Marty Denzer/Key photo Sami Freese, 17, of Denver, has sponsored a Filipino child through CFCA for 9 years.

Sami Freese, 17, who lives in Denver, stood in the front of the booth, passing out flyers and answering questions based on what she had shared about sponsoring a child during the second general session that morning in the Sprint Center.

Sami first heard about CFCA and the children in need when she was eight years old. Even that young, she felt that sponsoring a child was the right thing for her to do, although she insisted it be someone younger than she.

At the general session, Sami had mentioned the life-changing aspect of helping a child go to school, have enough food to eat, and have a special friend. Carmina was three years old when Sami chose her photo out of a pile a visiting priest, an advocate for CFCA, brought with him. Her home was in a very poor part of the Philippine Islands.   

Sami saved part of her allowance for Carmina, contributing $20 every month. As she grew older, Sami’s allowance was supplemented by babysitting money, and she eventually was able to send $30 a month. She also put some aside to pay for a trip to the Philippines to meet Carmina.

“Sponsoring Carmina was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I never expected it to become such a significant part of my life.”

Sami said that she had had to deal with some ridicule and disbelief: You’re only helping one person. How can that fight poverty in this world? “Well, helping one person may not change the world, but it’s better than helping no one. And if everybody here (at NCYC) helped one person, think what a difference that would make!”

Recently she began to contribute $40 monthly for Carmina. “It’s hard to imagine living on $40 a month, but money goes a lot farther in her homeland. And CFCA only keeps about 6 cents on each dollar, that’s 94 cents going to help Carmina and her family. That’s important to me.”

By 2008, Sami had saved enough to travel to Carmina’s home in the Philippines. She arrived at 3 a.m., after a 30-hour flight, and disembarked from the airplane to find Carmina and her family standing at the gate. “I looked in her eyes and saw joy,” Sami recalled with a smile. “She has become more like a little sister and we are role models for each other.”

During her talk at the general session, she shared some photos of her trip to visit Carmina. A smiling child, she made those who saw her smile too.

“Sponsoring Carmina has changed my life,” Sami said. “She has made me feel happier and more blessed.”

She plans to continue sponsoring Carmina until the child graduates from high school.

Sami is beginning to consider college and her future. She wants to be a writer and a public speaker. She also thinks maybe she has had a good influence on the child she has sponsored for 9 years. Carmina, now 12, hopes to be a teacher and help others.

“Maybe she’ll sponsor a child like herself,” Sami said. “I know she’s going to do great things.”

At the entrance to the CFCA booth, paper shoe soles were fastened to two display boards. Directly behind the shoes, at the rear of the booth stood two treadmills with small video screens positioned over the handlebars. A walker on the treadmill earned $1 for every 4 minutes on the machine, with that dollar going toward helping a child in El Salvador, India, the Philippines or Kenya reach a goal, including college. The shoes represented the money “earned” and tally sheets showed how much and what it would be used for. Loretta Kline, communications director for CFCA, said a grant supplied the funds for this project.

Sami was one of five teens who shared life change experiences. Stephanie Mueller, a senior at St. Pius X High School in Kansas City, is a member of “Letters of Compassion.” The 7-member group has worked to raise money for the Manute Bol project. Manute Bol, a former pro-basketball player, wanted to build a school in his native Darfur, Sudan, so children could attend classes even during the rainy seasons. Letters of Compassion has raised $15,000 for Manute Bol’s school, and the school is in the building stage.

Phillip Ryan, 17, of the Diocese of Covington, Ky., was cured of an inoperable, malignant brain tumor, through the power of prayer.

“Miracles happen every day,” he said.

He sang a song he had written, giving thanks and praise to the Holy Spirit for his return to health.

Felix Montalvo, a senior from the Archdiocese of Orlando, spoke of the changes in his life he experienced volunteering as a youth minister.

Chidera, 16, hails from Los Angeles, but her family roots reach back to Nigeria. Her name means “what is written,” in Ebo, the native language of Nigeria.

She entered high school with “a pen all set to write her story.” She thought she had covered all the bases, but she didn’t think about God, because who really needs God in high school.”

Things started going wrong, and then her grandmother died in Nigeria.

“It made me realize how fragile life is,” she said.

Chidera turned to God and prayer and, eventually, things began to right themselves. She volunteers at soup kitchens and homeless shelters, and helps out wherever she feels needed. “God has already written our stories,” she said. “We just need to live them, have faith in him, and give him back that pen we were going to write our stories with.

“If you hand that pen to God today, the last three words of your story will be happily every after.”

Earlier, musician Steve Angrisano had led the arena packed with more than 21,000 teens in a rendition of Lean on Me. “If Jesus had been a hippie back in the 1970s, he would have written this song,” Angrisano said.

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