Ready, set, talk!!!

Sunday was my first day in the Chilliwack campaign in which I had zero sponsors, it was one of those days I really don't like. I left the mall with that familiar sensation of "man! what happened today?!"

Today, Monday, I went into my shift ready to get sponsors; I was not going home with another zero. John and Sean had been working all morning, I arrived at 1:30pm for my shift thinking that it was going to be a great day. I got ready, I set my goal (three for the day) and I started talking to everybody! Sean stopped a lady and all of a sudden he invited me into his conversation. Between the both we secured a sponsor for a beautiful girl. 

I kept talking to everybody and had to go through a lot of people before I stopped Colin, a nice guy

Colin holding his two sponsored children!

who was walking in the mall with a big suitcase (probably getting ready to travel somewhere). We started talking about the sponsorship program and how important and urgent it is for us to take action against Child Labour. Colin told me that he is already making many donations through his church but also that the sponsorship idea had crossed his mind in the past. I shared with him my experience as Fatima's sponsor and how incredible I find that, now, through my sponsorship she is going to school. I then presented him to the oldest boy we had at the booth; 13 of age, from Niger. Suddenly Colin shared with me that he is all about fighting against sex slavery and that his heart is moved to the Eastern Europe and East Asia regions for that specific reason. He went around the booth and chose a girl from Romania and I said: "Would you like to sponsor that little girl?" to what he replied: "If I am going to sponsor, I want to sponsor two" I went crazy inside my head!! 

To make the story short, Colin opened up his heart to a girl from Romania and that boy from Niger we talked about earlier in our conversation. He patiently waited for me to fill both forms in the tablet and after all, right at the end, when we where shaking hands he said "thank you for stoping me, I have thought about this and I am glad I did it."

I dont get too many people thanking me for stoping them, but this was an awesome guy with a huge heart and indeed, I am glad that I stopped him. 

The Lantern Project

-Javier Cuellar-