A Song for the Weekend

Do you ever have a song that has just grabbed hold of you and held you hostage?  This morning, Chris Rice's "Deep Enough to Dream" has arrested my soul and I find myself listening over and over to the lyrics.

One line that strikes me, in particular, is the imagery of the fly bumping the window for the hundredth time because "freedom calls from the other side."  That line has reminded me of how all of our spirits are held hostage here on earth until we are freed by Jesus. Jesus opens the window so we can fly free.

Today I find myself thinking of my Compassion children and how I yearn for their little souls to fly free with Jesus; to soar above their circumstances and to dream in the brilliant colors that Jesus has clothed them in. They are kings and queens, filled with inner beauty and light that no amount of poverty or circumstance can rob unless they give up hope. Let's help fill our children with the brilliant colors of Christ's love through our letters and support!

Need help getting started or know someone else who does? I have some free downloadable writing packets - print them, share them, use them and come back for more. Also, Compassion offers online writing--be sure to use that great, easy tool!

The Power of "Can"

Sometimes we forget the power of our words. This morning on the radio I heard a story about a boy with a learning disability--he couldn't listen to someone speak and comprehend very well--but he could read and understand perfectly. This boy was verbally tested by his school and placed in "special education" classes where he continued to do very poorly....until his freshman year in high school. During that year, a substitute teacher noticed something special about him and began to test him in different ways than anyone had before. After a series of tests administered in writing rather than verbally she said to him "I believe you are just as gifted as the other kids--you don't need to be in these classes. Why are you still in special ed?"

As a result of her confidence in him, the boy went back to his teachers and asked to be retested using written formats. He passed with flying colors and re-entered the primary classes at his high school. He graduated with straight A's, went on to receive a PhD, and is now a professor of psychology at a university.

The power of words is astounding. I wrote a brief essay once for NPR's "This I Believe" essay series called "I am a Dancer," where I describe how one sentence affected my perception of what I could do for nearly 2 decades.

I know my mom would never remember this, because she encouraged me to try ballet and gymnastics as a child, but when I was a little girl I overheard someone at church tell her that I didn't have the right "body type" for ballet. Essentially, I was too chubby. Overhearing that one sentence, spoken not out of spite I'm sure, but just an offhand statement that I am certain that mother didn't even know I overheard, resulted in years of an overwhelming belief that I "couldn't dance."

I could play music, I could march in a band--all things that require rhythm--but I "couldn't dance." For some reason that was a forbidden world to me all because of the power of words. Then one day words unlocked a magic door... My freshman year in college I had a roommate who loved to dance... One day she looked at me and said "come on, get up and dance with me!" I said to her "But I can't dance!" She laughed and said "Yes you can! I'll show you how! Anyone can dance!" Her words, "yes you can," opened up a whole realm of art previously closed to me.

In the years since I have taken lessons in ballroom, salsa, swing, contra dance, and Middle Eastern dance and have taught lessons in Middle Eastern dance and have led worship dance programsin church. I've danced on stage in at least 7 states. I'm no star, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know one thing--I CAN dance.

Praise dance on Stage with the Alexandria Dancers (I'm on the front left)

Have you spoken words of life into your sponsored children lately? Have you told them they CAN defeat poverty? Have you told them they ARE princes and princesses, destined for the kingdom?

This I Believe--these children are VALUABLE to Christ Jesus. They CAN make a difference in their families, communities, and world! Let's speak hope into their lives today!

Scent with Love

So, as is true to my "can't leave well enough alone" nature, I'm dabbling in yet another past time, which is aromatherapy. Actually, I've been interested in essential oils for almost 2 decades, ever since I majored in botany in college and took some courses focused on the human uses of medicinal plants, and on the phytochemicals in plants that give them their various aromatic and medicinal properties. I've also dabbled in homemade soap and lotion-making over the course of the last decade and the use of essential oils in those crafts, so I suppose this really isn't all that new, after all, just a resurgence of an interest.

So I'm rambling on about this interest in fragrance, and I'm sure you're wondering what that has to do with sponsoring children through Compassion. It occurred to me as I have been accumulating the supplies to make some scented necklaces, handmade soap, and handmade lotion bars for my Compassion ETSY store that certain fragrances instill an immediate sense of peace in me. For me, patchouli is a scent that is forever relaxing because I associate it with carefree college years (my husband, on the other hand, detests it). I also love the scent of suntan lotion because I recall summers on the beach in Florida with my family. The smell of cinnamon and oranges reminds me of Christmas, while the sweet, woodsy smell of Balsam Fir, quite possibly my favorite smell in the entire world, reminds me of quite walks in the woods on a warm day, no worries, and a deep connection to nature and to God.

