Congratulations, Goodbyes, Hellos, and FREEBIES!!!

One of my correspondent children, Banji Mariyadasu, has left our family fold this month. Thought I truly never got to know Banji, because he was assigned as a correspondent child in January of this year and finished the program on April 1, I do hope that the letters and cards I have sent him have and will continue to touch his life in some small way. I am so very proud of Banji for completing the Compassion Program as a successful graduate, for finishing his education to a 12th grade American equivalent, and for....securing a JOB!!! Way to go Banji Mariyadasu! You are well on your way to breaking the bonds of poverty and I am certain you will become a rock for Christ Jesus!

Congratulations Banji!!

Only a few short days after losing Banji to graduation, we have welcomed a new correspondent child into our fold. This sweet boy is 6 year old Manikandan Palsamy from India. Isn't he handsome?? I just sent my first introductory letter and a packet of goodies to him yesterday. I'm looking forward to getting to know Manikandan and supporting him through encouragement and love in the coming months and years. Won't you please say a prayer for our Banji as he takes the next steps into his future, and for Manikandan as we begin a relationship with him?

Welcome, Manikandan!

Speaking of Hellos... On the amazing Our Compassion sponsor forum, discussions went around not long ago about templates for writing to your sponsored children, and Michelle from Blogging From the Boonies asked if anyone had developed child-friendly templates (e.g., templates younger children could use to correspond with sponsored kids). I think that's a great idea for young kids, especially since I have a 2.5 year old and sometimes struggle with how to involve him!

Several people popped up with excellent templates, including and especially Elephant Grace, who also offers correspondent kits. I thought I might take a stab at the challenge, as well. So, here are the first of my downloadable templates (more to come in the future) for young children to correspond with your sponsored child! Just click on the photo and it should take you to a pdf for download. These templates are specifically geared toward very young kids (e.g. ages 2 to 5) who may need help writing, so that they can feel like they are a part of the sponsorship experience. 

I'm hoping in the future to develop downloadable sponsor packets by theme for those who might need a quick solution or might just be getting started.

Thanks for stopping in, I'd love your feedback about the templates, I'd love your thoughts about themes for future packets, and I'd love your prayers. I'd also really love it if you'd pass my blog along and if you'd check out my ETSY store...100% of purchase price for all items on my store goes to Compassion Child Survival Programs!! GREAT for Mother's Day (which is coming up--so don't forget your mom!). To date, over $400 has been raised and donated through my site/sales thanks to your generosity and purchases!

Conspiracy of Love handmade jewelry for Compassion

Through the eye of the needle

Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18 all tell the same story of a man who came to Jesus asking what deeds he could do to have eternal life. After a brief discussion of keeping the commandments, Jesus finally says to the man:

"Then there is only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in Heaven. Then come, follow me." [Luke 18:22, The Message translation]

How often we read those words but still hang onto all our things. How many of us have sold all we own? Not me, I know that much. I think that is why, when the man walked away in sorrow and heavy-hearted, Jesus told his disciples that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (or woman) to enter the Kingdom. Because he knows how hard it is for us to trust that we can let go of all of our unimportant "stuff" and dedicate our lives to loving others.

You know, it only takes giving up a small portion of our wealth to care for at least one who needs it. My prayer for this weekend and the Compassion Sunday that will be celebrated around the globe is that many, many hearts will be burdened to sponsor a child in need and change the story for that child.

If you would like to sponsor a child, please visit www.compassion.com today and change a life forever.

No Suffering

Yesterday was a sad and tragic day for our country at the Boston Marathon. My thoughts and prayers go out to each and every injured victim and family member of an injured or lost loved one during this time.

Evil is everywhere, persistent, angry, vengeful, ugly...but I know the victory has been won and I know that good has triumphed over evil. One day there will be no tears, there will be no pain, there will be no suffering, no hunger, no doubt, no anguish. God's loving tears for the death and suffering of His own Son will wash away all our sorrow. We will be free!

Please remember that while the media focuses on the perpetrators of these awful crimes and disasters, we live and work among countless unsung heroes. Let's remember to focus on the bravery, selflessness, and compassion of the angels and heroes that don't get the flashy media attention the villains do, but whose love and mercy scream "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

One story from yesterday's tragedy is that of Carlos Arredondo, a 52-year old immigrant from Costa Rica who has suffered his own fair share of family tragedy when he lost one son to war and another son to suicide, who sprinted to the scene and used his own clothes to help bleeding victims.

