Sweet Greetings from Tanzania

Happy Mail Call Monday, everyone!

This week we only got one letter, but I am kind of hoping that when I get home from my mom's, there will be twenty cream colored envelopes in my mailbox. : )

Our letter this week was from Elisha in Tanzania!

Elisha's letter was very short. It was a form letter about his school holidays, which is a type of form letter I don't think I've seen before! Elisha said that he has school breaks in June and December, and his breaks last for 4-5 weeks. When he has a break, he often goes "to the village" and sees his grandmother. He helps her during those visits, and he lies eating a mixture of maize and beans called "kande." His grandma (or Bibi) is his favorite person to see during those break times,   but he would also like to visit his aunt. I say that Elisha's letter was short because in the open text portion of the letter, he just wrote that he says hi and that he's doing fine and thanks for the letters. He often draws several small pictures on his letters, but he literally just drew a circle and scribbled in part of it with pencil.

The reason I share this with you is to say that I totally understand that it's easy to become frustrated with our kids when they don't write as much as we like. I have seen some people who appear to be downright angry. They're irritated because they write thoughtful letters to the kids, and it can be disappointing to get a "lame" letter in response. But if you feel you're starting to have ugly thoughts and feelings because of these kinds of letters, it's good to take a breather and remember two things. The first is that we should never do something nice or helpful for others with any kinds of expectations. If you are going into something good while focusing on how it will benefit you, then it might be time to look for another way to help people. And this doesn't just apply to sponsorship, but in this case, your goal as a sponsor (or correspondent) should be to make the world a better place by helping a child break the cycle of poverty, and to encourage them and show them love. Some of the kids will write great letters in return, and some of them will write frequently and share a lot of their lives with you. If they do, that's a bonus. But you shouldn't go into sponsorship with expectations of a "pen pal" type relationship, because that's not really what the program is about. It's just a really awesome bonus!

The second thing to remember is this: they're kids. Children. Tiny people. They're not necessarily thinking "hmm, let me gather my recent correspondence and send a prompt and warm reply to each letter." They are thinking "I have lots of homework" and "what will we eat this week" and "the sun is shining and I want to play!" I might be a little disappointed in Elisha's letter (and drawing) if I hadn't had the opportunity to meet him earlier this year. The child is a wild man. He was so, so quiet when he first arrived, in part because he'd been in a car for hours and was hungry and it was tea time. But as soon as we finished our tea and walked outside, he was a nonstop tornado. Just insane. I can't even describe to you how much energy this kid has. He can't stop moving. You could ask him to design his dream playground, and you could build it for him, and he would play on it for a few minutes and move on to something else. There is a world to be conquered out there. The child can't walk, he only runs. So I see Elisha's letter, and his drawing of a quickly scribbled circle, and I don't think "ugh, I'm mad at Elisha for not trying harder," I am thinking "goodness, something fun must have been going on at the project that day! Maybe someone found a soccer ball, or they were having relay races." They're kids. Most kids, when presented with the options of playing or sitting in a classroom and writing letters, will probably approach the playtime with more enthusiasm. And I'm happy about that. These kids lead challenging lives that we will never fully understand. I want them to be able to play and have fun and be kids, and not have to worry about grown up things (and I don't want the grown ups in their lives to worry, either.)

So if you find yourself frustrated with short or impersonal letters from your kids, remember- they're kids. Maybe they are more like Elisha and express themselves by running around like a maniac. : ) Just keep writing, and show that your love isn't conditional. You'll still love them and pray for them and write to them even if they don't have as much to say when they write back!

Inspire

Several of my Compassion blogger friends have been posting recently about how they got started in sponsorship, so I thought I would join in the fun and share my story, too. : )

Most of us who have owned a television in our lives have seen commercials about child sponsorship. They would show lots of sad children and then a nice man with a beard (or Sally Struthers) and announce that "for pennies a day" you could help these kids. I know that I had told my parents and grandparents before that we should call (I had pennies! And days!), but then they would explain to me that "that costs money" and I'd know that we would not be calling. Money was tight growing up. And anyone can make a sad commercial out of just about anything- at the time, we didn't really know how to verify which organizations were legitimate and whatnot, even if we did have the money.

