Write a Letter: April’s Monthly Mission

My goal for the monthly mission is to do something different every month. I don’t want my kids to think helping people is just collecting leftover change. (And I don’t want people to cringe when they see us coming with a new bucket in hand!) I want them to know that anything can share God’s love from t-shirts and necklaces to churches and missionaries.

So, our first month was collecting coins, last month we had a water adventure and collected paper. This month we’re going to be writing letters. Yes, writing letters to our sponsored kids. If you’ve been around me for awhile, you know important child sponsorship is to me. We sponsor two kids from Burkina Faso through Compassion and one little girl from the Dominican Republic through World Vision.

Sponsoring them has been life-changing for us. It’s connected our heart to people across the world. And it has enlarged the world for my children. However, if we didn’t step out and write to our sponsored kids, it wouldn’t be the big experience it has been. Spending time with our kids by mailing them letters, collecting postcards as we travel and making crafts for them has planted them firmly within the heart of our family.

Your letters can also change the life of your sponsored child. You don’t know the kind of family your child has–do they love the Lord? do they have time to invest in their children? are they even alive? or around at all? Your letters with encouragement and love-filled words can buoy a child’s heart, give them hope and be a source (maybe the only source) of positive words in their life.

As I was thinking about how to make this more of a mission this month, I was reminded of the U-neeks. Remember those cute little stuffed animals in the kids’ Easter baskets? U-neeks are a line of dolls, cards and other fun stuff from Dayspring that help parents encourage their kids. The whole line is based on Psalm 139:14, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

So, I emailed my friends at Dayspring and asked if they’d like to partner with us this month to help encourage our sponsored kids! They sent me some super fun stuff to send to our own sponsored kids and enough left for me to send to you and your kids!

Jen (aka QuatroMama) from 4tunate.net will also be joining us as our guest blogger! Wait till you see what she and her boys are gonna do for their sponsored kid!

Yesterday, the kids and I made cards for our sponsored kids and used our U-neeks stickers and cards to specifically encourage them in their uniqueness from God and his awesome love for them.

The kids loved looking through the stickers and encouragement cards (which are supposed to be for lunchboxes but SO perfect for sponsored kids letters!).

They spent lots of time looking at each picture (and laughing, of course) and then choosing the most perfect one for each of our sponsored kids.

Here’s Asa posing with one of his faves. That’s his pig face. The backs of the cards have a big empty space, so we wrote questions like, “What’s your favorite color? Mine is orange.” Hopefully they’ll respond!

Your mission this month is simple: write your sponsored child. But don’t tell them about the fun vacation you had. Spend some time encouraging them from God’s Word and from your heart.

source: facebook.com/compassionintl

But wait! What if you don’t have a sponsored child? Well, why don’t you search through these kiddos faces and see which one might connect with you. Sponsoring a child through Compassion is $38 a month. That’s what? Less than $1.25 a day? Less than $10 a week? It might seem like another whole bill at first, but it’s really an investment–in the heart of a child and into your own family. Scroll through Compassion’s YouTube channel with your children and you’ll see what your $38 can do!

Still not sure you can sponsor a child? Compassion also has opportunities for child correspondents. These volunteers write to children who need letters. This is determined by Compassion and they will contact you when you’re needed to write. Isn’t that cool?

Are you in? Will you take time to write and encourage your sponsored kids? Or even better? Sponsor a child?

Affiliate links included. 

If you’re looking for some of these U-Neeks cards and stickers, you can find them on the Dayspring site, of course. Or check out this map to find them at a local Christian bookstore. But even cooler is Hobby Lobby will be carrying U-neeks soon! I love Hobby Lobby. *happy sigh*