Keilyn needs a sponsor!

This beautiful little girl is Keilyn and she needs a sponsor today! Keilyn lives in El Salvador, on the plains of Cacaopera. Typical houses are constructed of tin and have dirt floors. With your sponsorship of Keilyn, she will receive bible teaching, medical checkups, and academic reinforcement.


I have her child packet and it expires today! Please prayerfully consider sponsoring this precious little girl. Contact me at firemom82(at)gmail(dot)com.

In His Grace,


Sharon

The New Our Compassion site!

Our Compassion, which is a social network designed by Compassion International for sponsors and advocates, has transitioned to a new forum-type network. They launched it yesterday, and I'm very excited about it! This is a place where sponsors can connect with each other, learning and growing and sharing, getting ideas for letter writing, posting prayer requests, and much more.


They're working through a few minor system bugs. As with any new system, there are those little kinks that will need to be ironed out, but just from what I can tell by glancing through it, this new site is awesome!

Check it out! 


In His grace,


Sharon

Survive 125

Imagine having to choose between eating moldy food or starving. Or, getting your child a vaccine which may prevent her from contracting a disease or buying enough food for one meal.

Now, you can find out what it’s like to make these very difficult decisions by playing “Survive125”, a game created by 58: and designed to allow you to get just a glimpse into the kind of world that many people live in daily.

Did you know that well over a billion people around the world are living in extreme poverty? The purpose of Survive 125 is to get through one month surviving on $1.25 per day.

I played this game and I was shocked at the choices that I had to make on a daily basis. I read the questions and tried my best to put myself in this woman’s place, to really know and understand, and try to make the best choice possible for each scenario. Sometimes, I felt like I made a good choice, only to find out later how that single choice would affect another area of my life.

58: is an unprecedented global alliance of Christians, churches and world-class poverty-fighting organizations working together to end extreme poverty in our lifetime by living the True Fast of Isaiah 58.

Give it a try yourself by going to this link. Then, I would love to know what you think about it. Come back here and leave a comment letting me know how you did.

Here’s the link again:  http://www.live58.org/survive125

In His grace,

Sharon

Changes to Letters

The other day, I received an email from Compassion about the upcoming changes to the letter-writing process. Of course, we've known that these changes were coming, and it's been a much-talked about topic for months! There are pro's and con's, those for and those against these upcoming changes. I haven't really given it a lot of thought. I'm just happy to get those letters any time I get them! And, of course, let's go back to the reason we sponsor to begin with. I certainly don't sponsor for what I might get out of it! I write letters to my sponsored children whether or not they write me back. So, with that said, here is the explanation about the new letter-writing process, quoted directly from Compassion.

Compassion is excited to announce that we are implementing a new letter-writing process starting July 1, 2012!

Compassion is committed to nurturing positive, healthy, developmental relationships between sponsors and children. We also are committed to the effective stewardship of program resources. We believe that these changes allow for the best use of resources while enabling the best correspondence experience for the greatest number of sponsors and children.

As such, beginning in July you will notice the following changes: 

New Letter from Someone Who Knows Your Child's Program To enhance the relationship between our sponsors and their Compassion-assisted children Compassion is introducing a new letter from someone who knows your child's program on a one-on-one basis and who can you give you better insight into your child's life. 

New Themed Letter Writing Templates In addition to this new letter, Compassion-assisted children under the age of eight will utilize specialized thematic templates to encourage them to share more about their family, favorite hobbies and sports, dreams, Christian education, and the Compassion center they attend. The new templates will also include sections for prayer requests, questions, drawing and coloring, and more. 

New Reciprocal Letter Process Besides these new and exciting changes we are also deploying a reciprocal letter process where each child will have the opportunity to write you their sponsor as soon as they receive a letter you. Therefore, if you enjoy writing letters to your child, you will receive a letter from your him or her every 60 days. Although responding to each of your letters is ultimately your Compassion-assisted child's decision, they are required to write you a letter twice per year.**Please note our country offices will have to process more letters that may require additional time.

So, there you have it. Happy writing!

In His grace,

Sharon

Artwork from Beatriz!

Well, I sat down to scan several drawings that Beatriz has sent us, but I only got one scanned because of little paws walking across the keyboard. This is the most recent artwork, received just this week. Her drawings always make me smile. I can just picture her thinking of what she can draw this time, taking her time to draw carefully and choose just the right colors. This piece of art from our little Beatriz in Brazil is something that I will treasure.

Beatriz, great job!

