I love that I don’t always know why I write what I write to my sponsored children.

At first glance, words on pages may seem as though they are merely words, but an 11-year-old boy named Sam from Ghana provided a powerful reminder that words prayed over and led by the Spirit have a power and a purpose all their own.

I received such words from Sam many times, and the impact of those words has changed more lives than I will ever know.

The first time I realized Sam was truly receiving his words from the Holy Spirit was when he wrote to me on September 14th, 2010 and shared that his prayer for me was that God would give me a double portion of health.

He had no way of knowing how dangerously sick I had been. I didn’t tell him because I hadn’t wanted to frighten him.

Sam also had no way of knowing that as he was writing, his prayers were being answered halfway across the world. September 14th, 2010 was the day that God brought me from barely walking, to running for the first time. It was the day God helped me begin to miraculously outrun sickness – going from sick to healed literally overnight after months of illness.

It led me to wonder what else God would do through our letters.

I shared with Sam that I had traveled to Honduras with Compassion and that my best friend Tia had been on two mission trips to Africa.

In light of his prayer about my health, I took note when Sam responded that when he had heard I had been to Honduras and that Tia had been to Africa twice, he prayed God would bless us for our work, and he also prayed we would come to Ghana to meet face to face.

Sam shared that he had prayed and God would “let it come to pass, Amen!”

The words were simple, but it’s how the Holy Spirit translated them to my heart that caused a ripple effect that would soon reach further than either of us could ever have imagined.

Unable to shake the feeling that God had shared this through Sam for a purpose beyond meeting our beloved Compassion child face to face, Tia and I began to research the needs of children in Ghana. We were horrified to learn that child slavery is still practiced in parts of this country.

Children as young as 4 years old are sold into a life of bondage that perpetuates the cycle of poverty and destroys lives.

In fact, there are more slaves worldwide today than there have ever been, and at least 50 percent of them are vulnerable, precious children.

We launched a fundraising initiative to raise funds to provide expanded resources for children rescued from slavery in Ghana, which would in turn help facilitate the rescue of more children. Having raised $30,000 in mere months to provide for these children, we set out for Ghana in November of 2011.

That is when Sam’s prayer, which had been answered all along, was answered “face to face” when I, along with my 13-year-old son Joshua, my best friend Tia, and our friend Debra met him face to face.

Together, we celebrated the impact his letters had made not only in our lives and in the lives of our families and friends, but in the lives of children in his country who would be rescued from slavery — all because of words the Holy Spirit led him to share in what seemed like a simple letter from a child.

I used to think that when sponsors chose not to write to their children, it was simply the children and the sponsors who lost the opportunity to affect each other’s lives in beautiful ways. Now I can’t help but ask myself what we’re robbing the world of when we don’t take a moment to write to these precious children.

The words on the pages don’t have to be perfect. The Holy Spirit will make them so.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JD Richardson gave up housework for lent years ago and never looked back. God filled all the free time she acquired by shaping her into a writer, photographer, Compassion Advocate and sponsor of 16 Compassion children from around the world.

If you’re interested in writing a guest blog post, we are happy to consider publishing it. Read our guest blog post guidelines.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

I recently managed a team of editors working on letters written to sponsors by Project Facilitators. We read over 3,500 letters.

Many of them included compelling stories of how your letters affect children in our sponsorship program – stories, not from our perspective, but from the perspective of those who work with the children and our church partners.

From these 3,500 letters, we compiled a list of the 10 most motivating reasons to write your child.

