the same time, I was in a big growth time in my life — to just have more and more understanding about God and what he was doing.”
The day they learned that Norah was completing the child sponsorship program and preparing for university, Bonnie and Jeff believed their chapter in her story was over. Crying bittersweet tears, Bonnie trusted that God would continue to prosper Norah.
But neither she nor Jeff could imagine just what that would look like.
26 Years Later
A few summers ago, Bonnie and Jeff received an update from Compassion while they were on a trip celebrating their anniversary. They learned that Norah now lives in the U.S. with her husband and their children.
Norah had become a social worker. She had also started sharing her remarkable story as a speaker at Compassion events and on several podcasts, including the “Real Mom Podcast.”
In one episode, host Jamie Finn interviewed Norah about her childhood growing up in poverty, losing her father in the genocide and how she got to where she is today. During the interview, Norah effused about her sponsors.
“My sponsors were the most amazing people in my life — the most precious asset that God ever gave me. Because every word they said to me felt like an asset to me. My sponsors wrote me letters, and if anybody out there doesn’t know how important a letter is to a child, this is the time for you to understand this: I was so hopeless, and my sponsors wrote me letters, and they said to me, ‘Norah. We love you.’ … And they always said, ‘We believe in you.’” — Norah
Norah told the podcast host that because Jeff and Bonnie believed in her, she never wanted to disappoint them.
“It’s very important to have someone who speaks positivity into your life. Someone who prays for you. My sponsors always told me they were praying for me. Those letters were the most precious things in my life.” — Norah
Connecting the Dots
On their anniversary trip, Bonnie and Jeff tuned in to hear Norah’s podcast interview. For the first time, they heard the voice of the person they wrote to, prayed for and supported for so many years. And she was talking about them.
Norah compared Jeff and Bonnie to her “other parents.” They were in awe.
“I was sitting there hearing about the impact of the letters, and I thought, ‘I’m such a horrible letter writer. How did she get all of that out of it?’ So again, you see what God was doing behind the scenes that really had nothing to do with you. He takes it anyway and makes it his.” — Bonnie
Jeff marveled at how God took what seemed so minor — a relatively small cost of sponsorship and a few letters with basic messages shared — and changed lives in a major way.
“God’s able to magnify the impact of some dollars. So, he can do that with anything. He can do that with words translated across a page, going across international seas. And it means something. It connected. That’s, I think, supernatural intervention at some point.” — Jeff
To Bonnie, Norah blessed them just as much as, if not more than, they blessed her. “I think one of the most precious things to us is this: We never had children, by God’s design. And it was like, ‘Okay, well that wasn’t the plan,’” Bonnie says.
“Hearing her in a podcast saying that she calls us her other parents blew us out of the water. To just see another little gift God has given us — we’ve been completely blessed.” — Bonnie
“And again, it just reminds me how God is the hero of this. He’s the Author of this. We just played this much part in it,” Bonnie says, using her fingers to show how little she sees the part she and Jeff played in Norah’s life.
“And it’s incredible to see what that little part does.”
“I’m Looking for Them”
Norah said one more thing in the “Real Mom Podcast” that stood out to Jeff and Bonnie — and to Compassion staff in the U.S. After being asked by the host if Norah had anything to say to her sponsors, she replied:
“Oh my goodness. Let me say this now. I hope they hear this: I’m looking for them! I’m looking for Jeff and Bonnie, who sponsored me. Those people changed my life, and I am what I am today because of their sacrifice.”
Norah’s words inspired her village to come together, setting in motion her dream of finally meeting the two who had become family to her.
Jeff and Bonnie’s sponsorship experience shows how God can turn even the smallest “yes” into something extraordinary. But the story isn’t over yet — God had so much more in store.
