Not One, Not Two…

…but three letters in one week!

Cream colored envelopes that arrive in our mailbox with “A Message From Your Sponsored Child” are pretty special around here. And just last week, I received 3 letters! Today I am going to share with you what each one of these special kids wrote.

This first letter is from Lina in Colombia. She will be 14 next month and we have been sponsoring here for almost 3 years now. Here is what she writes:

Dear Yvonne Reynolds

Hello!

God blesses you and allows you to enjoy this New Year close to your beloved ones. I will be praying that it will be like that. Remember that I love you a lot. You know, one day I would like to visit your country because I want to meet you and give you a big hug. It will be also a great opportunity to learn to speak English. I feel grateful to you for the unconditional support that you give me. You are really very important to me. God blessed me with your friendship and I am happy to know that I can count with it in spite of the distance. The letter, stickers, and the tree were really a good present! Did you do that lovely tree? Thank you for answering my questions and from remaining praying for my family but mainly for my father. do you want me to pray for you for something in particular? I also thank you for your Christmas present. I was able to get with it, a painting, a pair of shorts-skirt, a blouse, and a set of skin powder. I want to go to the university, when I grow up to become a vet as I really love animals. I want to help them because it really affects me when people hurt them. I know I will be a very sensible vet, gentle and loving, with God’s support. It won’t be only to my benefit but in benefit of other people, too. Once I go back to the cdi I would like to make a nice card to send you it in the next letters’ season we will have. I send you Romans 8:28. Remember to pray for my studies. Goodbye with love! Sincerely yours, Lina

This next letter is from Eduardo. He is 6, almost 7 years old and lives in Mexico. We have been sponsoring him for a little over a year now. Because of his age, the letters we receive from him are form letters that are filled in. This one is titled ‘My Dreams’:

Someday I would like to visit: Mexico City

Someday I would like to help my family: to build a house

Someday I would like to meet my sponsor because: I want to see her

Someday I would like to be like: Jesus

Please pray for: my nephews

I would like to ask you: Do you play volleyball?

I want to thank you for: your gifts

I want to tell you: Thank you for the gift you sent me (I got one Max Steel toy, two cars and one iron for my family). I like them very much. My special request for you is that you take good care of yourself and please pray for me. I see the rainbow when it rains a lot and the sun is shining.

This last letter is from Victor. Victor is 14 years old and lives in Ecuador. He is one of 2 correspondent kids that I am writing to. I have been writing to him for about 1 1/2 years now and he is really starting to share more of his heart:

Dear Yvonne Reynolds,

I greet you in Jesus’ name. Thanks for the letter and the sticker that you sent to me. I always think of you. I’m your friend. You are as good as Jesus is, and so is your family. Please send blessings my way. You are my friend and so is Jesus. I like to play soccer with my friends and classmates. I had a beautiful Christmas with my family, but I wanted to have you by my side too. I always pray for Jesus to bless you. You are Jesus’ sister. Please pray for me. My siblings and I pray for you and your family. I just want to be friends with you forever. Well, that’s all for now. I say goodbye to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with all my love. Thanks for the letter and all the gifts.

I don’t know about you, but these letters always are a blessing to me and remind me of how special these relationships are that we are building with these kids. I may never have a chance to meet any other them, but to know that they are my brothers and sisters in Christ, brings joy to my soul.

Have you received letters from your kids recently?

Working With My Whole Family!

One of my favorite things to do as a Compassion Advocate is to work at different events, being able to answer questions of potential sponsors, and encourage them as they begin their journey as a Compassion sponsor. Up until the past weekend, I have not been able to work at an event with my whole family. But now that Kelsey is a Compassion Advocate also, we were able to work at the Rock and Worship Roadshow together!

The Roadshow stopped in Sacramento on Saturday night, so we all put on our Compassion shirts and made the drive up to work the event.

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This picture was before the concert started, this place ended up being completely packed with thousands of people!

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I had to have Kelsey help me with this picture! Hadn’t taken a selfie with the new phone yet. We were getting ready to do the child packet pass during intermission.

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I know you can’t see him all the way down there on the stage, but that is Jeremy Camp down there. Other than helping to get Compassion kids sponsored that night, his performance was my favorite part of the concert. And he is a Compassion Artist which gives him brownie points in my book (wink).

