Guest Post: Shelley talks about Kenya!

The friendships that I have made through becoming a Compassion sponsor, advocate and blogger are such a wonderful, extra blessing on top of the relationships I have with my sponsor kids! Today I'd like to share a guest post from my friend Shelley, who blogs over at Unforced Rhythms of Grace. Shelley is such a sweet and big-hearted person, and I am so happy that I've gotten to know her this year! She will be travelling to Kenya with Compassion in November, after taking her first overseas mission trip to India earlier this year. I've asked her to share a little about what led her to start actively participating in the Great Commission this year. And for further reading, you can check out this blog post from Compassion UK- they featured Shelley recently, and spoke to her about sponsoring multiple children while living the often financially challenging life of a student! 

I’ve wanted to go and serve overseas for as long as I can remember (or at least since becoming a Christian nine years ago). I didn’t really have any idea of what this would look like, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I got to wherever I was going, but I wanted to go somewhere and do something.

As I got older and these trips seemed more likely, God closed so many doors to some spectacular countries working alongside some wonderful people. My heart broke more times than I care to count, and I remember so many times going into my bedroom and crying over opportunities that were meant for someone other than me. The passion was there, and so was the willingness, so why wasn’t the door opening?

I’d planned to travel to Colombia in April 2013 to visit a very special Compassion child of mine. I’d looked at the cost and planned how I could afford it and was completely ready to book onto the trip. However, a few months prior to the trip, I received a rather unexpected health diagnosis which required surgery, which ended up being scheduled for around Christmas 2012. I would have recovered well enough to go on the trip the following April, but there was the potential for a second surgery, and my consultant strongly advised that I didn’t go.

More heartbreak and tears followed, but this one hurt more. Partly because there was another trip that I couldn’t go on, but partly because of the diagnosis I had received, and I didn’t know how this would affect any future trips that I wanted to take. I allowed my heart to become hard to the idea of travel and mission and became defensive whenever anyone tried to talk to me about it.

One thing I learned through this whole experience is God really does have a good plan because He really can see the bigger picture. Around the time I was due to travel to Colombia, I received a letter from Compassion telling me that the child I was going to visit had left her project and moved away, so even if I had booked on to the trip, I wouldn’t have been able to meet her. Because I now had a free week of my Easter holidays, I decided to volunteer at an event here in the UK called Spring Harvest. I worked on the Compassion stand for a week and made some incredible friends. God really blessed me that week, and I wouldn’t have been able to go had I have traveled to Colombia.

This is turning into an incredibly long story, so let’s fast forward a few months.

Between September 2013 and June 2014, I was studying for the final year of my degree at Bible College. Part of my course provided the opportunity to spend five weeks working for an organisation or church of our choice, gaining experience in the field that we wish to pursue once our degree is complete. Another bonus to this is a set amount of money is provided by the college, and we were allowed to travel and work overseas for our placement.

I was so nervous pushing doors to find out where God would have me go for this placement. Part of me wanted to find an organisation here in the UK so I wouldn’t need to face the heartbreak of more closed doors and not being able to travel overseas, but I felt God prompting me to be brave and push some doors.

I attend an Elim church, and this particular denomination has a missions department, with missionaries working across the globe serving in all sorts of different environments and capacities. I gave them a call to find out if a placement was something they could facilitate. Some calls were made and questions asked, and they told me that this was definitely something they could organise! I was emailed a list of suitable countries, with some information about the work they do and was told to choose one. I now felt like I had 100 doors opening instead of just one.

I read through the information and inquired about going to work with a missionary based in Haiti who was helping earthquake victims. Some more questions were asked, and I was told that I wouldn’t be able to travel to Haiti because the missionary there was moving on. I quickly began feeling the heartbreak of more closed doors again, but felt God prompt me forwards to try again. I reread the list and decided to inquire about going to spend five weeks in India, working with a charity called Frishta (which, by the way, is the Hindi word for angel!), which is an orphanage for street and railway children. Yet more questions were asked, and I received the go ahead from both Elim and my College!