• TEN
  Letters to children are very important; the connection is made. When the child’s name is read out as having received a letter, the excitement and joy is contagious! As they read the letter, they see you. If they do not have your photo, they paint the best picture of you in their minds, and that remains in their heart forever. They talk about you to their family every day as they pray for you; they tell their neighbors, friends, and their schoolmates, because you are so alive in their lives. (from Uganda)
  
  
• NINE
  Sponsor letters have been making a great impact in the lives of children, such as strengthening the relationship as the child gets to know sponsor family. The child feels as if the relationship is one of very close friends. Likewise, through sponsor letters, children get to know other parts of the world and what they look like. Children are also motivated to learn English when they receive sponsor letters. (from Tanzania)
• EIGHT
  Children take your letters as a sign of your concern and an expression of your love. Parents are amazed that somebody is taking time to think of them, as poor as they are. Sponsor letters are making church leaders and child development center staff renew their concern and love for the children and families they serve. (from Ethiopia)
• SEVEN
  Children become kinder, because they want to show their sponsors they care for others and are behaving well. (from Togo)
• SIX
  Sponsor letters act as a communication channel between children and their sponsors. They enable children to have an intimate relationship with their sponsors. When sponsors share their feelings and prayer requests, the children feel more wanted and cared for. Some children who are orphaned feel so loved that they refer to their sponsors as Mom or Dad. This helps boost the emotional status of these children. They have a shoulder to lean on. (from Kenya)



• FIVE
  The prayers, support, gifts, letters and visits that children share with sponsors do transform the children’s lives, and these experiences positively influence their character. They are uplifted spiritually, socially, morally and emotionally. When sponsor letters tell children that they are the best and God loves them, the children’s self-worth is lifted forever and they live with confidence.

  Children gladly share with their friends the information, the stickers, the verses, Christmas/Easter wishes and all the other gifts they receive from sponsors. Children are also deeply moved by the love expressed for them in these letters. One letter read,

  “We have hung your photo on the wall and we ask God to bless you every time we see you.”

  The children cannot hide their emotions when they receive such messages.

  They are moved to tears, and they bless God for giving them such wonderful friends to walk closely with through the journey of life. They forget the weary burdens that sometimes pull them down. The children are compelled to keep these letters; they read them time and again.

  Optimism and hope are reflected on the faces of children as they read and meditate on the encouraging messages. (from Kenya)

• FOUR
  Sponsor letters are very important to the lives of the children at the child development center. When they receive a letter written to them by their sponsors, the children feel very proud and loved. It is touching to see even the little ones who cannot write anything, passionately drawing diligently and expressing their love to their sponsors.

  Whenever children are assembled and it is mentioned that the teacher wants to give them letters from their sponsors, all the children keep quiet and stay attentive with a very high expectation to receive a letter from their sponsor. The joy, happiness and the glow evident in the children’s faces is a clear indication that sponsor letters play a significant part in their lives. (from Kenya)

• THREE
  One time I went for facilitation, and I saw an appreciation card written by a child to the sponsor and the child kept carrying her sponsor’s letters to school. She said when there is no one near her to encourage her through difficulties, she reads her sponsor’s letter and she feels assured to be a winner. (from Kenya)



• TWO
  There are children who accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior due to sponsor letters’ impact and prayers. (from Ethiopia)
• ONE
  Once, a child’s parent told me that when my assistant brought a letter to her sick child, the child got up immediately from the sick bed. After the letter was read to him, he embraced the photo contained in the letter for a long time. And that marked the sudden end of that sickness. (from Togo)

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Frustration mounts as I open my car door and step into a large puddle that covers my shoes. The wind blows my umbrella inside out and I grit my teeth to keep my tongue from sin.

I can’t believe how much rain has fallen! The freezing wind bites, the cold rain soaks my clothes, and I am so over it! Weathermen may rejoice in breaking precipitation records, but I do not!

I turn the key in the security door, hit one button for light and another for warmth, change into slippers, and sort through the mail. I’m excited to see I have a letter from one of my sponsored kids.

I open it and see the familiar white and green paper that indicates it’s from Ethiopia, and I can almost quote what is written without reading a word. There’s the standard greeting, he’s fine, am I well, he’s being going to church, please pray for his studies, and please pray for rain for the crops.

I toss the letter on the couch and move on with my day. I’ve read it all before, and as a city girl the request for rain means little to me. I figure that maybe it’s just a sentence the teacher wrote on the blackboard and once again it’s been copied. A generic, meaningless, space filler.

I pray for this boy but forget about the rain for the crops, because surely the requests I can think of are more important than rain.