While we were waiting inside the stadium for the child packet pass, I was able to listen to Kutless. I didn’t realize that I knew so many of their songs! They were selling their CD for $5 a piece at the concert, so I have a little giveaway for my readers since I bought 2 of their CDs!

Giveaway: One new Kutless CD

Giveaway rules: In the comment section below, tell me who your favorite Christian artist is. I will give you a bonus entry if your favorite artist is also a Compassion Music Artist. Deadline for entries is Friday, March 15th at midnight pacific time. Limited to readers in the continental US. Winner will be announced next Monday, March 18th.

I can’t wait to hear who your favorite Christian music artist is!

Update: Congratulations to Jill for winning the Kutless CD!

Simple Photo Book

A few weeks ago, I blogged about our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I knew I would want to send some pictures of our day to our Compassion kids. So a couple of weeks ago, I put together a simple photo book for each one of them and today, I am going to show you how simple these are to make.

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Gather your supplies: multiple sets of photos (depending on how many kids you are writing to), cardstock (this holds up better than construction paper), glue stick, stapler, and paper cutter

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Cut the sheets of cardstock in half and glue the photos to the paper. I attach them more to the right side to leave room for stapes on the left side.

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Add a description to your photo. I try not to be too wordy so the translator doesn’t have to spend too much time translating.

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Once you have added a description to each of the photos, stack the sheets of paper on top of each other and staple the sides together.

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On the back of each photo book, be sure to write your name and sponsor number, as well as the name and sponsor number of your Compassion child.

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We like to include stickers and activity booklets with our mailings. You can usually find these in the dollar spot at Target or JoAnn’s

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Be sure to include an encouraging note!

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A while back I bought a box of 6x9 envelopes to use for our mailings to our Compassion kids. We make sure that everything in the envelope has our name and sponsor number, as well as the name and sponsor number for our Compassion child. Then we place everything for that one child in the 6x9 envelope. On the outside of the envelope, we again write our name and sponsor number, and our sponsored child’s name and sponsor number. This way everything is clear and separated for the mailing center in Colorado Springs.

When we send larger items that we don’t want to fold, we have put these items in gallon size ziploc bags and that seems to work pretty well.

What have your sent to your Compassion child lately?

Have ‘Just A Minute’?

If you do, you might just have a chance to win a book!

Over on the Compassion blog today, there are some details on how you can earn a chance to possibly win one of 50 copies of this book, Just A Minute by Wess Stafford. This book includes 68 stories, 68 moments that have changed the lives of children. If you love the mission of Compassion, you will want to have a copy of this book in your home library. Reading this book will inspire you to remember to take a minute, a moment to make the difference in the life of a child.

So go ahead and enter the contest! And if you do, let me know where you shared your picture. But hurry, you only have until February 28th!

You started blogging when?

So I took a peek back at my old blog to remember when I posted my first blog post…April 2006!! Almost 7 years ago! Yikes!

My kids were this little once!

One of my very first posts was about our cookie making activity from using the Mystery of History curriculum. I find this very interesting because Kelsey and I are going through Volume One again this year, although I don’t believe we made the Joseph coat cookies this time.

A lot has happened since that first set of blog posts: my kids are 7 years older (and so am I!), Matthew has graduated from our homeschool and is working full time now, and Kelsey is my only student. Over a year ago, I moved my blog to Blogger and just a couple of months ago, to WordPress.com. And over the last 2 years, not only do I blog about my family and some of our daily happenings in our little corner of the world, but our experiences with Compassion have taken a front seat on my blog.

My blogging goals are posted for this year on my About page. On that page, you can also find links to some of the posts that were popular on my Blogger blog before I moved it over to WordPress.com. There is also a link to the Compassion website and a link to a Pinterest board with letter writing ideas for your Compassion sponsored kids. If you haven’t taken a peek at my About page yet, you might just learn a little more about me with the random facts I have listed.

My friend, Kendra, over at Preschoolers and Peace has been helping me with some great tips and encouragement as I begin to be more intentional about my blogging. She has a lot of great information to share, so be sure to visit her blog today.

So, if you are a blogger, how long have you been blogging?