In February 2014, I got to spend five weeks with twenty one of the most amazing children and young people I have ever met. The challenges they have faced completely broke me, but their joy and their faith was just incredible. I have never met a group of children more passionate about walking with Jesus, and those five weeks completely changed my life.

I’ve been home from India for nearly six months now, and God is still teaching me so much through this trip. Almost as soon as I arrived home I began planning for my next trip, but every trip I looked at, I felt God redirecting me. I decided to stop looking and I began to pray where God would have me go. A couple of days later, I received an email from the wonderful people at Compassion UK inviting me to travel to Kenya for a week with them in November! Not only will I get to see firsthand the work they are doing in this beautiful country, but I will also get to visit one of my precious sponsored children, eighteen year old Dorcus!

This trip worked out perfectly. I sponsored Dorcus last Summer in memory of my nan, who passed away when I was fifteen. I struggled a lot with bullying at school, and it was always my nan that I went to for help (or just for a good cry), and Dorcus also struggles in school. On top of this, she also shares a birthday with my nan, so meeting her in person is going to be extra special.

Dorcus

Your prayers for this trip would be so appreciated. I’m launching a huge (in my eyes!) fundraiser starting this coming week to go alongside another that’s been running for about four weeks now. I have just under a month to find the remaining £900 that I need. In my eyes, this is impossible but I know that God always provides for us when He calls us somewhere, and I have seen this proven so many times in my life.

To financially support Shelley's trip to Kenya, please check out her GoFundMe page here. Even if you can't give financially, please be praying for her upcoming trip, particularly for speedy financial provisions! 

Sweet Greetings from Tanzania

Yay for Mail Call Monday!

This week we got a surprise letter from Bonifas!

I'm really pleased that my Tanzanian kids have been able to send letters every two months this year! This is pretty similar to what it was like when I first started writing to Said. I checked my notes, and Bonifas' letter arrived almost exactly  two months after his last one! It was also interesting to see that Bonifas' center sent a "free form" letter on his behalf, instead of having him fill out a form letter as he usually does. He needs help writing, so the words on the page are usually filled out by a project worker, but because of his age, we usually receive form letters. 

In this letter, Bonifas sends his greetings and says that he is doing well in school. He added that he loves me very much and "welcomes" me to Tanzania. He also said that at the center, they "learn the words to sing to God, pray and worship." He shared Psalm 23:1, and asked how he can pray for us! Bonifas says he wants to be a teacher when he grows up, but sometimes I think he might end up being a pastor! He is such a sweet little guy. 

I'm hoping that this week brings lots more letters! We have six first letters outstanding, and one is approaching the 6 month mark. Maybe when I get the mail letter today, there will be a stack of cream colored envelopes inside! 

The thirteenth seven days.

I'm almost at the end of my 100 happy days posts! This post brings us up to day 91.

August 10: I think today was a really good day. Our sermon at church was good (it was about forgiveness.) Then later in the afternoon, we went over to Brandon's parents' house. His mom really wanted to make us dinner, and I wanted to spend some time with her anyway. So we went over there and she taught me some crochet basics while Brandon played video games with one of his brothers. We had a good dinner and I got back to crocheting while Denise and I watched "19 Kids and Counting" on Netflix. I was very glad to get to spend time with her, and I'm glad Brandon got to spend some time playing with his brother, too. I'm excited about learning to crochet- I am going to try to make some things to sell to fund my next mission trip!

August 11: I didn't do much today, but what I did get done, I feel pretty good about. I got a little bit of housework done and spent much of the rest of the day working on the scarf I'm crocheting (it's totally for practice- it doesn't look very good!) I was also happy to have leftovers for lunch and dinner. I'm thankful that our families have shared food with us!