Image from New York Times

Two soldiers who ran in their army fatigues finished the race then ran straight into the explosion site to help others to saftey.

New England Patriot Joe Andruzzie carried a woman to safety after the blast.

After running 26 miles yesterday, many of the marathon runners continued to run---straight to the Massachusetts General Hospital where they donated blood to the victims of yesterday's tragedy. In fact, so many people jumped to action to give blood that the Hospital and Red Cross had to stop accepting blood donations!

All over the city, Bostonions proved that they are heroes, as well, by offering showers, clean clothing, meals, rides, phone service, wi-fi access, and housing to stranded marathoners.

It takes nothing but cowardice to cause disaster, but it takes courage to be a hero. Yesterday proved that while we have cowards in our midst, we have far more heroes, far more good people just waiting for a chance to help others.

Please say a prayer for the families of yesterday's victims, and for the heroes that gave so willingly.

Compassion Sunday Prayer Request AND Free App Recommendations

This has been a really busy spring for me, and it's wearing me thin. I'm so grateful that I have the wealth of opportunities I do, though, and wouldn't have it any other way (except maybe to have those opportunities spread out a bit more on the calendar!)

Coming up in just a little over a week, on April 21, I'm hosting our church's first ever Compassion Sunday event! I'm worried about it. I speak in public and I dance in public, so I'm not so worried about speaking in public (although I am quite worried I will cry). What I'm most concerned about is the responsibility I feel for finding sponsors for the sweet children on the packets that arrived in my Compassion Sunday box last week. This is an opportunity for me to release the reigns over to God and let Him handle finding sponsors. I'm just the spokesperson.

As part of Compassion Sunday, I do have a page set up where you can get a jump on the process and read my Compassion story, and have an opportunity to sponsor a child! You can visit my Compassion Sunday page at: http://my.compassionsunday.com/Sonja76

And now for the random part of this post... I've been having a ton of fun lately playing with some great apps for the Iphone for modifying photos (framing) and for creating scrapbook pages directly on the iphone (or iPad). Now what I really love about this is that I can play around with it using the pics I took on my phone without ever having to connect to my computer, and I can do all this while I'm waiting, say, at the doctor's office or on a plane, etc. They also connect directly to Facebook. 

This photo was framed in imikimi then set on a background in Papelook

I tried several, but the two I like best (and these were free!!!) are Papelook and imikimi. I've attached a couple of examples here of what I've done with these. The uses for these apps are several: you can send your kids framed photos of themselves or your family; you can create mini-scrapbooks, bookmarks, notecards, print-to-puzzle images, stickers (if you have printable sticker paper), calendars, and all sorts of other goodies. 

This was done in Papelook

Check them out! They're free!  And, sponsor a child!!

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!

The Absence of Love

I'm reading an amazing book right now. In case you hadn't noticed, I love to read. I mention a lot of books in my posts. I've been a reader since childhood. To be honest, I tend toward fiction as a way to escape stress in everyday life, but every now and then I'll get on a little kick and devour some nonfiction. I've noticed that the only nonfiction I seem to truly enjoy revolves around either human rights or academic theology.

The book I'm in the midst of now is called "Escape from Camp 14" and it details the story of a man named Shin who was born and raised in a North Korean labor camp and managed to escape. He is the only person born in a labor camp who has escaped, to the best of the authors' knowledge.

I'm halfway through the book. Shin's story is a brutal one. It's clear that the North Korean population as a whole is denied much, but the labor camp populations are for all intents and purposes, living out the lives of concentration camp prisoners--in many cases from birth to death.  North Korea denies the existence of these labor camps, despite the ability of any Westerner with "Google Earth" to zoom in on the country and clearly see the fences surrounding the compounds.

Though the story told in the book is one of a physically brutal existence--one even those living in poverty in the United States would likely struggle to imagine--what really struck at my heart was one statement in the book. The author states, "During his years in the camp he [Shin] said he had never once heard the world "love," certainly not from his mother..."