Sometime around 2008, my mom, who was an avid blog reader and writer at the time, read a post on someone's popular website that stirred her to action. Or participation. You see, this blogger liked Compassion, and had shared a bit about sponsorship with her legion of readers. This blogger also had the financial resources to sponsor many kids, thanks to her family's business and the popularity of her blog. So she basically said "if you will commit to writing to one of these kids, I will sponsor one for you. Leave a comment and we will get in touch." And my mom decided to leave a comment.

My family's journey with Compassion began in the form of a correspondence sponsorship (though we didn't really know it went by that name) that came about because of a blog post. And a few weeks later, my mom found out that her new sponsor daughter was a young woman named Shema Elisabeth, who lived in Rwanda. I was very excited about this, because it was at this time that I had just watched the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and was devouring any information I could about this country. I knew that because of her age, Shema Elisabeth probably knew some people who had died in the massacre that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. I was glad that she joined our family and was proud that my mom was going to write to her and be her friend. I even wrote some notes for her from time to time!

My mom continued writing to Shema Elisabeth, and added a financially sponsored child from India- beautiful, sweet Amisha. Over the years her own far-away family has grown and shrunk from time to time- Shema Elisabeth left the program several years ago, but she has picked up several financial sponsorships and added multiple correspondence kids over the past few months (and I'm very proud of that!) Right now she's up to 12 kids- and I think at least five of those have joined the family since Easter!

My mom's love for her kids and her sharing their letters with me made me very interested in sponsoring a child of my own. At the time, I was unaware that you could just call Compassion and request to be a correspondence sponsor, even if you were not a financial sponsor. Right after I got married, I was caught in this weird limbo- being completely freaked out by marriage and being an adult all of a sudden (I didn't live on my own in college, so this was the first time I had lived with anyone other than my parents and brother- and it was an ADJUSTMENT. Emphasis completely necessary.) and being completely smitten with wedded bliss (ha) and the idea of being a happy little family with kids. We knew that there was no way we could afford to be parents right away (once upon a time we had this plan to start trying to have a family after being married for six months. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.) But we were very committed to tithing and maintaining regular charitable contributions- prior to getting married I set aside a portion of my paycheck each month to buy baby things for the crisis pregnancy center in town, and liked to look for other projects (such as "back to school" drives) as well. My mom kept telling me about the letters her kids were sending, and I kept wanting to be a mom, and we kept wanting to faithfully "give back" some of what we were receiving. A commitment to sponsor a child seemed like a good way to hold us accountable for our spending, when our financial situation was so rocky and unpredictable there in the beginning. So just over six months into our marriage, and after several weeks of asking my husband if we could, I finally was able to sit down and register to sponsor a child. I had been browsing the website off and on for weeks, but when I got the green light, I parked myself in front of the computer and just started from the top. I limited my search to "girls" and organized them by "longest waiting", and got to reading. There were over 900 girls available for sponsorship. I read through the first 9 or so pages of them. I read each and every biography, girls of all ages, many of whom lived in countries completely unknown to me. I read about their families and situations, their neighborhoods, their challenges, their favorite things. And then I came across a sweet but solemn little girl, wearing a yellow shirt, hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her name was Tasya, which sounded Eastern European to me, but her biography said she lived in Indonesia. Wherever that was. And her biography said she liked reading. Reading! My favorite thing! None of the other kids' profiles said they liked reading. She liked other things too, of course, but once I saw that, I knew she was the one. So I clicked the link to sponsor her, and got the neat little confirmation email....and went straight to facebook, to change my status to "just submitted my information to sponsor a child through Compassion International!" (July 24, 2010, and I hope you know the tremendous effort it took to find that post in the billion things on my timeline.) Some things never change. : )

