A Compassion Update

It has been a while since my last post about my sponsor children.

Thankfully, I have been more faithful in writing to them than writing about them.

I did write to those I sponsor with Compassion today via e-mail.  While I don't get to include goodies like stickers, coloring pages, bookmarks or other surprises, I do get to send out a quick letter where hopefully, the words can make the most impact.

This time round I shared about our visit to the strawberry fields and what we did with the fruit and asked them about the fruit that grows in their country/region. A lot of the time when I e-mail, I will copy and paste the bulk of the info I share with them, but then customize questions for each of them, or mention their families, recent letters we've received, etc.

I always try to close with a verse from the Bible, and today's was Zephaniah 3:17.

Yep, there is a book of the Bible called Zephaniah! Zephaniah is one of the "Minor" prophets (ie. their message is shorter than say Isaiah or Jeremiah). If you're curious and want to see that I'm telling the truth you can find the book of Zephaniah between Habbakuk and Haggai at the end of the Old Testament.  Zephaniah is the 4th last OT book.  Here's what the verse says: 

Zephaniah 3:17 (New King James Version)

¹⁷ The LORD your God in your midst,
      The Mighty One, will save;
      He will rejoice over you with gladness,
      He will quiet you with His love,
      He will rejoice over you with singing.”

And a neat website I've found is BibleGateway.com which bills itself as "A searchable online Bible in over 100 versions and 50 languages."   This has been helpful with the sponsor children speaking a different language than us.  I can quote a verse directly in their language!

Sofoni 3:17 (Haitian Creole Version)

¹⁷Seyè a, Bondye nou an, l'a nan mitan nou! Se yon vanyan gason. Se li menm k'ap delivre nou. Li kontan wè sa n'ap fè. L'ap mete ou kanpe ankò paske li renmen ou. W'ap fè kè l' kontan. li ap chante

Sofonías 3:17 (Nueva Versión Internacional)

¹⁷ porque el Señor tu Dios está en medio de ti
      como guerrero victorioso.
   Se deleitará en ti con gozo,
      te renovará con su amor,
   se alegrará por ti con cantos

Isn't technology amazing!  I do have a NVI Biblia and a French one as well, but I definitely don't have a Creole Bible.  We are definitely blessed to have access to these great websites.