At some point, everyone feels like God has left them. Yunita, one of the youngest translators for Compassion Indonesia, felt as though she had been abandoned by God until she read the words of a sponsor.
Yunita had grown up filled with passion for God. She entered the university in 2001, became involved in a campus ministry, and was entrusted to become the leader of the organization in 2006.
Yunita has a heart for children, and with six of her friends she established a group to help children from a landfill in Sumampow, Manado — children who don’t have the opportunity to go to school. She and her friends go to the landfill every Friday and Saturday to teach the children.
God’s love for her kept flowing. She had taken English literacy as her major, which gave her the opportunity to translate child letters for Compassion East Indonesia. Even though she was a student and didn’t have much time every day, she volunteered to translate 100 letters a week, which she’s been doing since 2006.
God had entrusted Yunita with many things and she felt alive. Though she came from a broken home, she began to believe that she could do anything. But all the success caused her to become arrogant. She thought that she would be able to do anything by her own effort.
When Yunita started to work on her thesis, things changed. Her university lecturer told her that she couldn’t finish her thesis.
“He was always angry with me every time he read my thesis. He told me that I couldn’t write a thesis. I shouldn’t be a university student because I couldn’t understand anything. I was in anguish.”
Yunita felt like God had abandoned her. She felt disappointed and that she couldn’t trust Him. Yunita felt that she didn’t have strength to write.
“I felt empty at that time. I was very embarrassed with myself. I thought that as a Christian leader I could do whatever I wanted to do. Arrogance had gnawed my heart.”
Embarrassed about her situation, Yunita began to lie to her uncle who had paid for her university. She told her uncle that her thesis was in progress.
Until one day God spoke to her.
It was when Yunita was translating a sponsor letter. Although she had read similar words before, Yunita was shocked by what she read in the letter. It was like her eyes were opened.
“God loves you. You are precious. You are special.”
The sentence that sponsors always write for their sponsored children suddenly shocked Yunita.
“I then realized that He never left me even for a second. He saw me as his precious one … I felt encouraged and got new strength.”
With a broken heart, Yunita prayed and gave thanks for God’s blessing in her life. After she surrendered to God, Yunita got the wisdom she had been looking for all this time. After eight years struggling in the university, Yunita finished her degree.
Another responsibility was then given to Yunita. She began to teach children in preschool, which is based in international literacy.
“I’m very happy because He still gives me an opportunity to prepare the next generation.”
Yunita’s days are still filled with passion for God. She gives everything for children as she continues to volunteer translating sponsor letters, helping children in the landfill, and teaching preschool. She realized that the ministry entrusted to her is God’s own.
“God is the one who put His picture on me. I’m just His tool. Now I just rely on Him and obey what He wants from me,” says Yunita.
Yunita is just one of the many translators who sacrifice their time and talents to be advocates for children. Their devotion to children has affected many children across East Indonesia.
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There is power in the letters of the sponsored children, too…I finally have someone that I KNOW I’m making a difference in! Powerful!
I am one of the many translators and It´s amazing how God works throught the words..by translating personally I get the strenght I need..I feel like God is speaking to me when I feel empty..it makes me to understand his porpouses in my life! there are so many things that I learn in the letters! they make me laught, they make me cry sometimes and make me think about how lucky we are being His children..
It is a real blessing translate these letters..
We also thank you for taking the time and effort for doing the translations. I would never be able to communicate my child without the wonderful translators giving of their time to do this. We often forget to pray for those that handle the letters along the way and this blog reminded us of the great work the translators do.
your story is beautiful. i am glad that you are letting God use you to help children.
I am glad to Sponsor Dini. Her letters are a real encouragement
to me.and I get to tell her how much she is loved.I realy enjoy it
Does anyone know how to volunteer to be a translator?
I was thinking of this just yesterday when I was thinking about all the things I want to write to my sponsored child and all the adivce and encouragement I could give him and how it must be one of the best jobs in the world to translate all these wonderful letters that are being sent to these wonderful kids. It would be hard to think ill of the World when everyday you see how much good there is and how people do love other people. It’s amazing and inspiring. God Bless all the translators!
I never thought about the possible impact of my letters on the translators. God, Your love just keeps going on and on and on and never stops, no matter what! Thank You! I will be adding a prayer for the translator of my letter before sending it from now on.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story. God works through all of us in mysterious ways and He is there to love and encourage our dreams and goals. Letter s are so important to our sponsored children and we now know that they reach much further than that! Blessings!!
Thank you so very much for sponsoring our children. May the good Lord richly bless you! Amen
and we thank all the ministers and teachers who work with our children everyday through the good and bad that growing children deal with. We pray for you daily.
I’ll testify that these precious children cherish these letters. I was recently told about a young girl who ran back into her flooding house just to grab her sponsors letters. They long to hear our voice through these letters. They long to hear Jesus’ voice through our letters. Please, don’t miss an opportunity to write you child on a monthly basis. I’ve seen their smiles in person when they showed me their special cubbyhole that’s packed with sponsor letters. Act now!
I’ve been arrogant at times as well. No worries, God shows us his will. Keep fighting the good fight, God’s Love,
Dwayne
Thanks for your story, it inspire me more to work with full passion as Case Worker. Keep soaring…woman of God
Yunita,
Never give up on your DREAMS! 😉
Si Tou Timou Tumou Tou…keep up the great work!
I Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for YOU!”
The last letter we received from our little gal in Guatemala had a special note from the translator telling us when the school year began and ended in the country. It helped me so much to understand the the entire contents of the letter. It was so sweet and thoughtful for him/her to add an explanation for us on the bottom. However, even with that, I never considered adding a note for them in my letters! I will be sure to do so in the future. Without them, how in the world would this ministry have the component of “relationship” with these children? Thanks for the reminder.
Let’s always remember those letters pass through many hands before they reach our sponsored children. Why not add a note at the bottom of your next one to say ‘thank you and God bless you for translating this letter’.
I have so much appreciation for the translators and wish I could also commnicate with him or her ! But if they get so much out of our letters to our sponsered children , I will fill my letters with even more hope !
Amazing story, thanks for sharing. I had a correspondence child that I wrote to for about 8 months and never heard from. I wrote consistently, knowing there was a reason, even if I didn’t know why, and I hadn’t heard from him. I later learned his was attending a university and finished his time at Compassion. I don’t know if he received those letters, but if not for him, they were to show God’s love to someone. 🙂 Thanks for sharing
What a beautiful story. Just goes to show that we never know what our amazing God will do with what we place into his hands. Do great things for God – EXPECT great things from God!
I understood that our letters can be a blessing to the children and maybe even to their families. But until this blog, I had never considered the fact that our letters could be a blessing to the translator! Wow, God, you are sooooo good! You really know how to spread a blessing out to it’s maxium benefit! I love you!
Wow…what a great story. We assume that our letters will impact our kids, but to think that they might also impact the translator is awesome.
Thanks for this – it opened my eyes to another wonderful person who connects me to my sponsored kids!
I try to write to my kids every month, even just to send them a short note to tell them that I love them and am praying for them.
We understand how important our letters are for our children, but here is a prime example of God at work – a letter being used to change the heart of the translator. We serve a truly awesome God! We never know how our small efforts for Him can be multiplied thru Him.