Over the past four years our far-away family has grown by leaps and bounds. We hit the "limit" of three correspondence kids in 2011 after sponsoring Tasya for about a year (all three were added that summer), added our "bonus" child Jayid when the need for correspondents was great that fall, picked up his sponsorship when he was dropped, and when the restrictions were lifted on the number of kids we could have, added a few more....and a few more....and a few more. When I left for Tanzania in March, I had 15 kids, and was happy to explain to my fellow travelers that no, I definitely did not have that much money, and told them about the correspondence program. Fifteen kids in March, and as of today, we are up to 24. Some of them call me Mama, some call me godmother, some call us "mommy and Father Brandon", some call me sponsor Jessi and a few just "Jessi Jones." No matter what they call me, they are the children of my heart, the sons and daughters I may never meet in this lifetime, but they will have my heart until my dying day. I love each and every one of my kids so much, and am eager to share my love for them with just about everyone I meet! I know that my posts about my kids' letters have nudged at least 10 other people to reach out and become sponsors or correspondents, and that makes me happy. I don't look at that as a personal accomplishment (that claim belongs to God and God alone)- I look at that as 10 fewer kids in the world who need that kind of love and encouragement. And so many more friends who would do a great job with that! I don't see it as something for which I am proud of myself - I am proud of my friends, and happy for their kiddos. And I'm thankful that me and my kids got to play a small part in that.

The moral of the story is: if there is something (or someone) you love, and are passionate about, something that makes your world a little brighter and someone else a little happier, share it. Tell people. Don't be ashamed. Don't think "no one wants to hear about that" or "no one cares what I like." You never know who is watching. You never know who will see your joy and think "I think I could get in on that." Never stop sharing what you love. You never know when you might inspire someone else to make a move!

And this is what happens when I try to find appropriate clip art for a post while in the vicinity of my husband.

Not quite Ebola, but still.

Hello people. Sorry my "happy days" post is running a bit late. I had intentions of catching up with that today, and it didn't work out, and then I ended up leaving my "good things" notebook at my parents' house, so I can't finish it tonight, either!

I'm here this evening to ask for prayer. I had been thinking about doing a post over the past day or two to do this, but didn't get around to it. That's probably a good thing. I might have sounded selfish and ugly at the time. I definitely would still like to have your prayers- for direction and peace and discernment and maybe a miracle or two ("longshot" job opportunity turned into an interview and an observation day, I fell in love with the prospect- being a teaching assistant at a preschool that serves children on the autism spectrum- and didn't make the cut, unfortunately. I'm not angry and totally understand- my experience with special needs kids is limited almost exclusively to older children and teenagers, so if someone with more experience with the littles came along, it definitely makes sense that the job would be offered to them. I'm just sad because I felt really happy and fulfilled during my time there, and was looking forward to taking my life in a new direction.)

But I digress. There is a more urgent prayer need than my restlessness and dissatisfaction and hurt feelings. My mom is pretty sick. And I would like to ask you to pray for her.

She missed work on Friday because her face hurt- she suspected a sinus infection. She was frustrated with herself because there was much to do at work, preparing for an event that would take place on Saturday. But I did talk to her that morning and she sounded pretty icky. She missed work again on Saturday because she was still sick. And I was frustrated with her because I was going to come see her at work and have lunch with her. I didn't talk to her much yesterday. I went back to bed after I found out that she was staying home again, and I stayed in bed until my husband came home. My depression issues are acting up again- I just laid there and thought. And alternated between feeling sad and angry and disappointed and frustrated about so many things that are going on right now. I feel bad because I should have checked on my mom sooner, but I didn't want to talk to her because of this frustration (and really, such a tiny percentage of it was directed toward her. I just didn't want to talk to anyone.) I finally said something later that night because I was having a really down moment and wanted someone to pay attention to me.  And she just said that she felt bad again. Finally she said that her face was so swollen that she couldn't see out of one eye. That's not normal. That doesn't happen with a sinus infection. My mom has some other health issues, too (doesn't everyone in my family?) and she gets hives and things a lot, so I thought maybe this was one of those times where she was just having a weird body thing happening because she didn't feel well, and I told her she might need to go to the hospital, since having your face balloon up is not normal. She said she was home alone (well, my brother was there, but he is asleep a lot and he can't drive.) My dad was at a play with my cousin and my aunt. So I said "well they will come get you, you know, or I could take you." And asked her if she wanted me to. She said no. Who wants to go to the emergency room? It's expensive and a pain  in the butt. I decided to text my dad and tell him what was going on, and told him that he might need to take her to the hospital even though she said she didn't want to go, and he said they were leaving the theater and he would let me know if they were going to go. And then I went to bed.

