Recently, I went to India with a group of 36 enthusiastic evangelists. We were there during my Christmas break and had quite successful meetings. That’s not to say we didn’t have problems, but we were there on the Lord’s business, and He took good care of us. It was a great trip, and I was glad I could do something to help the Indian people and be working for God.

Toward the end of the trip, I found out there was an opportunity for us to sponsor children through school. This wasn’t any normal, mediocre school; this was education through the tenth grade at one of our Adventist boarding schools. The selected child would receive food, clothing, a Christian education, and a beautiful Christian environment. I visited the school where the sponsored students would attend, and I was favorably impressed. The best part was that it was a mere $25 a month.

When we heard about this, several of us decided to sponsor a child from our meetings—a child we saw frequently. A friendly, cute little girl about the age of six kept coming to mind as someone I would like to sponsor. But when she asked her parents if she could go away to the school and study, her parents said she was too young and they didn’t want her going away to boarding school at such a young age.

After that, I wasn’t really sure who to send to school, so I just started praying. A few minutes later my translator told me that a boy’s parents were requesting for their eight-year-old son to be sponsored. I was not really sure at first that I wanted to sponsor him, since I didn’t even recognize him from the meetings (I really wanted to support someone I had seen at my meetings). But I felt the Lord leading me to him as the one to support through school. So after praying quite a bit more, I decided to sponsor eight-year-old Thalladu through the tenth grade.

I felt very happy leaving the meeting that last night knowing a young Indian boy was going to get a good, Christian education. When I got back to the United States, I thought about how much we spend on things that don’t really matter. Most of us would barely have to strain to come up with $25 a month. I would just challenge each one of you to think about the way we spend our money. In Heaven, it will matter far more if you sponsored a young person and possibly helped them meet the Lord, than if you had some extra luxury in your life.

Nathan Kelly is a sophomore at Indiana Academy and a Cicero Church member.