In His grace,

Sharon

Letter from Beatriz

After receiving my first letter from Andre, I was so happy to see another cream colored envelope in my mail box today! The letter was from Beatriz, our sponsored child in Brazil. She writes:

"Hello. How are you? I'm well. My mom is 5-month pregnant with a boy. I'm happy. Do you have children? Thanks for the letter. I always pray for you. May the Jesus' love be in your life. Pray for me and my family. In the project I play doll, color and run. We learn about Jesus. My teacher is so cool and I like her a lot. Thanks a lot for everything you do for me. May God bless you. Pray for me always. Hugs."

I'm glad to hear that Beatriz is happy about the arrival of her new little brother soon. I don't know how this will play into their situation. I may call the Compassion office to see if they can tell me anything about Beatriz and her mom that I'm not yet aware of, but it sounds like Beatriz is well and happy! I smiled when I read that she thinks her teacher "is so cool". I wonder what the Portuguese word is for "cool"...?


I'm not sure what to think about her question asking us if we have children. I've told her all about our family. Maybe the project worker who helped her with this letter just stuck that in there. In any case, I'm working on a small scrapbook that I'm going to send her soon, with all of our pictures in it.


She also drew us another picture. It seems that she loves to draw and color. This picture appears to be a boy and a girl with swimsuits on, standing on the beach. Beside them is a big slide that leads down into a swimming pool. I wonder if she has had the opportunity to go swimming like this or if this is just from her "wish list". She did a great job. As soon as I can find the time to sit down and scan for a while, I'll scan in some of her very wonderful artwork!


We pray for you, too, Beatriz. May God bless you today.


I'm linking up with www.bloggingfromtheboonies.com! Wonderful blog!


In His grace,


Sharon

First letter from Andre!

I was so excited to see a letter in my mailbox, and was thrilled that it is my first letter from Andre, a new correspondent child. Andre is 16, in the 10th grade and lives in Indonesia. His information indicated that he plays the guitar, but I wasn't sure if that was accurate, if it is something he would like to do, or if he really plays. Well, in his letter, he tells me that he is the guitarist in his church! I would love to find out from him if he can read music or plays by ear. If he can read music, then I'll be able to send him some sheet music!

"Thank you for being my sponsor. My name is Andreano (Andre). I am 16 years old. I live in Tondangow district with dad and mom. My best friends are Heman, Arthur and Kevin. My hobby is playing guitar. I don't have pet. My favorite colors are white and blue. My favorite food is fried rice. David is a man who's clever to play harp. And, I am also greatful for God's love and mercy to trust me in serving as guitarist in church, in this case melodist. God is good to me, and also to Roland and Sharon Landers. How old are you both now? Please pray for me because I'm going to face grade exam. That's all from me. May God bless the activity of Roland and Sharon Landers."

What a wonderful first letter! My oldest son's name is Kevin, so there's a connection. And, I play the piano, so we have music in common. I'm so excited to learn about his life and I look forward to getting to know him better.


May God bless you, Andre!


In His grace,


Sharon

Need sponsors

UPDATE: Fataou Bakouan has been sponsored! Thank you!


I have two packets for children who need sponsors. Please consider sponsoring one or both of these precious little girls.

This beautiful girl is Keilyn Martinez, and her birthday is September 6, 2006. Keilyn lives in El Salvador, on the plains of Cacaopera. Typical houses are constructed of tin and have dirt floors. With your sponsorship of Keilyn, she will receive bible teaching, medical checkups, and academic reinforcement.

This is Fataou Bakouan. His birthday is December 31, 2006. A New Year’s Eve baby! Fataou  lives on the plains of Sector 4 in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world. Your sponsorship will allow Fataou to receive hygiene education, medical checkups, Bible teaching, reading and writing classes at the project, and much more. Fataou lives in an aids-affected area, so sponsorship is critical for this little boy. Contact me to find out how you can be a blessing in his life!

If you're interested in becoming the sponsor of one of these children, post a comment here or email me at firemom82 (at) gmail.com.

In His grace,

Sharon

The first two!

Compassion sends each new advocate a package of materials to help them get started with their ministry. Included in that package are two child packets. My first two! It's a little overwhelming to think that I am now responsible to try to find sponsors for these two precious children. How in the world do I do that?!? That's the question that runs through my mind as I look at their sweet faces and read their information. Well, the only way to get started in this ministry is to...well,...start! So, the journey begins.

Compassion Advocate

Advocate…one who pleads the cause of another. That’s the official definition. In essence, what it means to be an advocate for Compassion International is simply this: to plead the cause of impoverished children around the world in the name of Jesus. Quoting directly from Compassion’s website about what it means to be an advocate, we are to:

• Educate Christians concerning the biblical mandate to love the poor.
• Share Compassion as one solution to those needs that provides a way for people to respond to the biblical mandate.
• Increase awareness of the needs of impoverished children around the world.

My Advocate journey started in the fall of 2011. That’s when I first felt a tug on my heart to do more than just be a sponsor, although that is a very worthy position by itself. My husband and I sponsored our first Compassion child, a little girl in Brazil, in April 2011.