They ended up going to the hospital this morning, a little after 4. Mom made the decision that it was time to go when  the swelling started spreading upward around her eye, running along her nose and up under her eyebrow. She texted me but I didn't hear it. And then my dad texted me two hours later to tell me they were going to run some tests. I don't remember responding to this text, though, but I did. I must have seen it when I got up to go to the bathroom, and written "ok keep me posted" before falling back to sleep. If I had heard the first text I would have been awake and freaking out when the second one arrived. Or I would have been over there. I'm so frustrated with myself for not hearing it. And being so tired that I don't even remember the second one coming through. All I know for sure is that when I got up this morning and finally stopped hitting snooze on my alarm, I saw these texts and immediately started crying.

My mom apparently has a staph infection in her face. And it might be MRSA. Which is a scary thing to say. She said she heard the doctors and nurses throwing the acronym  around outside her little cubicle thing, but when they finally came and talked to her, they just said "you have a staph infection." And MRSA is a kind of staph infection, so if she has it, technically they wouldn't be liars. The people working the ER this morning were apparently pretty terrible, and based on the other things I have since learned (like not disposing of bloody rags in the biohazard bin, or not telling her and my dad how to prevent the spread of infection to the rest of the family, or not giving her a prescription for  the pain) I would not be surprised if they flubbed the delivery of her diagnosis. She got to go home with a prescription for strong antibiotics and orders to see her regular doctor within the next few days. I don't want to sound alarmist, but if she doesn't make enough progress in her recovery within that time, she may have to be hospitalized and treated with more aggressive antibiotics through an IV. That's how MRSA operates. If it's MRSA.

My poor mom is in a lot of pain. I spent the day with her today and will be back to take care of her tomorrow, too (I'm so glad that my schedule is weird this week and I'm off on Monday!) She hurts so badly. Her face is still pretty swollen- it looked really bad when I first saw her this morning, and then it got some better, and when I left the swelling had gone up a bit again. Seeing her makes me really scared, and I have to remind myself that if things were really that scary, they wouldn't have let her come home from the hospital. But I am really worried. And I feel bad that she feels bad. I hate it when my mom cries. Especially when I can't really do anything about it. She really can't do anything but take her medicine and keep putting heating pads and warm washcloths on her face. It's so sad. So I would like to ask you to pray for my mom, that what she has isn't the big scary version that doesn't take too kindly to treatment. And that she feels better very soon. Like tonight, preferably.

Outgoing Mail: July

I have some pretty neat stuff (in my opinion) going out in the mail this week, so I thought it would be a good time for another Outgoing Mail post!

I have recently changed up the way that I am writing to my kids. I don't think that there's one perfect method that will work for every sponsor, but since I have made these changes, I feel like they're working pretty well for me and mean that my mailings go out in a more timely manner- and I'm saving some money, too. Before, I would write to all the kids about every two weeks online, plus doing response letters as soon as I received a letter (so I wouldn't forget what it said.) Then about every 4-6 weeks, I would do handwritten letters on a given topic (or sometimes "hand typed and then printed out at work") and throw in presents for everyone. I feel like that method wasn't exactly perfect because I'd end up hanging on to the package too long trying to get all the letters together, and I wasn't super satisfied with the gifts that I was sending to some of the kids, like lots of postcards for the older boys (and then running out of new postcards and turning to my stash of old ones from long ago vacations, and trying to remember what I had already sent to each kid!) It just didn't seem fair to me to send a stack of postcards to some of the kids because of their age and gender (or language barriers) while others were getting notebooks, coloring books, etc. Anyway, to make a long story short, here are the changes I have made:

• Alternating letter-writing days. I usually have free time on Wednesday mornings because of my work schedule. I opened the calendar on my phone, picked the first Wednesday that was coming up, and marked that "Boys' Letters." I set it up to repeat every other week. Then I went to the following Wednesday, marked that "Girls' Letters," and applied the same setting. So the kids are all getting letters every other week for sure, but I'm not doing 24 letters at a time, and I can pick a theme for the week and work off of that. Last week's theme was service because my Bible study group and I did a service project, so I wrote to the girls about that, asked them what ways they can serve others, and even provided examples from really simple things for the littles (helping your parents with chores) or more complicated things for the older girls (helping a classmate with their homework.) 
• Only sending packages for birthdays and special occasions. This allows me to prepare better ahead of time. I loved Hannah's procedure for birthday gifts and sort of adapted that- I have been purchasing lots of folders for the kids, and they will each get a folder filled with goodies for their birthday. Another kind of special occasion would be an introductory gift for a new child, or maybe a gift if they've been sick or had a family tragedy. Or aced their exams! 

