In 2010, through our partnership with Dayspring, we delivered hundreds of Christmas cards to unsponsored children in Ecuador. Your participation made the campaign a success and brought joy to countless children that Christmas. But the story didn’t end once the cards were delivered.
Recently, DaySpring touched the hearts of women around the world through an online conference called (in)RL – short for “in real life.” It was an event that connected thousands of women through a day of worldwide meetups and webcasts on the topic of community.
One of the stories Dayspring shared was about, well…you. You and your desire to bless children in Ecuador. You, who understand the encouragement words in a card bring to children living in poverty. Take a look…
You can also view the A Social Media Love {Thy Neighbor} Story: Compassion Card Drive video on YouTube.
And there is more to this story.
One of the volunteers at our Global Ministry Center, Angela Dodge, led a group of women in Colorado Springs to write 160 cards. Here is her story.
At the start of a new Beth Moore study, James: Mercy Triumphs, the bible study coordinator at my church challenged the group leaders to come up with a service project for their small groups to participate in. The challenge was to be in line with the theme of the book of James—helping widows and orphans and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
As a small group leader, I prayed with my co-leader about what this would look like for a group of overwhelmingly busy moms who were already stretching their schedules by committing to the study. I knew it would be too much to them to give up more family time or for an additional project.
After more prayer, I presented two ideas to our group—supporting Compassion’s new clean water system, Water of Life, and writing cards to children who wouldn’t otherwise receive a personal card of love and encouragement at Christmas.
My group embraced both ideas with excitement and anticipation. Not only were these service opportunities amazing ways to reach children, widows, and families in need, but they were two very EASY ways for busy moms to serve!
![Group of women posing for a picture outdoors.](http://blog.compassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Angela-Dodge_group.jpg)
This inspired and determined group of women threw themselves into the letter writing, enlisting their children in the process by having them draw pictures and including stickers and bookmarks in each card. Each woman also prayed with their families about the water filter systems.
At the end of the seven week project, this small group of women had raised enough money to purchase 27 filters and had written 160 Christmas cards.
There are probably hundreds of women’s groups that meet each fall, spring, and summer for bible studies, and with a little extra time and effort, they could translate their faith into action in a similar way.
“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:17 (NIV)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Angela Dodge is a Compassion sponsor. She volunteers for the ministry by leading tours of the Global Ministry Center.
*Video courtesy of (in)courage.
The (in)RL DVD and Study Booklet Set include many more stories like these of women who have stepped out of their comfort zones to connect with their global neighbors.
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I am thinking the same thing Lizzie…did they all get a card. I just sent a letter to my Julieta in Colombia today. I am down top one child due to finances. I think I will be calling and asking about the correspondence program.
Great video. I LOVED the Dayspring/Compassion card drive. It got us really looking at Ecuador and that’s how we started sponsoring our little guy in Ecuador.
Do another one!!! 🙂
How many cards did you get for the unsponsored kids? Did every child get a card?
I love this post! The video was awesome. Thank you 🙂
Hi Lizzie and Garry — There were over 400 cards delivered to unsponsored children in Ecuador. Not every unsponsored child in Ecuador received a card though. We gave cards to all of the unsponsored children in the specific child development centers we visited on this trip. And, there were some extra cards delivered to unsponsored children in other development centers we didn’t visit. I’m so glad you liked the video. I really thought it was great too! 🙂
So that video was amazing….
Spurs me to action and to tears.
As a woman who pours herself out in words…As a woman who meets Jesus in the jots and scribbles – this moves me. I write my sponsered child – but perhaps I could lend my love of writing to Compassion in more ways than one 🙂
I needed this post today. Thank you.
Love and Blessings,
Kate
I thought so too Katie! Glad you liked it. 🙂
Hey and if you want to write for the Compassion blog take a look at this post: https://blog.compassion.com/guest-blog-post. It’ll give you an idea of what we are looking for.