Making Time to Speak Up

Last night, for some reason, I was thinking about our Compassion trip to Mexico my daughter and I took in January. 

And then, when I started checking Facebook this morning, I saw reports of an earthquake that hit off the coast of southern Mexico last night.

I immediately starting thinking about Alfredo and his family, and the many other Compassion children and their families that live in Chiapas.

In 2014, my son and I were on our first trip with Compassion. And where did we go? Chiapas. The most southern state in the country of Mexico. 

See that pink building in the photo above? That is the church in this community. The church had no glass in the windows, and the restroom? Basically an outhouse with no roof out behind the church.

Do you think this building is up to earthquake standards? I am sure no building inspector has even seen this place, let alone ever traveled to a location like this.

Why am I sharing this with you?

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know." _ William Wilberforce

Recently, I finished reading 'Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery' by Eric Metaxas.

I have seen extreme poverty and I have to speak up about it. I know that we live in the most prosperous nation on earth.

I know that there are families in other countries living with next to nothing. They do not have the resources we have to rebuild when everything around them is destroyed.

We cannot sit back and do nothing.

If you can and are willing, Compassion has a fund set up to help families in disasters. You can visit this link to make a donation today.

Short and Sweet

When was the last time you received a note in the mail? In and amongst the junk mail and bills, our mail boxes rarely are filled with notes and letters from friends and relatives. We live in a world where encouragement and praise can be received on a daily basis by those who we live life with.

But imagine you live in a world where you have no mail box.

Imagine you live in a world where there are no house numbers and street names.

Imagine you live in a world where no one gives you encouragement and praise.

Many of our Compassion sponsored children live in areas where it is very rare for them to receive mail of any kind.

But you can change all that!

Just yesterday, reading the Compassion blog, I was reminded how simple it is for me to set aside time to write a short and sweet note to the children we sponsor.

Here is what I wrote to Lina yesterday:

Hello Lina, 

I hope you are doing well! I was thinking about you today, so I decided to write to you to remind you how special you are to God. He loves you and is always watching over you.

Here is a question for you: If you could invent one thing to make life easier, what would it be?

I encourage you to spend time reading your Bible every day, learning more about God and His plan for you. Matthew 5:16 would be a good verse to read.

Love and hugs to you!

Short and sweet, and it didn't take much time for me to write this to her either.

Since I know the kids love receiving photos, I included this with the letter:

Click on the link here to download and add this image to your next letter

So what are you waiting for? Will you write a short and sweet letter to your Compassion children right now?

Book List for Compassion Sponsors

Over the past five and a half years, books on my reading list have changed quite a bit. I have always loved to read, but the topic of global poverty and the injustices of this world have made their way into my list of books that I now read on a regular basis. It all started when I became more involved as a Compassion International volunteer.

The first book I read in this area was "Too Small to Ignore" by Wess Stafford. At the time I read this book, Wess Stafford was still the CEO and President of Compassion International. The book shares a lot of his childhood growing up in Africa as a child of missionary parents. Wess is a champion to millions of children around the world, and this book shares his heart for children. He encourages adults to invest in children, be available for them, and love them.

Since reading that book, I have read many others that encourage me to continue being an advocate for Compassion children.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World by Kristen Welch
• The 4/14 Window by Luis Bush
• When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
• Mission Drift by Peter Greer and Chris Horst
• Small Matters by Greg Nettle and Jimmy Mellado
• One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda
• Just a Minute by Wess Stafford
• The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen

What books have you read on this topic that you would add to this list?

All About Me

Are you a new Compassion sponsor? Or have you added a new sponsored child to your family?

One of the first letters we receive from our Compassion sponsored children is an "All About Me" page where they share some of their favorite things. I loved receiving Emerson's first letter this past week. Emerson is our newest Compassion child. We added him to our Compassion family when I was in El Salvador in February. I didn't have a chance to meet him while I was there, but I am looking forward to getting to know him through letter writing.

In his letter he shared that his favorite game is soccer, his favorite food is beef and chicken, and his favorite color is blue.

So I thought, what if I create a page sharing some of my favorite things to send to him?

Using Canva, I created this page to send to Emerson:

The page was fairly easy to create. I chose a background and selected a color that I liked. Then I started adding boxes and changed the opacity so the boxes ended up being a light blue. Next, I added photos and text to the boxes with some of my favorite things. Then I saved the creation as a jpeg which makes it easy to add to an online Compassion letter.

When you write a letter or send a card to your sponsored child, you can upload a full page 'photo' like this to your letter or card. 

Our sponsored children want to know more about us and what are lives are like where we live. I sure hope Emerson enjoys learning some of these things about me.

What have you shared with your sponsored child lately?

Sending Hope

You have been thinking about your Compassion child.

It has been a while since you received your last letter...and it has been quite a few months since you wrote your last letter.

You know you should write, but sometimes you just are not sure what to write.

Corresponding with a child growing up in extreme poverty is not like sending a text to a family member.

Corresponding with a child growing up in extreme poverty is not like commenting on a friend's Facebook post.

Corresponding with a child growing up in extreme poverty is not for what I get out of it.

Corresponding with a child growing up in extreme poverty is hard to do.

But corresponding with a child growing up in extreme poverty is an important part of building a relationship with that child.

When you find yourself at a loss for words when writing to your sponsored child, remember that all we really need to do is send them encouraging words.

Share a Bible verse.

Send a photo.

Click on this link to add this verse image to your next letter

Tell the child that you love them.

Tell the child that God loves them.

It really is this simple to send hope.

What will you write in your next letter?