Finally Mail!

Was so excited this last week, to find, not only one letter, but two in my mailbox from my Compassion kiddos.

The first letter I opened was from my youngest, 5 year old Arsang in Thailand.

He is now using the form letters, with a new topic in each letter. In this letter he told me all about his friends. His best friend is a boy named Wittawat, who lives next door and sometimes attends the project with Arsang. His favorite activity is playing games because he gets to go to his friends house to play with him.

He drew me a very nice sunset on the mountains. He asks if  I'm excited about Christmas and he is excited because he will get presents. I can imagine a big smile and excitement on his face!

My second letter was from my oldest, 20 year old Denise from Rwanda.

I love how she starts her letter, 'I your child...' She tells me her family send their greetings, and goes on to talk about her evangelism training she has been doing. She says 'I am happy to see the Spirit of God enabling me to do it.' I know this girls will go far as she keeps her focus on Jesus!

Her prayer is for her to be able to attend college. She tells me she too is praying for this. As the oldest of a single mother, I pray God makes a way for her dreams to come true!

Will you join me in praying for Denise? What prayer requests have you received recently from your kids?

Compassion Video

I watched this pretty powerful video on Compassion's Facebook page tonight, and wanted to share.

Enjoy!

Monday

It's Monday, and I haven't posted in quite some time. Partly waiting on mail to share, and other being extremely busy with the holidays. Plus my computer has been acting up, making it a struggle to post. I've done occasional posts from my phone, but it is so time consuming I hardly find it worth it.

Well I still didn't get any mail, but my youngest nephew, Nate, finally received his letter from his 4 year old friend Alex in Bolivia.

 

 

Little Alex, with the help of his tutor did not have a very much to say. It was a fill in the blank letter. I liked how he said his hero was Jesus!

 

He also says he loves him very much. He colored a bit on the letter too.

 

 

In other news, I was blessed with a new correspondence child. There was a great need for correspondents around the holidays, and they were allowing the opportunity, for those with more than 3 correspondent kids to write to another child.

 

I was blessed with 13 year old Miki from Indonesia.

 

 

Indonesia is a new country for me. And I'm excited about another boy! My sister was blessed with a beautiful teenage girl from India. I don't have her picture, but I will hopefully be able to show her off later.

 

Hopefully next week brings a letter in my mailbox!

My Precious Filipino Sister

Well, it finally happened. I finally heard back from my Filipino sister Sheena!

If you haven't read about her previously, you can here. I had befriended her on facebook several months back and had sent her a message, with no reply.

Occasionally I'd see she'd added a new photo or two, with an occasional updated status, primarily in Tagalog, primarily in slang. So my communication has basically been nothing, beyond a few new photos.

I had noticed a man in her photo, unsure if he was only a boyfriend, or if they were married. With no reply all I could do was what I had been doing all along; pray.

The other night, after seeing recent activity a with in a few consecutive days, I decided to send a new private message, simple and sweet. Thinking maybe the length of the message was intimidating. Or possibly she wasn't even sure now how to reply to me.

Well the next morning I had a few short sweet replies, that indeed sounded like my Filipino sis! I was so excited to have some contact. I had initiated asking if they were married yet, with a congratulations, thinking maybe she wasn't sure how I would respond know more personal things that were really unspoken before.

She informed they were not married yet, and from what I could decipher from the already mentioned mostly Tagalog, mostly slang status updates, it seems they've been together a year. He seems to be quite a bit older than her, so I do have a few concerns. Please pray with me for her to continue to seek God and his will for her life, where ever that leads her.

She did ask also for continued prayers, it sounds like she's trying to continue with college.

**Side note about continued connections with sponsored children outside of sponsorship graduation.

I will say I'm glad for this connection, but it definitely comes with pros and cons, as laid out by others. I loving knowing where she is, but just as a parent has to let go of their child and watch them make their own choices, however those turn out, it is a bit difficult knowing now there isn't a lot of help I can do for her, beyond encouraging her and praying for her.

The saying "Ignorance is bliss" comes to mind. We know and love our Compassion kids, for who they are, through their struggles and strengths shared in letters. I will say in some cases that may be enough. I know I will not continue correspondence with all my kids after they graduate, but it's definitely something to pray and consider on an individual basis, as your child reaches graduation.

Do you have any connections with your formally sponsored kids? If so, what are your thoughts?

Monday's Mail

This week I heard from three out of my four boys. Those three boys do seem to write often, in which I'm grateful. Two of them are absolutely amazing artist, while the youngest I do believe will be an up and coming artist as he ages.

First letter was from 12 year old Erick in Bolivia.

He tells me everything is going well at school in his classes and he will be done on November 30th. His cat Perla will be having two or three kittens and he is looking foward to it. He also mentions his dog Dumbo is sick because he cries when he walks; he has a bad foot he says. This kid loves his pets, and has told me about them in many letters! He hopes his dog will be better soon.

He also mentions celebrating students day in September  with delicoius food and dancing.

He draws such great people and uses so much color!

Then I received a letter from my almost 17 year old Jose David in Ecuador.

David tells me he is happy because he was promoted to his last year of high school. This sentence brought both joy, and sadness. I'm very happy he is doing so well, but sad as it confirms that his will probably be his final year at Compassion. His birthday is in December, and he is scheduled for completion next year. I am truly excited to see him finish and graduate, but I will dearly miss our correspondence as we've been together for quite sometime.

He tells me he wants to continue to study at university and "be a great engineer for the honor and glory of God". Amen to that! He's also very happy as his praise group decided to record, and promoted their first CD in October. He has told me before the name of his group, I will have to see if I can find the CD online. He wants prayers to conintue to learn the piano. He asks if I like to play the piano; he'll be excited when he gets me letter talking about me learning guitar!

He often times writes scripture with his drawings.

Lastly I heard from my youngest, 5 year old Arsang in Thailand.

This was a form letter, one of the new ones that were part of the new letter guidelines. It's about his project!

On the back the project worker wrote a message for him (not the normal tutor who helps him), she mentions he's happy to participate in the project activities, and asks me to pray for him as "he is still a little child and has to learn more." I like how he said dessert is what he typically eats at his project!

I'd love to hear about your little artists!

Wordless Wednesday-First Snow

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is something I look forward to every year. I love packing boxes for children in need all over the world.

This year we had an area representative drop off brochures and information at our church. This was a first, and many of the kids and teens were quite interested. So as I shopped for supplies I decided I would have the children and youth pack the boxes this year.

The youth do have a child through Compassion they regularly correspond with, so they do have some experience and knowledge of poverty. So we discussed our mandate as Christians and talked about the story from James 2:14-19 and how our deeds are tangible  faith.

"A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. If you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,” but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing."

Some of them were able to bring in items for the boxes, and were very proud to be a part. My goal was 8 boxes, and we ended up with 10 I get to drop off this week. 

I have a very diverse group of kids and teens, ranging from young to some with disabilities. Everyone wanted to help! Especially the kindergarten/preschool class. It was a bit chaotic, but I definitely will know how to better organize next year.

I think it was a lesson well learned, especially when one of the teens had to explain to a 5 year old boy why he couldn't take the box home for himself.

Here's the older kids with the boxes!


"Direct your children onto the right path,

and when they are older, they will not leave it."
Proverbs 22:6