Can you imagine emerging into your 20s having NEVER once heard the word "Love"?  Having been isolated in a black hole of a nation, with no hope for a future outside the bleak physical struggle and starvation of the thousands around you; beaten and starving with little knowledge of a giant world existing just outside the confines of your relatively small country, and with the concept drilled into you since birth that you are worthless-absolutely nothing...all because of who you were born to?

In my relatively uneducated opinion as regards human rights violations over the past centuries, the conditions in North Korea must surely be one of the worst human rights situations in modern times.

Here's the thing. Shin and the countless other North Koreans suffering in isolation, poverty, starvation, and unawareness of a God who loves and values them are just examples of a vast GLOBAL population of children in poverty who have rarely, if ever, heard someone say they are loved and valued.

Do you want to make a difference in the world today? I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the way to make a real difference in the future is to feed the souls of the children. The more I learn about who the real victims are in situations of dire need, the more I'm convinced that children always receive the brunt of the abuse and the least love. Who do we think those kids will grow up to be if they are starved of love, starved of hope? What are we expecting?

 
If we want a more peaceful world, with cross-cultural understanding and shared dreams then we need to feed those values to the children. Our children, our neighbors' children, and the global population of children. I don't mean force-feed our ideals. I mean SHOW LOVE. If each person shows love, compassion, patience, understanding, sympathy....those seeds will grow and develop as God intended.

You have the chance to help. You can sponsor a child and feed that child not only food, but words of love and encouragement...hope and dreams.  Please help, and please pray--for all the children, but please pray specifically for the population of North Korea. God knows they need it.

Ten Fun things to Send your Sponsored Child

Spring brings so much pleasure to me. I love the longer days, the warming sun, and the color of new leaves and bright blooms after a cold, gray, dark winter. There is something about spring that wakes us up and makes us want to do more, to work harder, to shake off the doldrums and get to living again.

Spring also makes us a lot busier. I know for me, personally, this spring is shaping up to be one of the busiest I've had in years. I have several work-related trips planned, I'm dancing quite a bit, there are birthday parties to attend, Mother's Day jewelry orders to fill, garden beds to be planted and tended, and yardwork galore. I'm also planning a yard sale with a fellow sponsor to benefit Compassion, so I need to start pulling all my stuff together that I plan to sell--and I have no idea where to begin!

In the busy new outdoor life of spring, it may be harder to remember to sit down and write our Compassion kids. The official Compassion International blog recently posted a series of pictures of sponsored children holding their most prized possessions...the letters from their sponsors.

It seems that the overarching agreement among sponsored children who have graduated the program is that sponsor letters were extraordinarily influential in their lives. In fact, children who recieve letters from their sponsors are more likely to remain in and graduate from the program than children who do not.

That's the amazing difference that Compassion sponsors make.

There are so many amazing posts out there with topic suggestions if you run out of things to discuss with your sponsored child. Blogging from the Boonies has some awesome suggestions. Compassion.com had some great suggestions, as well. Here, I thought I would chip in my 2 cents with some ideas for "extras" (besides stickers) that you can send along to your sponsored children to add to their excitement when they get your next letter.

1. Paper Dolls ~ Paper dolls are so fun, and so easy to find. Dollar General carries books of paper dolls for about $2 each, and Dover Publishing has amazing paper dolls (and they offer frequent discounts). If you have a pinterest account, search "Paper dolls" and you'll find many free paper dolls--print on cardstock and cut out for a great treat!  Another fun paper doll idea--make paper dolls of YOUR FAMILY for your sponsored child! Simply have your family members stand against a plain background and photograph, then print out on cardstock and cut out. You can use decorative scrapbook paper to make clothing for your paper doll selves. For extra fun, print your sponsored child's picture as well, and make him or her into a paper doll! Here's an adorable printable paper doll to get you started: http://oliverands.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/paperdolls2.jpg

 

2. Paper airplanes ~ For young children you can pre-make the paper airplanes and tuck them into a small envelope so that they are ready to fly when the child receives them. For older children, print out instructions from the internet (or photocopy instructions from a book) and send along with sheets of decorative paper. Here's a blog with many printable instructions: http://paperplaneideas.blogspot.com/

3. Recordable Cards ~ There are a great many musical cards out there--some that include flashing lights and pop up! Most of them are birthday or holiday-specific, but Hobby Lobby carries a lot of Christian themed musical cards that are generic in nature. Some feature contemporary Christian songs and some feature classic secular music. People from the Compassion mailroom indicate that not only do the children love to recieve these cards, the staff in the mailrooms love them as well! If you are ambitious you can find cards that also include a record button, and you can record a personal message from your family--what a gift to your sponsored child to be able to hear your voice!

