Time for "One" Giveaway

A couple of months ago, a Compassion blogging friend of mine was doing a giveaway on her blog for this book:

I was really excited when I learned that I was the winner of the giveaway! This book was published in 2002 for the 50th anniversary of Compassion International. It has a history of how this ministry started with one man, Everett Swanson, in 1952 in Korea. The book is filled with stories and pictures:

I just love this picture! The expression on her face is priceless as she is reading a letter from her sponsor.

Since I was able to find another copy of this book used from Amazon, I want to give away a copy to one lucky reader! To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this blog letting me know what is one goal you hope to accomplish this year. Deadline to enter is Friday, January 13th at midnight pacific time.

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Susanta

Susanta is the young man that Matthew started sponsoring back in October.

Susanta lives in India with his parents and 2 older sisters. He lives in a village and likes to play cricket. His favorite color is yellow and he likes apples. In his first letter to Matthew, Susanta asked for prayers for him and his family.

When I asked Matthew why he decided to sponsor Susanta, here was his answer, "I'm not totally sure why I decided to sponsor Susanta, but I do know that the Bible says quite a bit about helping the poor and needy. Here is one of those verses: Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Proverbs 14:31 ESV)"

We look forward to getting to know this young better in this new year!

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Lina

Since we are in a new year, I thought over the next couple of months, I would introduce our Compassion kids each Monday.

We have been sponsoring Lina since August of 2010. The first little girl that we sponsored moved away from the Compassion center, so Kelsey decided we needed to choose another little girl from the same country.

Lina lives in Colombia and her birthday is April 7, 1999. She lives with her dad, mom, brother, aunt and grandpa. She likes to swim and her favorite color is yellow. In her letters, she always asks for prayers for her family and that she does well in school. We have been blessed with four letters from Lina.

Next Monday, I will introduce the young man that Matthew is sponsoring!

Christmas Tradition: Paper Snowflakes

I love paper snowflakes! And I found the neatest way to make paper snowflakes on Pinterest.

Who knew that coffee filters could be used to make the coolest looking snowflakes!

Since we have been hosting Compassion Sponsor Letter Writing Nights at our home, I thought it would be fun to make a bunch of snowflakes to send to our sponsored kids. We all made a lot of snowflakes that night!

They all turned out so pretty!
I have been reading about different things that sponsors send their kids over at the Our Compassion web site. (Our Compassion is like Facebook for Compassion sponsors, lots of great ideas being shared over there!) So I decided to put together a folder of snow items for our sponsored kids. Here are some things that I found:
On the front of the manila folder, I glued on blue paper, colored the snowman, and added paper punched snowflakes.
On the inside left of the folder, I pasted the instructions on how to make the snowflakes, as well as a pocket to hold some coffee filters so the child can make their own snowflakes.
On the inside right of the folder, I found images of snowflakes online taken by Snowflake Bentley, and a photograph from our recent trip to Yosemite with snow on the ground.
Inside the folder, I added this paper I found at Michael's in the dollar section, as well as:
the printable of the snowman from the front cover for the child to be able to decorate on their own.
This is the first time we have put together something like this for our Compassion kids. With the new online letter writing tool, I am not sure how many sponsors will continue to put together folders like this for their children. I sure had fun putting these together and am already thinking of other folder ideas to share with our Compassion kids! I pray these folders are a blessing to them when they receive them!


Compassion Sponsors Needed

As a child advocate with Compassion International, I usually have on hand a couple of child packets. These child packets include information on children who are currently attending a child development center in one of the countries where Compassion is working, but these kids currently don't have a sponsor. I would love to see every one of these kids find sponsors!

Mukumdwa is a beautiful young lady from Rwanda. She lives with her father and her mother. She is responsible for carrying water and gathering firewood. There are 5 children in her family. Mukumdwas has been waiting 7 months for a sponsor.

Little Liuwork live in Ethiopia and she lives with her mother. Liuwork helps her mom by running errands. There are 4 children in her family.

Young Carlos lives in Brazil and has been waiting for a sponsor for 8 months. He lives in Brazil with his uncle and his aunt. Running errands is his household duty and there are 5 children in the family. His birthday is next week. What a blessing it would be for him to find a sponsor for his birthday!

If you would like to help release one of these children from poverty in Jesus' name, please comment on this blog post or send me an e-mail at kymk99 at yahoo dot com. I'll be praying that sponsors are found for each one of these precious children.