This week I needed to mail the folder I have been putting together for Elisha, whose birthday is in September. I also wanted to do something special for Kajal, our newest sponsor child. I have just had a real burden on my heart for her- the Lord has been telling me over and over again that she needs some extra love from us, particularly here in the beginning of our sponsorship journey. I also made cards for the rest of the kids. 

I am an avid collector of cards. I have an entire drawer full of them- I have mentioned before that I am a card person. Birthdays, sympathy, new baby, adoption, wedding, praying for you, friendship, congratulations.....all organized in bags, labeled, and tucked away in this drawer in my room. I have waaaaay too many blank cards, too, which I use for general correspondence (including my sort of pen pal relationship with my cousin Melissa- we mail each other cards but also email frequently, so we have all these conversations going on at once!) I selected a blank card for each child and then wrote a message inside. The message was basically the same for the boys and girls- most of my cards look pretty feminine, so the girls got this message: 

Hello (name)! I thought it would be fun to send you a pretty card! I love sending cards to my family and friends- and you are both to me! I just wanted to remind you that I love you and I am praying for you every day. Today I prayed that you would have a good day at school! 

Lots of love, 

Jessi

For the boys, I sent cards with animals on them- I found some really nice National Geographic notecards at Michael's (the craft store) a few years back and bought a ton of them. Some of the boys got pandas, and some got zebras. I tried to send the pandas to my African boys since I learned while in Tanzania that no one there seems to know what bears are. The inscription on their cards was almost identical to the girls', except I added a note about the animal being called a panda bear, they live in China, and I think they are cute. Same with zebras- they live in Africa, and I saw several on my trip to Tanzania earlier this year. Then at the bottom of all the cards, I wrote the first, more popular bit of Proverbs 17:17: "A friend loves at all times." 

Now onto the gifts! I have been gathering materials for Elisha's folder for a few weeks now. Can I just say that it's a little challenging to find folders for boys? I have seen so many feminine patterns and colors for folders, but a lot of the boy stuff is licensed characters, licensed musical acts, and cars- not generic cars, but very specific kinds with the makes and models written all over the place. It's been challenging. I did find some really neat wildlife folders at Walmart, and picked up a couple for a dollar each. This one is going to Elisha. They also had some with a polar animal theme, and a farm animal theme! 

Inside the folder I placed a birthday card, a picture drawn by me (since I like to draw and the kids are always sending me pictures, I thought it would only be fair if I started returning the favor), a few coloring pages (astronauts, pirate ships, and an ocean scene), a Hot Wheels sticker book, and a few sheets of car stickers. Everything has been labeled with his name and number in case something gets misplaced.

Then we have Kajal. I put together a folder for her as well- princess themed, since I call her our princess. She got all my princess stickers (three big sheets) and a book that I made for her. I had already written her a quick introduction letter, but Kim over at Three Little Larks shared something really neat recently- a booklet her family made for a new sponsor child. I had been toying with the idea of making something like this for our last few new additions to our far away family, but her facebook post and subsequent blog post helped me put it together! My booklet only has a few pages, but if you wanted to make your own, you could make it as long or short as you want!

I started with some pink copy paper and stapled it into a booklet. On the front, I glued and taped Kajal's picture and added her name to the top. I also wrote her full name and number on the back and the side of the front, in small print.

On the first pages, I wrote that I had received a booklet telling me about Kajal, so I thought it would be fun to make her a booklet about myself! I wrote this on a plain index card, trimmed to look better on the page, and included another one for translation. Then I added another sheet of stickers on the second page (princess themed yet again!)

The next pages were about me. I put my picture, along with my name, on one side, and filled out an index card with information about myself on the other. I put my age, birth date, my favorite colors, favorite Bible stories, favorite activities, and the names and ages of my parents and my brother. I repeated the process for my husband on the next two pages.