4. Friendship Bracelets ~ We are unable to send real jewelry or string through the mail, but there are some really adorable paper bracelet (or necklace!) tutorials out there that feature strips of paper folded across each other. Here's one fantastic tutorial: http://increations.blogspot.com/2008/09/origami-bracelet.html
You could coat the paper with a layer of mod podge or spray acrylic for durability. For older kids, send a completed bracelet along with instructions and materials for your child to make his or her own! And don't think these are just for girls--in other cultures some men wear jewelry as well, so your little boy may well enjoy wearing a cuff-style bracelet in "manly" colors or a superhero theme. To close the bracelet, many sponsors have reported that small (tiny) velcro circles that stick-on have made it through. You might also try including some glue dots or punch a hole in each end and perhaps the child can find a small piece of string or grass with which to tie it closed.

5. Photo album ~ I plan to do this for my children this spring. The most beloved and requested items from sponsored children are photographs of their sponsor family. You can make a simple photo album using commercial software (or even MS Word) or online tools and print your album at home or your local copy store. Staple with a cute decorative cover and you have a treasured gift for your child. This is super easy to do for multiple children because it's as easy to print 4 copies as it is to print 1 copy. Include a photo of your sponsored child in the album so they know they are part of your family, too!

6. Thin books or book chapters ~ I recently discovered that it is okay to send thin books as long as the cover is removed and the book meets the 1/4 inch thickness rule. In fact, for older teens you can send big books (think C.S. Lewis) chapter-by-chapter. Yes, it hurts to tear a book apart, but visit a used bookstore, yard sale, or Goodwill for a copy of a beloved used book and start ripping! Be cognizant of language differences, however--if your child speaks a different language the translators will not translate an entire book. You may be able to find used foreign-language books through Amazon or Ebay (or even at your local used bookstore--particularly in Spanish).

7. 3D bookmarks ~ I love the 3D and "moving" bookmarks that craft stores and bookstores sell. Even young children love these.

8. Magazines ~ You can remove the cover and send thin magazines. For little kids, National Geographic has great animal-themed magazines. Zootles is a good one for little kdis, as well. Highlights is wonderful for English speaking children. Target ocassionally carries some Highlights activity pads and posters in the $1 section that are wonderful.

9. Lapbooks ~ Lapbooks are among my favorite things to send. Originally a homeschooling idea, a lapbook is simply a folder-sized study unit organized around a central theme, containing multiple activities. For example, you might choose a Noah's Ark theme and include coloring pages, stickers, a matching game, a mini book, paper dolls, etc all depicting the story of Noah's Ark, and you might tuck it all into an animal-themed school folder. Some great resources for lapbooks include www.lapbooklessons.com (www.lapbooklessons.com/NoahsArkLapbook.html for Noah's Ark), http://www.heartofwisdom.com/homeschoollinks/lapbooks-scrapbooks-make-learning-fun/, http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php, http://pinterest.com/MeetPenny/lapbook-ideas/

10. Paper bag puppets ~ How much fun are paper bag puppets? They are easy to assemble yourself, and you can find plenty of templates on Google and Pinterest, or you can be lazy like I was and purchase a Paper Bag Puppet kit from Alex toys, which comes with 5 ADORABLE puppets in individual plastic sleeves, with all the pieces necessary to make the puppet AND instructions AND stickers for decorating the puppet. How easy is that?? I punched out the pieces to keep the package within the size limits, and then stuck them all back in the plastic sleeve with a photocopy of the instructions, and my mailing was ready to go! http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Toys-Little-Hands-Puppets/dp/B0013GRW1K

I hope this post gets you excited about spring mailings for your sponsored kids. I would love to hear your ideas and comments! What do you plan to send this spring?

Blessings and Happy Easter!