August 12: Do you ever get really excited about something you find for a really awesome price? Today I found some steeply discounted yarn in a clearance bin, and I bought two skeins to turn into scarves. I started on one today, and I think the practice I had on my "ugly scarf" really helped. I just started a new one with the pretty, soft, new yarn, and I'm already very pleased. The stitching is neat and the colors are so pretty! I'm looking forward to finishing it so I can see how it looks and start on the next one. It's also nice to work on something you can be proud of!

August 13: Hey hey hey! I don't remember what I was originally going to write for this day, but I have something super exciting for today- I get to go to  Disney World! My cousin will be in Orlando for work in November, around her birthday. My aunt was talking about driving down to do a few days at Disney, since they'll have some of the Christmas stuff going on. I guess they've nailed down the dates and are starting to make things official, and my aunt texted me and invited me to go along! I'M SO EXCITED!!! I adore Disney. I am one of those people who tears up when seeing a commercial for the parks. I love it, love it, love it. And my last visit there wasn't super awesome- we tried to do two parks in one day, and it was hot and we were tired, my dad was in pain and my brother was absolutely miserable (his medical issues limit his mobility, and he spent the entire trip in a wheelchair. Despite not having to walk- which he couldn't have done- he still had so much pain and the heat made him feel terrible.) We will be spending a long weekend there in November, so we don't have to rush through as much, and hopefully since it's the week before Thanksgiving, things won't be too busy! I'm super pumped. Ridiculously so. This has made me so happy!

August 14: Today is my best friend's birthday! Kelli and I have been friends since 8th grade. She is one of my oldest friends and I love spending time with her. Around senior year of high school we saw each other every day, and spent a lot of weekends together. She came over once or twice a week throughout most of college, too. But then we got older and I got married and our schedules are harder to coordinate, between when I'm at work and when I have things going on and when she's out of town or working nights. I actually haven't seen her since my birthday (mostly because we haven't had air conditioning most of this summer!) I'm so thankful for her. Spending time with her makes me happy. Actually, usually I get sick when we hang out together, because we eat and then laugh and talk and laugh even more, and my reflux starts acting up big time (she is the only person to whom I can say "being with you makes me feel like barfing" and it be a compliment.) But it's worth it! I hope she has a really fun birthday, and I'm looking forward to spending time with her this weekend! Besides being happy and thankful for my BFF, I'm also happy that I got a letter from Bonifas today!

August 15: I got to take a surprise field trip today. My boss needed to get some books on a specific subject for one of our volunteers, and the task kind of got away from him this week. Today, he asked me to try to track down the books, and said that he would even be willing to travel to a nearby branch to pick them up. I found that our branch didn't have the books, but another branch did- the one that my dear friend Jess went to work at! I selflessly (haha) volunteered to drive over and get the books for my boss. I kind of had to work hard to convince him that I definitely didn't mind going! So I got to leave work for a little bit, drive over to the other branch, and spend about five minutes speed-talking to my friend whom I miss terribly. It's still so weird that she's gone- as I said last week, we've worked together for the better part of a decade. She's like a sister to me, and I'm sad that I no longer get to see her every day. It still sort of feels like she's just helping out temporarily at this other branch! But getting to drive over to see her for a few minutes was an unexpected blessing. I don't think I could do it every week, because of using the extra gas, but it'd be nice if I could run errands to see her every once in a while!

August 16: Today I got to spend the day with my BFF Kelli. I did some cleaning this morning and baked up a batch of birthday brownies for her, then she came over around lunch. She picked up lunch on her way over (we had lunch from Mark's Feed Store, a really yummy local barbecue chain.) I'm happy she liked her birthday presents- there were some inside jokes, lots of candy, and a really sweet Harry Potter t-shirt (it was navy and had a doe patronus and the word "always" in floaty script. And if you like HP, you will know why this is awesome.) We watched "My Neighbor Totoro", read some funny articles I had been wanting to show her, and then decided to watch "Jumanji." I had been wanting to watch it all week, as the passing of Robin Williams has weighed heavily on my heart. And Kelli said she hadn't seen it since she was a little kid, so it was fun revisiting that part of our childhood together!