Sunday comes and the rain still falls. At church a sponsor targets me to ask what the ministry is doing about the drought and famine in Ethiopia and Kenya. I shrug and say I’m not in Marketing, but I’m sure we are there helping already.

Try as I might the Holy Spirit doesn’t allow me to shrug this off. So I Google Ethiopia and famine and read news article after news article about the years of drought and current famine invading Africa with its friends starvation and death.

I go to work to hear from the CEO that we are there helping, and I’m proud that we are in the middle of this crisis — but I’m ashamed of myself.

I may be a city girl and I may never grow a vegetable in my life, but this does not excuse me of pride that ignores my sponsored son’s request for prayer support for something so important in his life, in his country, in his family’s survival. May God forgive me of my arrogance.

Learn from my lesson. Always pray for the requests your sponsored children and students send you. Especially when they don’t make sense. Especially when you think you know better. Especially because they ask.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

We feel strongly about correspondence between you and your child, and we know you do too. It’s the only way to truly speak into your sponsored child’s life and for you to get to know them.

To help you feel more closely connected with your child, we’re implementing four changes to our correspondence process in the next year.

1. You will now receive a letter from the church pastor, center director, country director or other qualified staff member each year.
   
   You’ve probably received a letter from your child’s pastor before and may know that you can still view the letter on OurCompassion on the child development center’s page.We’ve received lots of positive response to these letters, and we think it’s valuable to provide these to you annually.

   You’ll receive a letter each year from someone who knows our program in your child’s country. They will give you a perspective you most likely won’t get from your sponsored child’s letters.

2. All countries will move to a reciprocal letter process.
   
   Reciprocal letter writing is just that – reciprocal. When you write a letter to your sponsored child, he or she will write back. We believe that this will encourage conversation more than the current system does. Although children will be able to write as many times as they want, we will require them to write only every 60 days (about six per year).

   If you write a letter once a week, your sponsored child will receive eight letters (approximately) during a 60-day period. They will respond to all letters received during this period with one of their own. If they choose, they may respond to each of your letters individually, but this decision will be left up to the child.



3. Reducing the required number of letters your sponsored child writes from three to two.
   
   I know there is probably a puzzled look on your face right now. If we want to better your relationship with your sponsored child through these changes, why in the world would we reduce the number of letters the children write? I know it sounds a bit odd, but this one is really for the benefit of the child.

   A large percentage of sponsors only write a few times over the course of their sponsorship, if ever at all. By reducing this number, we help reduce the number of times the child may potentially be disappointed for not receiving a letter in response. For those of you who truly enjoy writing and do it regularly (Thank you!), you will be rewarded with change number two above.Also, this allows the staff in the field to write to you each year (change number one).

4. Children ages 3 to 8 will use structured templates for writing.
   
   In the countries we work in, many children at this age aren’t able to write their own letters yet. Some do not start school until a later age or may even have to skip attending school altogether due to family circumstances. Despite these obstacles, we know that you still want to hear from them, and we’ve developed these templates to provide you with information you have told us you want.

   Each template will represent one of six topical themes: family, favorites, center information, dreams, house, and Christian learning.They will include a basic question and answer section, a list of prayer requests, a fill-in-the-blank section, a checkbox section, a writing section (up to four lines of text), and a space for a drawing.

   These changes are scheduled to be implemented by July 1, 2012, with some countries implementing them sooner.

As always, you are welcome to write as many times as you would like to your sponsored child.

We’re still working through what these changes will look like once implemented. However, we do realize that the correspondence process is not perfect and these changes will not make it perfect.

Our goal is to make the correspondence process better for you and the children in our program, and these steps are a move in the right direction. We hope that you will benefit greatly from them.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Paper scraps, bits of string, crumbs and stray Cheerios — as a stay-at-home mom who homeschools two active girls, I spend a fair amount of time sweeping up random stuff that happens to fall to the floor.

On one particular day, I found myself making yet another trip to the broom closet. I will admit, I was frustrated. Certainly, I was lacking cheerfulness and grace.

