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 - Letters

When was the last time you received a letter in the mail?

When was the last time you wrote a letter?

I can imagine for most people, the answer would be ‘I don’t remember’.

But if you are a Compassion sponsor, I sure do hope you have a different answer for those two questions!

As a Compassion sponsor, we have an opportunity to encourage the children we sponsor through the letters we write to them. Many times, these letters are read by the children more than once. A lot of the children keep the letters from their sponsor in a very special place so they can read them when they need to remember that someone who lives thousands of miles away is praying for them.

When my daughter and I went to Mexico almost three years ago on a sponsor trip, I will never forget what Alfredo brought with him.

The paper in Alfredo’s hands is a letter that Kelsey had written to him. He wanted her to know that he is receiving her letters and that they are very important to him! How precious is this!

Compassion has a few sections on their website with answers to frequently asked questions, letter writing ideas, and some letter writing prompts.

Need some motivation to write a letter, you can find that too!

My personal suggestions on writing letters?

Reply to each letter, and write a few additional times a year also.

Ask a couple of questions and include a Bible verse with each letter.

Send photos, especially of your family. The kids love seeing the people who are praying for them.

What questions do you have about letter writing?

Making My Life Easier: Menu Planning

Twenty-nine years times 365 equals 10,585

Why that calculation?

That is approximately how many times I have had to make a decision about dinner. Now obviously, I have not made dinner that many times over the course of the last twenty-nine years, but probably pretty darn close to that number.

No wonder I am stuck in a rut and just a bit plain tired of planning dinner each and every week.

A friend of mine posted an article on Facebook recently about dinner planning and all that goes into it.

It is just not planning what to eat each night of the week.

When I sit down on Monday morning to plan our week of dinners, I look at the weather, who is going to be home each night, what ingredients we have on hand, is anything on sale, what additional items I need to purchase, what ingredients need to be prepped, does anything need to be taken out of the freezer, when do things need to be taken out of the freezer…. I think you get the picture.

Obviously, my individual family situation is much different than many other families.

Up until a couple of years ago, I was pretty much a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom with time to shop for and prepare a good portion of our meals.

But now that I am substitute teaching a good number of days a month, and traveling to Compassion events at least once a month, my schedule is all over the place.

And our kid’s work schedules are not consistent.

So, to make my life easier, a few months back, we had a family meeting to discuss menu planning and dinner.

The solution…our two adult children are each responsible for dinner one night a week.

This week, our menu looks like this:

I have even started making notations for each day so I know who will be home for dinner.

This is just one thing I have implemented that is making my life easier these days.

What one thing are you doing to make your life easier?