If fragrance evokes such warm, deep memories (and countless research proves it does), then why not use fragrance to scent our sponsored child's world? No doubt our sponsored kids are surrounded by pungent scents of their own that evoke memories, hopes, dreams... but what if we introduce our own scent story to our kids, sending a little piece of scent that they associate with love, with hope, with uplifting strength? Forevermore they will associate that with a sense of well-being, of being cared for and loved. What a special gift, all in an aroma!

So...how to do that when we can only send paper? Here's my plan, and maybe you'll want to do it, too.  I am going to spend some time thinking about what scent describes me. I am going to play around with my essential oils (maybe you have a perfume you love to wear, or maybe the warm smell of cinnamon or vanilla extract makes you swoon), and when I find just the "right" scent, I'm going to stick a cotton ball with several drops of this oil in a plastic bag with my writing paper, stickers, bookmarks, etc.  Leave the paper in the bag for a while and...voila! You have lightly scented paper that will waft out when your child opens the bag.

I'll explain in the letter that I've scented the paper with my favorite scent, one that fills me with hope. Maybe for you it would be the frankincense and myrrh gifted to Jesus on his birthday, or pungent peppermint. Maybe soothing lavender or uplifting orange.

Anyway, I think it's a pretty neat idea to send a fragrant message of hope to our kids in another place. And who knows--maybe the older kids will return the favor by scenting their paper with the spicy fragrance of India or the Jasmine air of Thailand!

Happy Monday!

PS... Look for my scented necklaces on my Compassion ETSY store next week, and soaps and lotions late summer!

Sponsor Theme Pack ~ Gender Neutral Ages 2-8, Bees

Much of the artwork/activity sheets in this printable pack came from the US Forest Service Natural Inquirer Website. There are free downloadable magazines available on that site, as well, in English and in Spanish--they make great items to send along to your Compassion Kids! You can order hard copies, also (they are free!!).  Great for homeschooling!  The website for the Natural Inquirer is www.naturalinquirer.org

The Devotional Verse for this packet is Psalm 50:11- I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

Bee-themed Sponsor Packet

Two Pieces of Mail

My mailbox generally doesn't excite me much. I hate to say it, because mail gathering time is one of my favorite times of the day (ask me who is going to be upset if the Postal Service quits delivering on Saturdays??).  Most of the time I get a ton of junk mail, a stack of bills, and if I'm really lucky I get a magazine. I don't subscribe to many, so those really lucky days are few and far between.

Saturday, however, was a really really super lucky day...I opened up the mailbox to find not one, but TWO letters from my sponsored kids!!  And, both were from kids who have already written me once, so I'm really shocked to have received letters again so soon!

These letters were from sweet Florance in India, who is one of our correspondence children, and Mohamed, who was the first of our sponsored children.  Mohamed is just 4 years old, so his letters are still more or less form letters, with a little bit of information about his life tucked inside. This letter was super special from him, because it talked about how he used the Christmas gift we sent him. His family was able to buy some rice, some corn, a dress, and a ball. Bless his sweet heart, he asked me how my job is going!  I thought that was really cute. He also asked how my friends are doing, which is cute. His prayer request was for his family to have peace and good health. Wise requests for a four year old. Sweet Mohamed wants to be a policeman when he grows up.

My letter from Florance continues to show me what a joy she will be to correspond with. I sense in her an intelligence and a strength, and a joy that I hope grows and stays with her as she ages. It's hard to sense much through short letters that reveal fairly little, but there's something about her handwriting and her phrasing that brings those characteristics to mind. Of course, heaven help me if anyone ever makes any personality judgements based on MY handwriting, they'll all think I'm crazy... oh. wait. Maybe I am... 

Kho Kho

Anyway, Florance shares that she enjoys Kho-Kho, a local sport that I had to look up on Wikipedia, and I still don't understand. It appears to be some sort of a 12-person game of tag, and is apparently very popular in India. She also tells me she really likes curd rice, which is rice with Indian spices and yogurt mixed into it. The word "curd" threw me off a bit, but having read the description (thanks again, Wikipedia, what would I do without you?) it now sounds fabulously yummy (but I really like Indian food). She writes that her father is a mechanic and her mother is a tailor. This is interesting, as her profile information has her living with her father and her mother appeared to be out of the picture. So now it seems maybe she has some contact with her mother, after all. Her prayer request is that her community will be free of Dengue fever. 

Curd Rice

These sweet children really brought light into my day with their letters, which is proof positive that sponsorship is as much a gift to the sponsor as it is to the sponsored child. I hold my breath every time I head to the mailbox now in the hopes that I will have a letter waiting. I can only imagine the children at the projects around the world waiting with baited breath in the hopes that their sponsors have sent them some token from their lives--a letter, a photo, a sheet of stickers...any reminder of the world beyond the boundaries of poverty where dreams are allowed to grow, thrive, and sometimes even come true.

Being so excited to get mail from my kids reminds me of the importance of sending mail to my kids! It's so very important. I look forward to the mail....and I know they do too!

Blessings!