Then I did two pages about where we live. I printed out a tiny world map, a tiny map of the United States, and then some clip art featuring my state (I think it might have been printed on a t-shirt!) I drew hearts on my country and on Kajal's on the world map, and then went on to explain my country's name, then my state's name. I asked her if she could find my state on the map- the map was labeled, but having the separate shape was nice, too. And the print is really cute! Then I made another index card with a few facts about where I live, like my state is well known for horses and a famous horse race takes place here every year. I told her we have mountains, lakes, and rivers, and a river runs through part of my city. Translation space was included here as well.

At the end of the booklet, I added in a photo of our pet rabbit, Gimli, and on the last page I wrote a note saying that if she wanted to, Kajal could use the blank space to write down the things she learns about us from our letters! The whole thing turned out pretty cute for a first-time try. Especially since I finished it up late at night!

I think I will continue making booklets like these for our new kids as we get them.There are so many fun possibilities for putting them together- you could include postcards, use scrapbook paper, include notes from family members, and many other things! I added some washi tape at the last minute to brighten things up- I found some on clearance at Cracker Barrel, of all places, and was anxious to start using it! And I hope the folders are a hit! 

Compassion Joys: July

These are my favorite thing to post!!

Letters!

We received a total of 13 letters this month! We got two from Carlos and Mishel, two from Brenda, and one each from Victor, Mary, Sandier, Said, Barry, Prayer and Tasya! Barry and Sandier's letters were first letters, and Barry's was totally unexpected- we just got him last month, but a required letter was already on the way from his financial sponsor (who wrote four times in 2011 and then stopped) so they just routed it to me! I also learned that our first letter from Eduardo is finally on the way after having him for six months- as of the end of last week, it hadn't been received in Colorado yet, but it is so good to know that something is on the way! I hope that I learn some specific ways to pray for him because I gathered from his bio that there may be some stressful things going on in his family.

Birthdays!

We celebrated two birthdays in our far-away family this month! Both kids got birthday cards and gifts from us, though they might be a little late since we just got them in May! Julian turned 7 on the 10th, and Anahi turned 6 on the 15th!

New Kids!

We were very blessed to be able to add Kajal in India as a sponsor child this month! I refer to her as my Indian princess. : ) Kajal was just registered in Compassion's program back in November. She had two sponsors within a very short period of time after being registered, but they both dropped her immediately after sponsoring her. For the rest of this year, she has been waiting. The wait is over! And we definitely won't be dropping her, either!

Extra Pictures!

Another sponsor, Katie C., was able to take gifts for Carlos and Mishel when she visited Peru back in May (we did a baggie swap- I was able to take some stuff to Tanzania for her!) When we got letters from Carlos and Mishel this month, extra photos were included! It is neat to see how much Mishel has grown up since her last official photo was taken. And I love seeing Carlos' smile!

New Sponsorships!

Well, sort of. My mom got a new sponsor child this month, too, so I have a new "sister!" Her name is Jaki and she lives in Togo. She is tiny- just 3 years old! I think my mom picked her in part because she  looks like a baby doll! She also got a new correspondence child named Mathumitha who lives in India.

The tenth seven days.

We are up to 70 days now! I am continuing on with my practice of looking for "happy" things in my days, and sharing them here with you! I'm doing pretty well finding five or six happy things per day and writing them in my pretty notebook- it's really good for your mental health! : )

July 20: I am really excited on behalf of my mom! She asked me a while back to try to find someone who might be going to Ecuador anytime in the future. She has a sponsor child there named Jessika (a beautiful teenage girl) and she worries about her a lot lately. Like, getting up in the middle of the night or feeling these intense urges to pray for her and her family. She really wants to send Jessika a package because she can't go see her herself right now. I posted on the advocate boards a few months ago trying to find someone, and after all this time, I got a response today! A very kind lady named Emily is going next spring with Compassion, and even though that's quite a ways off, she said she'd be happy to take something for Jessika! I feel happy for my mom, and for Jessika, too.