With an exasperated sigh, I grabbed the broom and went to work corralling another pile of debris that had accumulated beneath our dining-room table.

Later that same day, we received a letter from Precious in Ghana, our first sponsored child. I tore into the envelope and eagerly pulled out the letter.

With the help of her center coordinator, Precious sent greetings in the name of Jesus Christ and told us she was doing very well in school and at home. She shared that she had recently been promoted to Kindergarten 2 and that her school had re-opened for another term.

The next sentence jolted me to my very core.

Precious wrote that she had been sweeping and, when she sweeps, it brings her joy and happiness.

Those words went straight to my heart. Tears instantly came to my eyes. One sentence from a little girl an ocean away immediately and forever changed my perspective.

In our first letter from Precious, we had learned that she lives with her family in a one-room home made of clay.

Yet, despite her living conditions and the fact that her floor is made of dirt, she not only finds joy in sweeping — but she also took the time to share that fact with me.

I don’t doubt for a minute that the timing of the delivery of her message was divine intervention.

After reading the rest of her letter, I went straight to the broom closet with a permanent marker in hand. Along the top of the head of the broom, I wrote Precious.

I wanted to be reminded of her every time I swept.

Ever since, anytime I pick up the broom, I cannot help but smile and think of our sweet girl in Ghana.

Whether I am sweeping for the first or 15th time that day, I no longer feel frustrated or annoyed. Instead, I take that time to thank God for putting Precious in our lives and I pray for all aspects of her life.

I am eternally grateful for the change in attitude that I received from that one simple sentence. Thanks to Precious, now I, too, find joy and happiness in sweeping.

As you have gotten to know your sponsored children, have they changed your perspective on anything?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Greetings, good wishes, and the expression of love and hope to a special person are contained in the letters you write to your sponsored child. Letters are a great opportunity to enter the world of your child and family, a wonderful experience and adventure that ties the ties your lives together.

The Honduras Compassion office receives an average of 15,000 to 18,000 letters per month. The handling of so many letters and packages requires a well-trained correspondence team. This group of people takes their job seriously and knows well how to manage the pressure of receiving so many letters. Every one of them is an expert in every process and committed to keeping up the good work.

Jackie Rivera has been in charge of the translation process for nearly two years. Jackie’s responsibilities are testing and evaluating the translators, training them, distributing and receiving the letters, and coordinating payment for the work performed.

“Each letter has a great value and represents a child with dreams and hopes, and behind the child, a family willing to welcome a new person in their lives.”

The Honduras office has a group of 25 translators who translate every document from Spanish to English. Most of the translators are professionals who have a steady job and do this activity to generate extra income. Full-time students also help translate and depend on the income to finance their education.

Jackie looks for people who are fluent in English, experienced translators and active church members. Every potential translator takes a test on English grammar, structure and idiomatic expressions. They must receive above 90 percent to become a translator.

Once the translator is selected, he or she goes through training before beginning. The translators are informed about their responsibilities, what is expected from them, their deadlines, and essential information about our ministry.

Most translators get 100 to 150 letters per week. Translators who have had good performance and whose weekly grade is 98 percent or above are rewarded with more letters. A seven-day period of time is given to the translators to complete the translations.

Translators are also asked to look for potential stories as they read and translate the letters.

“We ask them to detect potential stories through the letters as we want to share with others what this ministry is doing in Honduras,” says Jackie.

Ruth has been translating for Compassion for three years now and is currently employed by USAID in Honduras. She translates approximately 200 letters per week.

“I do really enjoy translating as this activity keeps my mind busy. It is great to hear from the children in the development centers, their interests, goals, hobbies and about their communities.

“I know that this ministry works with children and churches and that it is a Christ-centered organization. What I like the most about my participation in this process is that my work is important to facilitate the communication between the sponsor and the child, and that is why I feel committed to do my best in what I’m doing right now.”

The correspondence team is aware of the power and importance of each letter. The work never stops as the children continue writing to their sponsors and the letters from abroad keep coming down to the Honduras office.