In the fall of 2011, I started wondering what more I could do on behalf of Compassion. At the time, I was taking a women’s bible study (“James”, by Beth Moore). This study is the thing that took it over the top for me. There was one session in particular that God used to tell me, without any doubts, that this was something I needed to do. If you’ve ever studied the book of James in the bible, you’re probably familiar with James 1:27: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 15-16 also tells us to take care of those in need and if we don’t, ‘what does it profit?’. In other words, what good is our faith if we don’t live it out?

As I write this, I’m a brand new advocate, so I’ve just gotten started on this journey. If you’re wondering what it’s all about, and how to become an advocate yourself, here is how the process works.

First, I went to the Advocate’s area of the Compassion website. This is where you’ll find a complete Advocate Position Description as well as the application. Compassion makes every effort to make you aware of what an advocate’s responsibilities are even before you commit to it. This is one thing that I like about it because I’m a planner through and through. I want to know ahead of time what I’m getting into, what will happen, and how I can prepare for it.

Once you read the information on the website, you’ll fill out the application. This covers your basic contact information, your history with the Compassion ministry, some information about your interests and activities, how you’re involved at your church, and a statement of faith. You will also be asked to agree to a minor background check. Then, you click submit and it’s done. After that, you’ll wait to hear from Compassion about setting up a phone interview.

I had heard that it may take several weeks before Compassion would contact me about the next steps. I finally received an email from a Compassion staff member to set up my phone interview. He explained that it will take about 45 minutes. We scheduled it for the following week, and I’ll admit that I was a little bit nervous about it. In the end, though, it was an interesting call. In the beginning, he asked me some questions, which I answered easily (just a few things about myself, my testimony about becoming a Christian, and why I wanted to become an advocate). He then started telling me all about what is involved in being an advocate, what kind of training I’ll receive, what the next steps are, and other information. One thing about it is that they’re very flexible about this call. They’ll work with you for whatever day and time suits your schedule.

After the phone call, he sent me an email with a link to the online training at the website. It’s formatted like a powerpoint presentation, and is extremely informative (but, really easy to understand). I learned so much about Compassion that I wasn’t aware of before. I went through the training in one sitting, but it’s set up so that you can go through it as your time permits. If you only have 10 minutes to devote to it, then you can go through it for 10 minutes, and you just pick up where you left off when you have some more free time!

There were links to other online training tools as well as some great information about resources. Once I completed the training, I was an official Compassion Advocate!

You will be sent information with contacts in your region, such as your Regional Advocate Manager. I’ve already connected with several of my contacts and have even joined the Facebook advocates group for my region.

So, what happens now? What form will my ministry take and what form will your advocate ministry take? Well, the answer is any form that we want it to take! Compassion is very flexible and encouraging to advocates to work with their ministry, using our particular talents and gifts. Your advocacy may include things such as speaking at church, working tables at Compassion sponsored events (even concerts!), or sharing about Compassion with your family, friends and co-workers. I blog, so one form my ministry will take is to blog about Compassion on a regular basis.

I’ve been told that there are some opportunities to attend regional and national Advocates conferences. It will probably be a while before I can do that, but I’m looking forward to it when the opportunity comes my way. Perhaps there will be a local or regional event that I can attend in the near future. I’ve already connected with a local advocate on Facebook, and I’m hoping that we can meet for coffee and brainstorming sometime soon.

Have you thought about becoming an advocate? Would you like to find out more? Click here to read more about becoming an advocate. I’m so looking forward to this new journey I’m on, and I just know that the Lord will bless me for being obedient to His calling.

In His grace,

Sharon

All About Letters

This post is all about writing letters to your sponsored child. Being a sponsor isn’t just about the financial commitment that you’ve made, but it’s so much more than that. Certainly, the benefits that your sponsorship funds provide to your child go a long way in helping to meet the physical needs of that child. But, those children have other needs that you can meet by writing letters on a regular basis.

It’s all about building a relationship with your sponsored child, and that is an essential part of being a sponsor. By writing your child regularly, you’re telling that child that they are loved and they’re important to you. You’re sharing your faith, and you may be the only person (besides the project workers) who do that! You can pray for your child and let them know that you’re praying for them.

Here is a quick guide to writing letters to your sponsored child. All of this information can be found on Compassion’s website as well as many other blogs from Compassion sponsors and advocates.

How can I write to my sponsored child?

There are two ways to write to your sponsored child: letter mail and online. For letter mail, you can write a letter using the stationary that Compassion provides on their website, or you can use your own stationary. If you use your own, just remember to leave space (half of each page) for translation. You’ll need to include your sponsor number, your child’s name and their i.d. number as well.