July 21: We got a surprise letter from Brenda today! We just heard from her two or three weeks ago, so I wasn't expecting to hear from her again so quickly! All my letters make me happy, but it was neat to get another one from her so soon (and she seemed happier in this one, too!)

July 22: Two things made me really happy today. The first is that my Bible study group got together for a service project this evening. For the past few years, my church as done kind of a free yard sale thing for families in our community who need some extra help. We collect clothes, shoes, housewares (dishes, cooking supplies, linens), large baby and preschool-age toys (like bouncy seats and stuff) and school supplies. Families can register for the event, and come "shop" for whatever they need one weekend in July before school starts again. My friend Dave, who went on the Tanzania trip back in March, said something during the trip that has stuck with me- he pointed out that a lot of times, people want to help but they don't want to be directly involved. Like, his church does similar stuff throughout the year, and people are happy to donate, but when it comes to the relational aspect- assisting on the days when the families are coming to get the items- they struggle to find volunteers. So I came back and shared this with my group, and we decided to help out with this project at my church. Unfortunately, due to the timing of the event, we could't all get together for the weekend project- but tonight we went up to church and worked on unpacking the boxes and getting the stuff sorted out and arranged on the tables for people to come and shop. There was so much stuff, which made me happy! And as a bonus, tonight when I got home Brandon's cousin brought over a window air conditioning unit, which we put upstairs in the room where our pets are. Now I don't have to worry about them getting sick and dying because of the heat- and I can come up here to cool off, too!

July 23: Today was not great. I could only find two happy things about today: I had a short night at work, and a four year old girl told me she thought I was pretty and she liked my "sparkles." I'm glad that some of our little patrons appreciate my affinity for glitter.

July 24: Today was a good day! I had an interview for my aforementioned "longshot" job opportunity, and I think it went really well. I'm excited about it! I also had a nice lunch with my mom and was able to spend the day with her. Plus I got a letter from Victor, and most importantly, it's my buddy Anell's birthday! He is six today! I can't believe he's been home for about a year! I love that little guy so much, and I hope I can see him soon so I can give him his present!

July 25: We got to go see Transformers today- it was the first showing of the day, so it was really cheap. And I love Optimus Prime. I would totally name a child after him. Seriously. I know that the Transformers movies are not examples of cinematic greatness, but seeing one of my fictional heroes on the big screen makes me really happy. The movie was super long and could have used more Optimus, but going out to the movies was definitely a nice treat!

July 26: Today was pretty good! I went to Walgreen's before work to pick up some photos I am sending to Kajal, and I also found a few other treats- like sparkly notebooks that were buy one, get one free. I also got to work with my friend today, and we had a nice lunch from a local barbecue restaurant. It's always yummy! The day at work was long, but I didn't work with anyone who's been acting weird around me lately, so it was definitely a nice change and a pretty good day, considering I spent most of it at work. : )

Sweet Greetings from Kenya and Indonesia

It's Mail Call Monday once again!

This week we heard from both our Kenyan kids, Victor and Mary, and we got a bonus letter from Tasya!

The first letter we received was from Victor.

Victor said that his family is doing well, but unfortunately, his country is "not going well as usual." Victor always has great things to say about his country- even when Kenya is in the news due to something like a terrorist activity (such as the attack on the Nairobi shopping mall last year), he still has a very positive attitude about it and basically says they will catch the bad guys and everything will be ok. I sensed that he is a little more frustrated or anxious this time, as he shared the following: "Here in our country things have not been going well as usual due to some terrorist have entered into our country and they are causing some accidents like boom being placed in the bus station and this has caused life of innocent people being lost. Will you please pray for my country?" It's a subtle difference from his other letters, but it's a difference nonetheless. I hope that my response letter will be an encouragement to him. Victor also wrote regarding my friend Betty who passed away in March. When she died, I wrote to all the kids about her passing- most of them already knew about her, because Betty adored my sponsor kids and was always excited to read their letters. She even asked me to email her a file with their past letters so she could re-read them and pray for them! Victor says that he is praying for Betty's friends and family, that God will protect us so that "her good characters" will remain in our hearts. Victor also said that the gift we sent for his birthday in March was used to buy "revision books" for school, which help him prepare for his exams! Lastly, he said he is praying for me so I can "continue serving and helping people" (Victor has said in the past that he wants to be a sponsor when he is grown up!) and signed his note, as always, "your beloved son!"