The simple act of writing is easy, but many sponsors get caught up with the busyness in their lives and neglect this area that gives so much hope to every boy and girl in our program.

Children simply become overjoyed as they get letters and photos; these let them feel that they are special and loved, and that is why the Honduras office applies themselves with excellence to connecting lives through letters.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The relationship between a child and his or her sponsor is a special part of our sponsorship program. As soon as a child in Guatemala is chosen to be sponsored, the notification process begins.

The Global Partner country where the sponsor is from, such as Canada or France or Australia, sends information about the sponsor to our Global Ministry Center in Colorado. There, all the new sponsorships are posted in the Correspondence Tracking Application (CTA), an application that keeps track of all the letters going back and forth around the world.

Once the information is in the CTA, Ericka Samayoa, a Sponsor and Donor Services Associate in Guatemala’s country office, is in charge of the weekly updates of the new sponsors posted for Guatemalan children. She creates a list of which child development centers have new sponsorship assignments.

An associate then e-mails the centers where children have received sponsors. Most of the centers have Internet access, but those who don’t are contacted by telephone. The associate tells the correspondence coordinator at the center the news, and all the information about the sponsor.

Alexandra, left, and Vanesa

The correspondence coordinator is the one in charge of delivering the good news to the child.

Sofia is the correspondence coordinator for Niños del Carpintero Student Center. When she gets a notification of a new sponsorship, she prints out the child and sponsor information. Sofia likes to prepare all paperwork she will need at the moment she tells the child about his or her new sponsor.

Today, she gets to notify two girls that they have sponsors. Before she calls them to her office, she prints the information and gets two different letter formats for the girls to write their first letter to their sponsors.

Once everything is ready, Sofia goes to the child’s classroom and asks the teacher permission to excuse the child for a moment.

Alexandra, who is frequently called Ann, and Vanesa get to go to her office today. Sofia proceeds to tell 5-year-old Vanesa more information about her sponsor, Juliette, from France. Vanesa repeats her sponsor’s name a couple of times so she can learn it. She even pronounces it in Spanish “Julieta” (hoo-lee-ET-uh).

Sofia tells Alexandra, a 16-year old, that her sponsor, Leonhard, lives in Australia. Alexandra has been sponsored twice before.

Before the girls can begin writing their letters, Sofia writes their sponsors’ names to ensure they are spelled correctly along with their codes. There are two different letter formats. One of them is for younger children who cannot yet read or write and the other for older children who read and write by themselves.

Alexandra gets to write her letter by herself. She shares about her family, best friend, and some of her favorite things like food, drink, Bible story, songs, games. There is also a designated area where she is able to write a personal message for her sponsor.

Vanesa, on the other hand, needs the help of Sofia to write her letter. Sofia sits beside Vanesa to transcribe her answers on the letter. Vanesa shares about her family, things she likes, and prayer requests. There is a section where she is able to draw and color a picture for her sponsor.

Vanesa also gets to stamp her fingerprint on her letter. Sofia takes a picture of Vanesa to include in the letter. If the child is very young, the correspondence coordinator asks the mother or caregiver to join in the process. She provides the information needed to fill the letter out.

“The letter format for younger kids is more interactive: they even draw their eyes and color them according to their eyes color. It is more kid friendly,” says Sofia while she waits for Vanesa to color the picture of her eyes.

When the letters are ready, Sofia includes a cover page with the number and types of letters included in the package. This package is then sent to the Guatemala country office. This process needs to happen within eight days of telling the children about their sponsors.

Once the letters reach the office, the Sponsors Donor Service Associate prints a bar code for each letter and scans it into the Correspondence Tracking Application.

The letters are reviewed to ensure quality and names and numbers are verified. The letter is also checked to verify the participation of the child.

After its review, it is sent for translation. After two weeks the translated letters are sent to the Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs, where they are then mailed to the Global Partner countries.

