Dear Sponsor

As part of Blog Month, we've been asked to write from the perspective of a sponsored child.  I got this assignment on Monday and I've been mulling it over all week.  This is definitely the hardest assignment yet.

As of last Friday, 2006 children have been sponsored, that means there are still 1102 children left to go by Sunday night.  Please, please, please, if you have been thinking about sponsoring a child for some time, please do it now.  You can make a huge difference in the life of a child living in poverty.  With Compassion, you can release them from poverty in Jesus' name.  Please click here to view children in need of a sponsor.  Older children need sponsors too!  If you're not sure that you can commit to sponsoring for many years, choose an older child, as their time left in the program is much shorter, and you can make a huge difference during their last years at the Compassion project.

The following letter is fictional, but based in reality.  The children named and linked in the letter are not related to my knowledge, but they have both been waiting a long time to be sponsored.

Dear Sponsor,

I want to greet you in the name of Jesus Christ and thank you for being my sponsor.  My name is Erika  and I am 10 and the oldest child in my family.  I have 3 younger brothers.  My mother works at the market and my father works as a farmer, but often there is no work.  I pray that you will write often.  I have had 3 other sponsors and none of them ever wrote to me.  It made me very sad when the letters arrived month after month and lots of kids got letters, but I never did.  My little brother Andres  just got sponsored for the first time and he wanted to know when his sponsor will write to him.  I told him that hopefully it will be soon.  

I am responsible for some chores at my home, like getting our drinking water, doing laundry and cleaning the house.  I love going to the Compassion project because there we get to learn about Jesus, the tutors help us with our school work and we get to have a snack.  It takes me 20 minutes to walk to the Compassion project in the afternoon and usually it is hot and dry but it is so good to be there.  My tutor's name is Elena and she helps me with my mathematics homework.  I don't like mathematics, it is very hard, but Elena helps me every time at the project, so that is good.  Please pray for me that I will do well at school.

What is it like where you live?  We live in a city and it is always noisy and smelly.  There are many people and animals everywhere.  People keep chickens in their yards and that is good except when there is a rooster... then it is loud every morning and night.  My favorite food is chicken and rice.  What is your favorite food?

Please tell me about your family and please be my sponsor always.  I will pray for you everyday.

Strong hugs,

Erika

A letter to God

Dear Heavenly Father,

I am so overwhelmed by Your goodness to me, Your matchless love to me, Your grace extended to me and I thank You for who You are: the Creator of the universe, the Author of life, the Almighty, the Forgiver.

I am so thankful to You for each breath that I breathe, even though many of them occur without thought or thanks.

I am so thankful to You for my family and friends; these people that you've blessed my life with and the people that you have on my path in the future.  These paths have not crossed by chance but by Your will.

I want to thank you for the joy that child sponsorship has brought into my life.  You know how much these lives have changed ours and You knew exactly which children would come into our life even before we did.  You have orchestrated this for us together.  Please continue to inspire us to write regularly to these precious children: Maria, Andres, Allan, Katherine, Loury, Denisse, Loveda & Danna.  Lord, help me not to forget Tania who has moved on. May we pray for them all often.   Father, I pray that you would be at work in each of these children's lives this day and everyday.  I pray that you would be at work in the local church members who operate the Compassion projects that our children attend.  That these caring, loving workers would be tangible evidences to these children, that Jesus loves them.  I pray that on letter day each child in these projects will receive a letter from their sponsor and see once again that Jesus loves them.  I pray that they will hear of Jesus' love at their times at the Compassion project and that their families will attend church with them on Sunday or allow them to go to church also.  Father, please be at work in the families that these children come from, there are so many difficulties that they each face.  Help these families to grow together and Father help hurts to be healed and forgiven and salvation to be found in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, I wish that there was more we could do, half a world away... that we would be able to wrap real arms around these dear kids and love them in person, not just through letters and photographs.  Help us to speak on behalf of these children and encourage sponsors to really get involved.

I pray for the many children who don't yet have sponsors Lord, and I pray that you will work in the hearts of those on this side of the world who have the means to make a difference in the life of a child for Christ and to release them from poverty in Jesus' name.

Father, You are able and I trust You!

In Christ's name, I pray.