As usual, a letter from Mary arrived not too long after Victor's letter! I love that my Kenyan kids write so frequently and they are on a regular writing schedule!

I love hearing from all of my kids, but Mary's letters are often extra-special. I don't know what it is about her- our closeness in age (she will be 19 this year, so not too far from my 26 years!) or the fact that she works just as hard to encourage me as I do for her, but she's just precious. I want to share her letter in its entirety here: 

Dear Jessi Jones, 

I hope that you and your family are fine. My family and I are doing great due to God's grace and mercy. I am glad to have received your letters and knowing there is someone who cares for me as my second sister. I am glad to have you as my sponsor because you are so caring and you are like an angel sent from heaven by God to give me comfort. 

I would like to do catering and music because I love cooking and especially delicious meals and I love Gospel music i.e. "You don't have to worry" and "Don't be afraid." 

Thank you very much for the stickers because they are as beautiful as you are because God made everything wonderfully and I am sorry for losing your friend Betty and may God rest her soul in peace. I will pray for her soul which I know is in heaven and I will also pray for you to regain your strength and know that there is only one great friend who never departs and that is Jesus. I will also pray for her friends for God also make them regain their strengths. Remember that all challenges you pass through are not temptations but are there to regain your faith and make it stronger. 

My April holiday was fantastic. I was taught in the project how to walk in a firm foundation. This is by targeting your goals and having a mission and a vision to achieve them and I traveled to my aunt's place where I met new friends. I would like you to pray for my country, the Kenyan people, the sick, my family and also me. I always pray for your family. 

Yours sincere, 

Mary Mbari

Mary writes in very tiny print so she can send long letters- and honestly, this one was a little shorter than some of her other ones! I like the fact that she shared what she wants to do when she's grown- I had asked the kids a few months ago what they want to be when they grow up, and then wrote a bit about how they can become anything with hard work and God's help- whether they want to be a doctor, an astronaut, a teacher, or the president! I also think it's very sweet that Mary also sent condolences about Betty, and offered up some more words of wisdom. She is right- Jesus is my friend who will never leave, and that's something good to remember even if you haven't lost a friend to death- I have lost a lot of friends over the past year due to various random circumstances, and sometimes it does bum me out that I don't have quite as many people I can count on anymore. But Jesus is a better friend anyway- and so is Mary! I just wish I could talk to her on the phone when I need some encouragement! : ) She could be a motivational speaker when she's older!

Lastly, we got a surprise letter from Tasya in Indonesia today!

I say this letter was a surprise because we just heard from Tasya very recently, and due to her remote location and the way her country office now organizes letters, we hear from her every 3-4 months. However, her last letter was written in February, and it arrived around the same time as a letter from Prayer (also in Indonesia) and his was written in April. I'm thinking the last letter got a little sidetracked, and this letter is pretty much right on time- it was also written in April. 

Tasya began her letter by sharing the verse in Luke about Jesus breathing his last. Then she jumps right into a cheery "Hello, Mama!" which made me laugh. It was quite a segue! Tasya says that her family is healthy and she had a great Easter- she participated in the Torch Relay (which she has mentioned in Christmases past) and an Easter egg hunt, and this year they added a Bible quiz! She said she was happy because she and her friends came in second place (and here, the translator drew a little smiley face!) She asked about our Easter to make sure we had a good holiday, too, and asked us to pray for her exams. 

I'm so glad that I got three letters this week! We are still waiting on several first letters, but I did find out that we have one on the way from our Eduardo in Honduras. We have now had him for six months, and he also received a gift that another sponsor was able to deliver back in May. I asked about an inquiry and found out that he has a letter on the way, but it was just written this month and hasn't arrived in Colorado yet. It's so good to know that a letter is on the way! I have been worried about connecting with him, but I am thinking there might be something going on at home that may affect his ability to write frequently or even his attitude about having a sponsor. He is 15 and is listed as not going to school, but he "will attend next year." So there could have been things going on at home that led him to not write until now. After that, we're waiting on first letters from Sharifa, Anahi, Julian, Michel, Reine, Erick, and Kajal! : )