The first letters are a cornerstone to building the new relationship between sponsor and sponsored child. These letters make the sponsorship commitment more personal, and now Vanesa and Alexandra will be waiting to hear back from their sponsors.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

A letter from a sponsor is one of the most desired things a sponsored child can receive. Letters from sponsors can do more than money because they build relationship between child and sponsor. These are not just pieces of paper; these letters are filled with love, affection, emotion and inspiration for the children.

In Bangladesh, Compassion centers do not celebrate any particular day of the month as “Letter Day,” as some other countries do. But every month children reply to their sponsor’s letters after receiving letters from the Bangladesh Compassion office. Children of Sath Nong Khasiapungi Child Development Center are always looking forward to the day when their center staff members bring the big envelope full of sponsor letters.

The head of the center, Mr. Pius, explains, “We are several miles away from the small town where the letters are received. Every month we receive sponsors’ letters at least twice. Children are very eager about these letters; they always ask us about them. Here we don’t have a mailman who can bring the letters to the center.

“We are required to collect these letters from the courier office. We use ‘three wheelers’ (small three-wheel taxi/auto rickshaw that runs by motor). It takes more than two hours to reach the town and come back. Children are always very excited and happy to see the big brown envelope in our hands.”

The caregivers, social workers and other center staff help the children read the letters and write back to their sponsors.

Bangladesh is a country where different tribal groups have their own languages. Bengali is the only language that is widely used. English is not spoken or understood by most people. So a group of young students at the Compassion country office translate the sponsor letters before they are sent to the centers.

Then the Sponsor Donor Service staff distribute the translated letters to the various ICPs (Implementing Church Partners). Children at the center receive the original letter with a translation in their local language at the bottom.

Rita, a caregiver at Sath Nong Khasiapungi, says, “Most of the time we receive letters in the afternoon. So we distribute the letters to children the next day. We call each child and help them to read the letter. We explain to them if they are unable to understand anything. After reading the letters we arrange a letter-writing session. The children sit together inside our church and write to their sponsors.”

Lishtina’s sponsors Lindsay and Steve are from the United States. They are very responsive. They reply to her every letter. This year Lishtina wrote six letters and received five from her sponsors.

“I received a birthday gift from my sponsors, but I love to receive letters and photos from my sponsors more than gifts. These letters are full of greetings, encouraging words and Bible verses. They also send a beautiful family photo with Christmas greetings. These letters are precious to me. I showed this photo to my friends.”

For boys, to receive a letter from their sponsors is equally important. Robin loves to get notes from his sponsors. He shares with his parents every time he receives a letter from his friends. Whenever he gets any cards or pictures he becomes very delighted.

It has been five years since Compassion started to work through the local church at this community. The staff in this center are experienced and understand the importance of children’s letters for their sponsors. Letter writing is considered as essential as any other regular activities in the Compassion center. Generally the children reply to their sponsors’ letters the day after the center receives them from the country office.

The letter-writing process is very organized and systematic here. Children read their letters from sponsors and then they sit together inside the church and write their replies. They sit on long benches and place their writing papers on narrow tables.

Compassion Bangladesh provides a special letter form for the children to write to their sponsors. These letter forms are colorful, and children can write and draw on them. There is also a small space for translation (from Bengali to English). The children who are in higher grades write their letters on their own; the staff help the younger children to write their letters.

Usually the information and language of the children’s letters are different for different age groups.

Synod is the eldest registered child of Sath Nong Khasiapungi. She is now 14 and studying in grade 8. She feels the significance of her sponsor’s messages.

“Every time when I receive a letter from Sylvia I get so excited. She is like my family member. I can feel her emotion, love and care for me. It is something very special for me. She encourages me to keep up my good results at school. Her inspiration helps me to improve myself. I always wait for her letter.”

Writing letters to their friends is an event of joy for the Compassion children. They love to write about their emotions, favorites, families, study, Compassion life and prayer requests. They also know that the drawings they made on the letters are appreciated by their friends abroad. These drawings are very special because they carry the emotion of the child for the sponsor. The alphabets may not be familiar to sponsors, but drawing is a common language for all.

