*gulp*
*blush*
*shuffle feet*
I’m feeling embarrassed. And ashamed. I say sponsoring a child has changed my life. I tell other people we pray for our sponsored kids regularly, look at their pictures daily and consider them to be family. But the last time I wrote them? Ugh. You don’t want to know.
There is a blogging trip to Tanzania that ends today. I’ve been following the bloggers, their posts, tweets, instagrams and more this whole week. And it breaks me. Every time I read a blogging trip with Compassion or World Vision I am reminded anew of the huge role I have in these kids’ lives.
I’m not their mom. I don ‘t replace their family, their teacher or their pastor. But I do get to be a strong anchor that says, “I am a physical picture of how much Jesus loves you.” And why? why would I take that so lightly? Especially when it doesn’t take much to show them this. A simple letter, a small hand-drawn picture, a postcard from our latest vacation or a picture printed straight from my own printer–nothing expensive, nothing time-consuming. But things to be kept and treasured.
Last week, I got super motivated and printed off address labels and addressed 36 envelopes, stickers with their number on it (for Compassion, you have to put the kids’ number on anything you send), printed stationery and bought 2 books of stamps. Now I have NO EXCUSE for not writing.
I wrote a long letter to each of our Compassion kids apologizing to them. I just said, “I’m so sorry. You are such a big part of our life and we love you deeply. We are making it a new priority in our life to show you just that.” I know how important it is to apologize to my own kids, so I hope they can feel love in that confession, too.
I pray they feel that love as they receive their letters. And that it will be another connection, another tether to their Heavenly Father.
Your mission today is to just sit down and write a letter and add a hand-drawn picture from the kids. Easy peasy!
Who’s with me?!
Still not sure about sponsoring a child? See my trip to the Dominican Republic with World Vision or read the adventures of the Compassion trip to Tanzania! It will change your life–and the life of a child around the world!
Ooh, and don’t forget to visit my Flat Crafts for Sponsored Kids Pinterest Board!
What are your 12 different ideas for your kids to make/do/send to sponsored kids.
They are just simple crafts I’ll be sharing over the next year. (They are the topic of my posts!) So, for example, in January, we’ll make snowflakes. In May we’re doing a flower craft with tissue paper and contact paper.) I’ll be compiling them as we go so you can see them all together!
a
I’m in. We’re terrible at writing our sponsored child… 🙁
I am in too. We have two “daughters” and after getting notification that one of them has been suffering from malaria I was grossly convicted for only writing to her a couple of times over the past year. Thank you thank you thank you! I will be getting all our materials prepped tomorrow!!
Count me in! We have a beautiful girl in India that I do not write nearly enough and I love the idea of getting the kids involved because up until now it has just been mom doing it! Thanks!
I just started sponsoring through World Vision and it is already such a blessing. Making a Pintrest board for it is a great idea. I think I’m going to do that too. Thanks! I’m excited to read your posts every month.
You have no idea how close this is to my heart today. We actually just missed the postman to send a LONG overdue letter to our sponsored child. Ugghhh! Thank you so much for the encouragement and the reminder. It’s so easy to forget what we CAN do to spread His love!
Thank you SO much for encouraging us to do this. We have actually never sponsored a child. I went on and signed up for our first child. We are currently waiting for our newly adopted son, Khristian, to come home from the Congo of Africa. We have really been teaching and talking to our 4 year old son about this. For his birthday party a few days ago he had everyone bring his brother’s orphanage a gift rather than him one. It breaks his heart they have no toys. When we sat together and prayed about which child God wanted us to sponsor you could see the joy in his eyes when we chose Cyuzuzo and he immediately asked, “Can he come live with us too and be my brother?!?” I do pray that maybe one day, we can meet the little guy! So thank you for this. We are looking forward to our monthly letter and craft 🙂
howdy! Our newest World Vision kiddo is from the DR. So cool that you got to go there. I have enjoyed following the Tanzania blogger trip for Compassion and it of course reminded me that we haven’t written any letters since Christmas.
