After following the Compassion Bloggers to the Philippines and reading every word each one of them wrote, I’m feeling especially excited about writing our sponsored kids. I just love the idea that those kids can receive some affirmation and love by simply getting a card and stickers from us. I pray our letters and gifts are a small piece of the great plan God is putting together for our kids.
I started a (you guessed it) Pinterest board about Flat Crafts for Sponsored Kids. So far I don’t have much to choose from but the whole board started when I found this great idea:
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Source: tcktyboo.com via Impress Your Kids on Pinterest
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Isn’t that beautiful? I thought it would be cool to make this into a card and put 2 hearts on it–one map of where we live and one where they live. I printed off some pictures of Burkina Faso and the Dominican Republic and of the southeast United States! I have tried to teach Lydia how to cut hearts before (remember our Valentine’s Day heart?) but cutting is not her forte. So we tried again. Eventually I realized it would be better if I cut and she glued.
After it was all glued on I tried to think of a good scripture or saying to put on the bottom. I’m still waiting to decide because I want to laminate it and my new laminator is coming in the mail this week! So, it’s not a complete project, but what do you think? Cute huh?
Now, I’ve got something fun for you! World Vision has just released a picture book called African Heartbeat. It’s the story of an American girl who sponsors a girl from Africa. She finds that as she learns more about her and connects with her more that Africa doesn’t seem as far away as she thought. The two girls grow to love each other like family. And you get to see the affect a sponsorship has on a child. It’s a really fantastic book that will remind your kids how your sponsored children are just like them AND are really a part of your family. I cried every single time I read it!
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Now, it’s time to link up! If you’ve written your kids, made a flat craft for them (or just a flat craft on your blog that would be appropriate), had a fun conversation about sponsorship with your own children write about it on your blog and link up below! Old posts welcome! And please link back to this post so others can join in & be encouraged to write their children! (button in the sidebar—>)
ps: I feel like I should add a little disclaimer/clarification regarding World Vision versus Compassion. I sponsor two children through Compassion (I did so as a result of the Ugandan Bloggers trip). Then I went on a blogging trip with World Vision and began sponsoring a girl with them. I believe in both organizations because they are both child-focused and both help children and families live. There are some key differences between the two which I think Shaun Groves (and his comment-ers) clear up nicely. I trust both of these organizations implicitly and both receive high ratings of responsibility with their money. The point is not the organization. The point is the child. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments, I’ll try to help. {But the book is coming from World Vision, so if you want that, you gotta sponsor through them! They did send me the book for free and asked if I’d like to giveaway some to you.}
We sponsor 2 girls and I am so, so bad about writing them. I used to think it was okay. That it was the sponsorship that mattered. But then I read the blogs from the Philippines Compassion trip and how much it means to the kids to get those letters. I’ve just got to get a couple in the mail. Love your heart/map craft!
Cool story–I got to skype with my parents’ LDP student in Ecuador last night–I cried. Also, I just sent our sponsored kids our CHRISTMAS card–yes, it is june and I am that behind. If I don’t win a book, may I borrow yours for a few days? 🙂 love the map idea, by the way.
Love, love, love the map flat craft idea!!!
Our family sponsors a boy named Kamau Francis in Kenya. We keep his picture on our mantle with the other children and we pray for him every night as a family. What a blessing to hear my young children praying for this boy across the world that he would have clean water to drink and healthy food to eat!
Thank you to World Vision for the giveaway!
Thank you for your heart for children! We have 2 sponsored boys, and will hopefully add to our family!
The book looks great!
We sponsor 3 children and correspond with one additional. We love them all as if they were here. We pray for them nightly and read and reread each and every letter they send to us! We have 3 girls, Sofia, Yuri and Uwamurera and one boy, Maxwell.
getting off the computer RIGHT NOW to go work on a card with my 5 yr old to send to our sweet boy in Indonesia. He writes us the sweetest letters. thanks for the gentle encouragement to get on this!
We sponsor several. But just recently we’ve gotten letters from our two most frequent letter writers, a girl in India and a boy in Ecuador. It is always such a blessing to hear from them. The Ecuadorian boy especially always has some funny things to say 😉
PS, I “liked” this on facebook.
I love that you do these posts, Amanda!
We sponsor a handsome little 4 year old named Kenet in Guatemala through World Help. Today we mailed him our second package since we sponsored him a couple of months ago – a homemade t-shirt that my kids colored; we were learning about butterflies and they had made shirts with a caterpillar on the front and a butterfly on the back, and we had written 2 Cor. 5:17 on them. So, we made one for Kenet in Spanish – they were so excited to send it and know that he would be wearing their gift!
They would LOVE this book! 🙂
Tweeted! https://twitter.com/#!/KristiStephens/status/79357580119523329
Liked the post!
This sounds like an amazing book. I would love to win it. Thanks for the giveaway.
Sarafina is from Tanzania and just a tad younger than my 7 year old daughter. We love writing her and sending her art work. And of course we love hearing from her!!!
The heart/map idea is brilliant!
http://twitter.com/SowDandelions/status/79601918124634113
My husband and I began sponsoring 2 kids through World Vision 7+ years ago through a Matthew West/Mark Schultz concert we attended – it’s amazing how quickly they’ve grown! Now having a child of our own and wanting to connect to others closer to her age, we started paying school fees for a little girl in Cambodia, and we’ve partnered with others to sponsor a girl in Bangladesh through Compassion. Spreading the love!
Having lots of African ties, this book looks awesome to me…
janemaritz at yahoo dot com
I absolutely LOVE your heart map idea. Our sponsored child’s birthday is next month and writing to him is on our to do list for Monday. I think I’m totally gong to have my boys do this!
Our boys exchange hand drawn pictures with their friend. They all share a love of cars. It is cute to see their shared passions!
We like to send stickers, coloring books and plan to send “CARS” themed silly bands to him for his birthday.
Thanks for the post. I needed a reminder to get on it and get our little birthday package out this week!
Added two links! 🙂
Mentioned it on my facebook page!
We sponsor a little girl in Swaziland, a little boy through World Vision, and more recently a little girl from Compassion that my daughter and I found after looking at the pictures and videos from the Compassion bloggers. One of my goals this summer is to send some fun packages to each of them…I’ve been so bad about it so far!
We sponsor a young lady in Sierra Leone. I do get lax at writing to her, thanks for the incentive. The book looks wonderful, please enter me to win it.
My first encounter with World Vision is that when I walked to our office and a lady from world vision approached me. I’m thinking if I should sponsor someone…