Great and abundant blessings

Abner is one of my correspondent children that I have been blessed to write to for over two years now. He is such a sweetheart and I just love receiving letters from him! Here is what he wrote in his latest letter I received this week:

Latest drawing from Abner

Dear Yvonne Reynolds

Sponsor, what a beautiful day, it is so sunny! I am so happy to write again to you and be able to tell you so many things that have happened in my life. I want to thank you for your beautiful letter, card and lovely words. As for your questions: my favorite song is El Burrito Sabanero. ON Christmas, we have a dinner together and the next day, take a walk and share as a family. I liked so much the Bible verse at Ephesians 4:7; the things God sends us are to put them into practice. I want you to know what I am like: I am 4'6" tall and weigh 72 pounds. The color of my eyes is dark brown and my hair is black. I like to wear comfortable clothes. My favorite colors are orange, brown and green. My favorite cartoon is The Ninja Turtles and my favorite movies is Lion King. I would like to know: where do you live? What is your favorite movies? I tell you I pray for you every day that God will bless you. I would like you to include me in your prayers. I would like you to read Psalm 119:1-2. I say goodbye with a strong hug and wishing you great and abundant blessings.

Sincerely, Abner

I love how much he shared with me this time! I had to go online and find out more about his favorite song since I have never heard of it before. I was able to find a video with spanish and english lyrics. And I found Lion King coloring pages I can send to him in my next letter!

Have you received a letter from your sponsored child lately?

Love is an Action

One of the things I love about social media is meeting people all over the world who share the same passion as you. Before our Mexico trip, a young lady contacted me to see if I could take a couple of gifts with us to deliver to Compassion children that she corresponds with. I was very happy to do this for her! I also learned that she has a blog and makes bracelets for sponsors. I told her I would love to interview her for my blog and she agreed! So let me introduce you to Lizzie...

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself

My name is Lizzie, and I am a sophomore in high school.  I love helping out with Sunday school at my church in the four-year-old room and just being around little kids in general.  I also enjoy writing letters and e-mails, biking, learning Spanish, and trying new dessert recipes.

2. How did you first learn about Compassion?

I've known about Compassion for a very long time.  I remember that when I was really little my church supported two Compassion children.  I think one of the children was a teen boy from Guatemala whose name was Bear.  When my family would leave church, I remember asking my mom to go and see their photos on the bulletin board.  At one point, my family wrote letters to them.  I remember my sister and I making drawings for them with pastels.

3. Why did you decide to sponsor with Compassion?

Even though I had heard of Compassion when I was very young, I forgot about it for a long time because we started going to a different church.  In 2011, I was re-introduced to Compassion.  I received an e-mail from them about sponsoring a child.  I couldn't sponsor a child at that time, but I learned about the correspondence program - within six months, I had three correspondent children.  I really loved getting to write and know my correspondent children.  Through different blogs, I learned what Compassion does and the importance of it.  I decided that I really wanted to financially sponsor a child because I could see that it changed lives.  In February 2012, I sponsored my first child!

4. Tell me about your sponsorship bracelets

A sponsor bracelet is a bracelet with a bead (it could be wood, stone, etc!) from each country you sponsor in.  The hope with sponsor bracelets is that others will comment on the unique bracelet which will give the sponsor an opportunity to share about their kiddos and Compassion (or whatever organization they sponsor through).  

5. Is there a country where Compassion works that you would really like to visit one day?

Yes.  Actually I would love to visit all the countries that Compassion works in!  Probably though if I had to choose one country to visit, I would go to Indonesia.  My first correspondent child Aprila lives in Indonesia and I would love to meet her and see her home, project, and community!  Honestly, though, I would be thrilled to see Compassion in the field in any of the countries they work in.

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Doesn't she sound like a neat young lady? Right now, Lizzie is making plans to go to Mexico herself! Her trip is not a Compassion trip, but I would still love to support her and spread the word about the bracelets she is making to help her earn money for her trip. So stop by her blog, and purchase a couple of bracelets from her today!

Build a Bond Through Prayer

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." - 1 John 5:14

Do you agree that when you pray for someone, you feel closer to that person? I feel this is especially true about our Compassion sponsored children. Yes, I have met Felix, so I do feel a special attachment to him. But through prayers and letters, I know God has knit my heart to the other children we sponsor and write to.