A short message from the sponsor could play a vital role in the life of a child. The letter is not only a piece of paper, but it is a tool that builds a friendship between a child and a sponsor. It can develop a heavenly bond of love. This small piece of paper can bring huge inspiration, hope and change in the life of a child.

All of us at Compassion Bangladesh really appreciate the effort of our sponsors for not only supporting the children, but also for strengthening the bond of love by writing to them.

January 14 (this Friday) is our monthly letter-writing day! We encourage you to put some time aside to let your sponsored child know you are thinking of them!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

In this video, I interview Ouma Willy, a former Leadership Development Program student who currently studies at Moody Bible Institute, about his experience as a recipient of letters from sponsors. His testimony will no doubt encourage you to keep writing to your sponsored children!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1: 8-9, NIV).

I just realized that I have often skipped over the other part: John says that God is also just to purify us from unrighteousness.

Have you ever watched purification in progress? Think about a precious metal like gold. Gold is purified in only one way: with fire. And we’re not talking an outward brush with the flames.

Purification comes from being plunged into the heart of the fire — the place where fire is harshest and turns blue — and being kept there until that which is being purified loses any resemblance to what it once was.

Having been purified, the gold can be molded according to the will of the goldsmith. It only loses contact with the fire when its final shape has been formed.

When we, as believers, confess our sin, God not only promises to be faithful (which He always is) and to forgive us (which He always does); He promises to engage us in the painful process of purification in order to cleanse us from the sin that is tearing us apart.

In my role as a child advocate, I have sometimes encountered people who say they will get involved with Compassion or get involved in caring for the poor when they find “a program that actually works.”

What they usually mean is that they will get involved when they find a program that is perfect.

The problem is that there is no such program. People are messy. If you are going to minister with and to people, or let others minister to you, you are going to get dirty, dazed and confused.

Compassion is an awesome ministry. It is committed to integrity, and to be church-based, child-focused and Christ-centered. I have seen it uphold each of these standards and am proud to advocate for the work they do.

But sometimes things happen. I met a couple at an event who had been writing to their sponsored child regularly for three years. Their sponsored child, a young girl in Central America, wrote them three times a year but never responded to any of their questions. They were questioning whether the girl ever got their letters, and consequently, they were questioning the authenticity of Compassion.

I explained to them how some child development centers engage in reciprocal letter-writing, helping their kids respond to letters from their sponsors as soon as they are received. Some centers make a very conscious effort to ensure that kids answer all the questions in the letters they receive, and some children take the initiative to write and respond to letters all by themselves.

But sometimes, none of these things happen.

Some of the older centers are working toward reciprocal letter-writing but aren’t there yet; some kids have never written a letter in their life and simply don’t know how; other kids can’t sit still long enough to write a response, even though they might be overjoyed at receiving your communication. Occasionally, that relationship between sponsor and child takes a really long time to build.

Can I just encourage you to not lose heart when you encounter someone who is looking for a “perfect program”? And if you are that person who has experienced frustrations in your sponsorship, please don’t give up.

As someone who has been a child sponsor for more than a decade and has traveled to four Compassion countries to meet children whom I sponsor, I am here to tell you something really important: This ministry of releasing children from poverty is working, and it is also imperfect.

Frankly, it is always going to be imperfect. If you haven’t yet had a reason for a measure of frustration, you probably will at some point.

This work is imperfect because it involves people. Compassion is not program-focused (though program models are used) – it’s intensely, insanely, beautifully child-focused. And sometimes, all of the questions in your letters don’t get answered. Sometimes a child drops out of the program and you don’t get an explanation. Sometimes, you feel frustrated because you want something to work better.

But though imperfect, Compassion presses on, fully committed to its core values in order to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name and fully committed to changing and improving its work in the same way that God models for us in I John 1:9: through faithfulness, forgiveness and purification.

It is good and right of us to expect excellence, but there will still be times when we feel frustrated.

I, for one, am thankful that being committed to opening our hearts and lives to God’s purification process is so much better than a pursuit of perfection. I am thankful that we get to be a part of releasing children from poverty, even at those moments when it gets frustrating.

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