Comments on: On Letter Writing: Would You Rather … ?

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:18:56 +0000

I would love to receive more letters in a year from my sponsor children. I must admit that I also would love to, and purpose to, write them more often, as well.
I am very thankful for the opportunity to know and write to and to hear from the children.
Thank you, Compassion for all that you do for these children and for letting us in on the blessing!

By: Vicki Small

Vicki Small — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:20:23 +0000

should I stop encouraging him in the faith because he writes poor letters? Please – please continue to write, pray and have faith that God is working through your letters and gifts though you are not “getting” in return.

Oh, I wish I could “Love!!” this comment! Your question, Amber struck me with such force that I literally sat up straighter and jerked my head back!

I wish I could send that question to some of the sponsors I have talked to. There was a couple on my second sponsor tour. They were meeting their sponsored child for the first time, but they weren’t very excited about it, at all. They didn’t feel they were “getting anything” from the sponsorship.

The morning after child-visit day, I shared a breakfast table with them. I asked them how the visit had gone, and how they felt about their sponsorship. They answered that the visit had gone “okay,” and they guessed they would start writing more often to their sponsored child. (I think I could preach a sermon, here!)

Thank you for making a strong point with such clarity and perspective! And Merry Christmas!

By: Kees Boer

Kees Boer — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:07:28 +0000

If this were a Facebook page, I would “like” this post. I agree Amber. The thing is that most of the sponsors and the children, the only thing that the relationship is through is with the letters. Unless you go visit the child, that’s pretty much it. Even the children are like that too. When you go visit the child, the first thing the child will show you is the stack of letters that they get. So, it is understandable that some sponsors feel that way.

But it is also important to realize how most of the children grow up. They spend considerable amount of time without parents there. The parents might be working 12 hours a day. Most of them never hear: “I love you” from their parents. (in Bolivia at least) They might have a little junky television in the shack that they see all kinds of garbage on all the time. Their neighbourhoods many times are filled with people that aren’t very good influence on them….. drunks and gangs and in this environment the child grows up. You can imagine the situation those children are in and that some of them aren’t very good in expressing themselves in a letter. The church staff at the projects will help them with it, but especially with the programletters (The 3 or 2 letters a year that every sponsored child sends out) that can be difficult. Imagine having to work and read through 400 program letters with a deadline that they have to be at the country office by….. (Then imagine the country office staff having to work through all of those stacks and translate them (50,000 of them) This can be a busy time….

So, keep writing the letters, because you know not only do the children like them, but the country office staff likes them, the people in the projects like them, their families like them. It’s a big honor and joy for everyone to receive those letters. I loved working with the letters. I would be very close to being in tears with all the letters. Sent pictures too. Those are really valued by the children. Just imagine how you value it when you get a photograph of your child.

Anyways, great post Amber!!!

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:09:41 +0000

I just wanted to add that all kids are different. Many kids, no matter where they are from, are not good at letter writing. My own all-american 9 yr old has a really difficult time with letter writing, though I have made it a point to practice with him since before he could write. He resists it because it is tough for him to think of words and to emotionally connect. He is a relatively low-key, unemotional kid who LOVES to get letters, but doesn’t necessary show it and without great prodding, will not reciprocate. If he were someone’s sponsored kid, his letters would be few and disappointing. With that said, my son is an amazing boy with a heart for God – should I stop encouraging him in the faith because he writes poor letters? Please – please continue to write, pray and have faith that God is working through your letters and gifts though you are not “getting” in return.

By: Leah

Leah — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:10:42 +0000

I would love to receive more detailed letters less often so I could get more a sense of my child’s personality. I love receiving any letters no matter how short they are.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:09:54 +0000

I have given up on asking my child questions. They are never answered. He is good to send us letters. But, they are very generic. It is hard for me to continue this very shallow correspondence. However, I do love him & pray for him. I think that is mutual.

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:07:18 +0000

I am new to this whole experience and would “GREATLY” appreciate any and all advice, opinion, comments etc on how this system works and what to expect. I am discouraged by reading some of the blogs here. Our girl is in Central Mexico and I pray things go smoothly. Again, please any information you all can supply will bw very welcomed. In Christ, Linda

By: Diane Nichols

Diane Nichols — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:38:34 +0000

We have sponsored for about 2 years and I have learned one thing, sometimes different people write the letters for the kids so the one currently writing may not know that the child received a gift, some of my kids have a family member write so the questions get answered, yes I think a list of questions would be helpful, I got a 3 page letter from the translator for the girl we sponsor in Thailand answering all my questions, I think it helps that in this case the same translator writes for this girl. I guess we are really blessed with our kids because whenever we send them a gift they or the translator tell us what they bought and if it is clothes some of the kids send pictures of them wearing the new clothes or holding the items they bought and a lot of times their whole family is in the picture as is the case with our girl in Thailand, yes the letters take a while and sometimes you have to ask 2 or 3 times what they bought. As I said before sometimes the kids have different translators doing their letters each time and sometimes things get lost in translation.

By: Kees Boer

Kees Boer — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:20:55 +0000

Hi, Vicki,

To start with the last part of your post…. yes, you can visit the children on your own. It’s called an individual visit. You’d have to line up your own flight to the country and you can talk the details with the “Experience Compassion team.” They are always very helpful with this. It generally saves a lot of money and you can probably visit the child’s home and student center. The key word there is: “probably.” Some parts of El Salvador are very dangerous because of gangs. But your child should be so happy. Most children if you ask them what their biggest dream in life is, it would be to meet their sponsor. Even the LDP students feel that way and many formerly sponsored children are still really wanting to meet their sponsor or have contact with them. If you know what you’re doing, that can be great, but I don’t know if I would suggest that with everyone… When you’re not working with an organization like Compassion in the midst, you could have difficulties all of a sudden.

As far as contacting the local embassy….. I would caution about that… I could see that creating problems in some countries…. There are people that might view sponsorship as imperialism. I know that’s not the case…. but some don’t want outside help and it might create a problem. However if you have a University close by, you might be able to get help from a club or something of International students. It is important to be aware that most international students are not allowed to make money in the USA. So, be careful about offering payment for financial services. But you can at the same time have a ministry among these students. Then when they graduate, they can go back and serve Christ in their country. I know of a group of churches that does this regularly and they try to coordinate it, so that when the students go back, they’ll plug in together and start a church in their country. Several very successful churches have been planted that way.

By: Kees Boer

Kees Boer — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:19:40 +0000

Hi, Vicki,

I would