Sunday, August 16, 2009

Dear Sponsor Child... Organization!

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One of the greatest joys of sponsoring a Compassion child, is to correspond with them. Receiving a letter from them, especially one with a photo, is like Christmas morning. Those precious letters from Martha, Emily, and from Bessy, are amongst the first things I'd save if the house caught on fire, once the kids/pets were safe and sound.

Last year, in an attempt to better keep track of the correspondence, I created a binder for each of our Compassion girls. I filled the book with page protectors, and placed the Compassion photos and account info, mailing labels and such in the first pocket, and then filled the rest with each letter sent or received, in chronological order.

I love this format, because it enables us to read the letters much like a story, and it makes it easy to search for information. With the page protectors, I don't have to worry about the kids handling the books, I know the letters will be safe. Since I use zippered binders, I can tuck extras into the inside pocket. That way, when I want to write to them, I have the stash of stickers, books, coloring books, photos, postcards and such right at my fingertips! Anytime I find stuff I know will come in handy, such as holiday things (Valentine's Day cards, birthday cards, Christmas cards, Easter stickers, etc), I know exactly where to put it!


In each letter, I encourage them to share their prayer requests... here were some recent ones:


Martha -- Praying that her school will be able to meet the needs of the students, especially the classrooms and the availability of teachers.
Bessy -- for her father to find work.
Emily -- no specific requests, other than a general request for us to pray for her family's health.


I love these three as though they were my own. I wish they were here to play with Jillian!!!




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