Write to your Compassion Child: Answer their questions

At the beginning of this year, I had plans of doing a monthly post here on my blog to share some letter writing tips for Compassion sponsors.

I was able to post one in January.

I was able to post one in February.

And then, March came along. Not only was our family preparing last minute details for our son’s wedding, but a worldwide pandemic struck and many things in our world changed in an instant.

I quickly realized and learned that letters to our Compassion sponsored children were not going to be delivered on a regular basis.

Compassion is encouraging us to continue to write to our sponsored children, but I decided to slow down the pace that I write to them.

One of the last letters I received from Lina, she was asking how preparations were going for our son’s wedding.

I sent a letter in April to all of our sponsored children to let them know that our son was able to get married with many last minute adjustments since their wedding was in March.

Over the years, we have received many questions from our Compassion sponsored children. Most often, the letters start out by asking ‘how are you?’ or ‘how is your family?’ But then, depending on the age of the child, they might ask ‘what if your favorite color?’, ‘what do you do for a job?’, or even, ‘would you love coming back to my country?’

I love taking time to answer the questions that our sponsored children have because it gives us a chance to let them know that we are reading their letters, and the questions they ask are important to us.

My best advice to you on letter writing right now…send a letter at least once every other month. Go back through your letters from your sponsored children and see if you have answered all their questions. Bring up something from an old letter that makes you smile and tell them why you loved what they wrote. Use this time to remind them that God is watching over them.

And if you start to get frustrated about the amount of time that is passing with no letters FROM our sponsored children, remember that we are a sponsor to help them have a better life, to be released from poverty in Jesus’ name.

If you happen to be in a position to sponsor a Compassion children, I encourage you to do so! With all of the live events being cancelled, there are many children waiting to be sponsored.

Be sure to let me know if you sponsor a Compassion child! I would love to encourage you as you start this amazing journey to be a part of changing a life!

Write to your Compassion Child: Share something famous

Whenever I am talking with new sponsors at Compassion events, I try to remind them that the new child they just sponsored is really curious about them.

These kids want to know what your favorite color is, what you like to eat, what your favorite Bible verse is.

They are also really curious about where we live.

I am not talking about the houses that we live in or the cars that we drive.

Do you live close to something famous?

Living in California, we live within driving distance of San Francisco to the west, and Yosemite National Park to the east. I prefer to spend the day at Yosemite, but whenever we have out of state visitors, they generally like to see the “City by the Bay”.

I try to avoid the ‘city’ part of San Francisco. My favorite part of taking people to San Francisco is walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. Walking across the bridge gives you an incredible view of San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay.

In my latest letter to the children we sponsor with Compassion, I shared with them some facts about the bridge and asked what is famous about the country where they live.

Because I know the kids love to receive photos, I also sent a photo I took of the bridge from the day of our most recent visit:

I also included a coloring page I found online:

I colored a page and included a page for them to color. You can find the coloring pages at Our Family Passport website.

Even if you do not live close to something famous, you can share something unique about the state, county, or city that you live in. Maybe you can even include your own drawing of something where you live. I am sure the child you sponsor will treasure the time you took to include something extra with the letter you send.

What special things do you include with letters to the child you sponsor with Compassion?

Write to your Compassion Child: Photo Idea

Congratulations! You just started sponsoring your first Compassion child!

Now what?

If you really have just started sponsoring a Compassion child, I know you will like this idea.

But even if you have been sponsoring a Compassion child for a while and you are stuck thinking of what to write, or what to include with your letters, I know you will like this idea too.

One thing I know from traveling and visiting a couple of our Compassion sponsored children, these kids don’t have many, it any at all, printed photos of themselves.

I remember being a new mom with my camera, and I was constantly taking photos of our firstborn, and I still love to take photos of my children. Even in our digital age, I have come up with a few ways to make sure I am printing out photos of my family and displaying them in our home so I can enjoy them.

Last year, we began sponsoring a new young lady in Colombia.

I sent an email to Compassion to ask for any of her previous photos. Did you know that you can do that?

All of the registered Compassion children have their photos updated at least every 18 months to 2 years. With over two million children registered currently, that is a big undertaking to have the photos updated on a regular basis.

But I wonder how many of these kids have their photos at home?

With the previous photos I received from Compassion, and Alix had a birthday coming up soon, I ‘created’ a collage of photos to wish her a happy birthday!

I use a website called Canva to create these pages and save them as a PNG file so I can add them as a full photo page when I write letters to my Compassion children online.

You can be super creative with this, or just add a simple message or Bible verse.

What do you do with photos when you write to your Compassion child?

The ABCs of Compassion - Jesus

Out of all the letters of the alphabet for Compassion, this has got to be the most important one.

‘J’ is for Jesus!

Jesus is at the heart of Compassion.

So much so, that Jesus is a part of Compassion’s mission statement:

“Releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name”

In the book, Mission Drift, the authors share that Compassion has been told that if they remove the last three words from their mission statement, they would be able to work in more countries around the world.

And I tell people at events all the time, there are a lot of wonderful organizations doing amazing things to help people who are living in extreme poverty.

But if those people do not know who Jesus is, and if they do not have the opportunity to enter into a relationship with Jesus, they have no eternal hope.

This is why I love volunteering with Compassion!

I love knowing that at each and every Compassion center, the Gospel is being taught to each and every child. And in many cases, the children are sharing about Jesus with their families!

What word would you have chosen to go with the letter ‘J’?

Compassion by the Numbers

For the past four and a half years, I have been serving as the Volunteer Coordinator for Compassion events in Northern California. In this role, I do a lot of behind the scenes activities to make sure that there is volunteer coverage at all events in Northern California where the Compassion sponsorship opportunity is being presented. This could be any number of events: conferences, concerts, Compassion Experience events, etc.

Our region can be extremely busy!

Over the last six months, I learned that we had 19 events in our region.

For these 19 events, we had 449 volunteers.

At these 19 events with these 449 volunteers, 1293 Compassion children were sponsored!!

What? Say that again!

One thousand, two hundred, ninety three children!

That is basically FIVE Compassion centers of children!!

But the thing I love about Compassion, it is not about the big numbers.

When one child is sponsored, it changes that one child’s life.

That child will have their basic needs met.

That child will learn about how much Jesus loves them.

And when that one child decides to follow Jesus, it impacts them for eternity.

When we look at the overall issue of global poverty, we can feel stuck.

Compassion is helping each one of us tackle global poverty, one child at a time.

I would love for everyone who takes the time to read my blog to sponsor a Compassion child.

Will you sponsor a waiting Compassion child today?