If you are looking for a way to build a bond through prayer with your sponsored children, I have something to share with you today!

When you received your welcome booklet, inside is a bookmark. On the back of that bookmark are daily prayer prompts to pray for your sponsored child. I love these bookmarks and I use them quite frequently! But I thought...wouldn't it be great if these were cards instead that could be used at our table so as a family we could be praying for our Compassion kids?

So I asked my talented art director husband if he would be willing to use his creativity to help me out...and here is what he came up with!

Aren't these gorgeous!

There is one card for every day of the month.

And I am making them available for you to print and use at home as well!

You can access the folder of prayer cards by clicking here. Or you can click on the individual pictures above.

I would recommend printing these out on cardstock so they are a little more durable. You can even laminate them or cover them with clear contact paper. Punch a hole in the top left corner and attach all the cards to a ring. You and your family are now ready to pray daily for your Compassion sponsored children around the world.

I am making these prayer cards available as a gift to you, my readers. Please do not sell or reprint these images. Thank you.

March Compassion Share & Tell

Welcome to my monthly Compassion Share & Tell post! This month, I am sending just a few things to my Compassion kids. 

Here is what I am sending to my Compassion kids this month

What are I sending?

• Sunbeam Smiles stickers - found these at a local Bible book store
• DaySpring cards - these are cute 99 cent cards in Spanish! I found these at a local Bible book store, but we did see them at Hobby Lobby too.
• Spring bookmarks - are you following Compassion on Pinterest? I sure hope you are! So many ideas to print out and create for our sponsored children!

Inside each of the cards, I have written, "I am so thankful for you!" I don't believe we need to send a long letter to our sponsored children each month. These simple things will let our kids know that they are in our thoughts and prayers.

I don't know about you, but wouldn't you love to receive something like this in your mailbox? I know when those cream-colored Compassion envelopes arrive in the mail, they sure do brighten my day!

Want to share what you have mailed recently to your sponsored child? Leave a comment below, or if you have a blog, join the blog link up. I love to see what other sponsors are sending to their Compassion kids!

Compassion Mexico ME983 - Part Two

Today, I am going to continue sharing about our last full day in Mexico at Compassion ME983.

One thing we found at this center that was so different from the two others, these kids were a little more reserved...that is, until we started getting them to chase after us. This is when we saw the big smiles and started hearing the laughter! In the above video, Matthew and Rebecca had tons of kids joining them. Such a simple fun activity, and everyone enjoyed it!

Then it was time to do our VBS (Vacation Bible School) activities with the kids. A few of us had prepared songs, a craft, a skit, and a couple of games to play with these kids. The kids were separated into four groups to go through each of the stations in a rotation. Matthew went out with the game group, and I had the song group. Thankfully, we had a translator with us and had fun with the kids while we taught them a couple of songs.

I first learned this song in the summer of 2012 when our family was back at a Compassion conference in Colorado Springs. At that conference, Grant Norsworthy led the group of us singing this same song as we Skyped with a project in Guatemala.

This one was a simple song to teach the kids, plus with the motions, they caught on pretty quickly! We weren't really sure how the song time was going to go because the people here speak a slightly different dialect of Spanish. But for the most part, we seemed to do okay!

Love all these smiles!

Now, I can't remember at this point if I took some of these pictures before our VBS time or after, but I just have to share a few of them with before I finish up this post.

One more game of futbol

Matthew and Rebecca played a game of soccer with the kids. Do you see these kids are playing barefoot?

Getting ready to say goodbye

Much too quickly, our day at this center was coming to an end. It was time to load up into the back of the cattle trucks for our return trip to our bus.

Beautiful cloud filled sky

God provided an amazing day for us at this center, even with the travel set backs and language barriers. We were able to see the hope that Jesus is providing to the many families in this community. It was really hard to believe that our time in Mexico was almost over.

The kids running after us as we were leaving

As you can see, quite a few of the kids ran after us with cries of 'Adios!' I wonder if any of us will ever have a chance to go back and visit with these kids. I wonder what an impact our visit made on them. I know that I will never forget our time here, or at any of the centers we spent time at on this trip.

It feels so cliche to say it, but going on a Compassion trip truly is life changing. So many memories and smiling faces that are etched into my brain and into my heart. And I am so thankful for the many people who helped me to make this trip possible. God worked a miracle, like only He can do!