We have 6 kids with World Vision and love to see them bloom and their communities grow. I have been to an ADP in Mexico to see the work in person. It’s just amazing.
A World Vision employee from Zambia once told me that the kids from Zambia save EVERY single letter/photo and the parents consider you a part of their family since you “come along-side them” to help them care for their children. That deeply impacted me to write more and to send photos.
PS. I will totally do this with you! Looking forward to your ideas. We have been sponsors for 18 years now and I am always looking for new ideas.
Amanda, I’ve been thinking about this very thing recently… Your idea of addressing the envelopes now and putting stamps on them is brilliant. I’m adding that to my list so that we are sure to write our boy each month. We have a letter written that has been sitting on my countertop for 2 months no (hides head in shame) simply awaiting an envelope and stamp.
We’ll join up with you this next year.
I’ve done that same thing–envelopes sitting on the counter waiting to be mailed. 🙁
Thank you so much for this inspiration and encouragement. I definitely go in “spurts”. It’s so helpful that Compassion has an online option now. You can even upload your family photos! In the past, we have done a couple of the creative crafts you suggested on your blog. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for the rest of the year! Our family will join you in your 2nd Friday venture.
I so appreciate all your encouragement and look forward to your ideas! Thank you!
Thanks for the encouragement and reminder to show love to our sponsor child. We did a picture today and also included some photos of the kids. It was an eye-opener finding a suitable photo to include as it made me realise all the luxuries we have here. We also stuck a photo of our kid on our world map.
This has been great to see everyone get on board. We just sent our first letter and family picture to our newest daughter and a letter asking for forgiveness to our daughter we’ve had for a year or so. I also added someone else to our Friday writing. A friend of ours just deployed to Afgahnistan on Monday, so his envelopes are also ready to go! Sent the first letter out to him yesterday. Thank you again for the inspiration!!
Don’t forget you can do letters to your Compassion kids online too! I think I’m going to alternate between “big” packages with activities and such with quick little “We’re thinking of you” letters with a picture or two attached.
We’ve only been sponsoring since January but I’m hoping to make it a habit to write from the get-go.
I printed out some labels too for quick mailing!
I know! I’m going to blog about the online letter writing soon! I love the alternate big/little packages. Great idea!
a
This is a great idea!! We write once a quarter and the other 2 months in between we do an email. I will be stopping by to see what you all are working on.
I’m very excited for this series! I have the same trouble with not writing my sponsored kids. Looking forward to seeing the activities. 🙂
Yay! Glad you are going to join me!
a
THANK YOU so much for this encouragement and wonderful ideas! I hopped over to pinterest to follow your board there as well. God has been really speaking to my heart over the last year regarding Jesus’ command to all his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations.” I have been thinking so much about the practical ways that command applies to my life, as a homeschooling mom to 5 young children. One of the things God has impressed on me is the importance of being part of the discipleship of the children we sponsor through Compassion and Gospel for Asia. I admit, we are terrible at writing them on any kind of regular basis. And that’s something that needs to change. It’s well and good to sponsor children with our money, but by encouraging our sponsored children in their faith, sharing God’s love with them in words and pictures, teaching them God’s amazing love story to His people through our letters and praying for them earnestly- that’s where relationship and discipleship happens. I was thinking recently about Paul and all the letters he wrote to Christ-followers in the early church. Much of his discipleship of those early believers happened long-distance, through letters and prayer. In the same way, by regularly writing and encouraging our sponsored children, we are being obedient to Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations, right from our kitchen table surrounded by all our little ones. Thank you for your practical ideas for ways to include even the youngest of our children in this mission. I am encouraged and ready to get started! Blessings to you!
Kristen! Thank you for your comment. I love how you related Paul’s letters to writing to sponsored kids. You are so right–our letters can be discipleship for them. THANK YOU!
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