To write your child using Compassion’s online letter writing tool, just log in to your account at the website. On the left side of the screen, you’ll see a link that says “Write Your Child”. They provide several very nice templates for you to choose from. They even have ones for birthday, Christmas, soccer balls, flowers, and other nice designs. You’ll choose the template, write your letter, and click ‘send’. You’ll also have the opportunity to upload a photo to include on your letter! Your letter is then processed, logged in, printed in color and sent off to be delivered to the field office, your child’s project, and ultimately, your sponsored child. All of this takes times, but it’s so worth it!

If you send your letters by postal mail, here is the address:

Compassion International

Child Correspondence Dept

Colorado Springs, CO 80997-0004

How often should I write? What should I say?

Writing once each month is a good guideline to follow. Some sponsors write twice each month and a few even write once a week. That could be too often, depending on the age of your sponsored child. I try to write once a month. Even if your schedule only permits you to write every other month, that’s still better than not writing at all. And, of course, with the new online writing tool at Compassion’s website, it’s even easier to type out a quick note and send it off. Your child wants to hear from you and your letters are so very important to them! When I open up my mailbox and see that I’ve received a letter from my sponsored child, it feels like Christmas to me! I get so excited and just cannot wait to open it up and hear about their lives, what they’ve been doing, and see the precious pictures that they draw for me. What a blessing!

How long does it take for my child to receive my letter?

It varies from one country to the next, but for most letters, it takes anywhere from 1-3 months to travel from your hands to the hands of your child. And, of course, it takes just as long for your child’s letters to reach you. The Global Ministry Center in Colorado processes thousands of letters each month. That’s quite a lot of letters! They check each letter that comes through to make sure that all information (sponsor number, child name, child i.d. number) is on the letter. They want to make sure that your letter reaches your specific child.

The letters can also be held up in customs in the other countries. Once the letters reach the field office and are translated, they’re sorted by project and then they start traveling to each project. This can take quite some time. In some countries, the letters must travel by donkey or bikes, sometimes they are even walked to the project, depending on how remote the place is. Remember also that the children may want to write you a letter right back, but they have to wait until the project workers have time to help them with it. Some projects have letter writing days, while others write when they can.

Why is it important to write my child?

For most sponsored children, they have to deal with poverty, sometimes a bad family situation, still others may have no family at all. Our letters tell our children that they’re important to someone, that we care, we love them, we want to encourage them, they matter!

Many children who hear from their sponsors regularly have more confidence in themselves and are inspired to work hard, study hard in school, and make a better life for themselves as they grow older.

I read a blog post one time that talked about how so many children sit through the mail call at their project, with their name never being called to receive a letter. How heart-breaking! And, if you can only write once each month, that will stop those tears from falling down a sweet face who deserves so much more.

Can I send gifts to my child? Are there other things I can send?

Because of regulations from various countries, we can send only those items that are considered to be (or “classified as”) a document, and fall within certain restrictions that Compassion has set up. All items must be of paper, with few exceptions. Put your creative hats on, though, because I recently sent a paper bookmark to our little Beatriz in Brazil, but I laminated it and as long as you follow the guidelines closely, some things like this will go through. Compassion has information listed on their website and especially their blog about sending items other than letters.

I also encourage you to visit the blogs of other sponsors and advocates. That’s how I found so many great ideas. One blog that I visit regularly is Blogging from the Boonies (www.bloggingfromtheboonies.com).  This blog is full of great information about everything related to Compassion. You can also visit Compassion’s website www.compassion.com as a great resource.

I don’t have time to write or I’m just not into it. Is there a solution for this? 

If you just don’t have the time to write, or you just don’t like to write, then Compassion has a solution! If you sponsor a child, you can contact the Compassion office and ask that they assign a “Correspondent Sponsor” to your child. We only sponsor one child financially, but I’m correspondent sponsor to two others at the moment. I love writing letters to these children! Keep in mind that Compassion cannot assign your child a correspondent sponsor unless you contact them and request it. So, if you do sponsor a child but you aren’t writing to that child, please call Compassion today and ask for a correspondent sponsor!

If you would like to become a correspondent sponsor yourself, just call Compassion and ask to be put on the waiting list. It’s that simple! Recently, they created new guidelines and I think they’ve limited the number of children you can write to in this manner, but if you call them, they’ll be happy to fill you in on the details.

I still have questions. How can I find out more information?

Compassion International phone operators are very helpful and would love to answer any questions you may have about letter writing or anything else related to sponsoring a child. There are several ways to contact them. Just go to the Compassion website, www.compassion.com and choose the most convenient way for you.

I plan to update this information as time goes on and I hope it’s been helpful to you. This is a work in progress, so look for much more information in the future!

In His grace,

Sharon