Sweet Greetings from Honduras, Brazil, India and Ecuador

Happy Mail Call Monday, everyone!

We were blessed to receive four letters this week- and two were first letters!

The first letter we received was from Eduardo in Honduras.

Eduardo's letter was a long time coming. By the time it arrived, we had been sponsoring him for six months, one week and a day. In some ways it was frustrating to wait that long, but I had a feeling that Eduardo might have some special challenges in his life that might keep him busy or distracted, based on some things in his profile. I was encouraged to see that Eduardo addressed me as his "dear friend"- I am glad to know that he thinks of me as a friend, and hopefully this means that he has enjoyed reading all my letters and feels encouraged by them. He says that his favorite hobbies are playing soccer and going out with his friends. He also watches TV- it's always nice to learn this because it means that our kids have at least some access to electricity. That's a good thing! He asked if I like animals, and said that he has a pretty dog named Jugueton. He also wanted to know my favorite Bible verses. Eduardo asked that we pray for his mom, as she is sick. He also mentioned the small birthday gift that we sent for him earlier this year- he bought jeans, a shirt, and hair gel! I was very happy to get an extra photo of Eduardo posing with his birthday gifts. I couldn't help but feel a little sad, though, because Eduardo look sad or stressed to me. He also looks thinner in this photo than he does in his "official" photo. Since we were able to send a gift to Eduardo when Kim visited Honduras back in May, I'm kind of hoping that we get another photo of him with that gift as well!

A few days later, two letters arrived on the same day. The first one I opened was from Patricia in Brazil. 

In my imagination, Patricia is a social butterfly. Her letters are usually pretty short, and so friendly. She always ends them really sweetly- "Kisses! Patricia", sometimes with butterflies, hearts, or little lips drawn around there. So cute. Patricia's letter was written in May, and she responded to some of my letters by saying she was sad to hear about Brandon's grandfather passing away but she was very excited that my family adopted a dog. She also said that at Christmastime in Brazil, people set off fireworks, and it makes the sky "very beautiful!" 

Then came a letter from Jayid in India! 

Jayid's letters are interesting to see- usually they just have what looks like four or five words written in Hindi on the front, and then a full page written by a child development worker on the back. The child development workers write on behalf of Jayid, since they know English, but I always wonder what those few scribbles on the front say! Jayid says that he is taking English lessons and is participating in martial arts lessons at the project. He is excited about learning English. He has been learning new songs and Bible verses, and made a new friend named Sahil. 

Lastly, we got our first letter from Erick in Ecuador!

We just got Erick as a correspondence child in June, about two weeks before he turned five. The letter must have been written right away, since he says in his letter that he is four years old! It was also an "about me" form letter usually reserved for financial sponsors, so it was exciting to get to know more about Erick so quickly! Erick says that he lives in Pulucate Centro. His favorite color is red, his favorite class in school is drawing, his favorite activity is playing, and his favorite sport is running. He says that his favorite food is "potato and guinea pig!" He describes himself as "robust, tall, playful and cheerful" and says that he lives "beside the stadium, the church and the trees." The letter was written by his mom Monica! 

Erick also drew this neat picture- I think it's really good considering it was drawn by an almost 5 year old! 

The twelfth seven days

Movin' on up! I'm continuing to share my "happy" moments from the week, inspired by the #100happydays movement.

August 3: This was the day that my mom had to go to the hospital. I'm happy that she didn't have to be admitted, and I'm happy that I was able to go over and take care of her while my dad caught up on sleep. This was the start of a week of abundant food, which was one positive thing about my mom being sick. I got to spend a lot of time with her, and she fed me well. It was nice to have a variety of things to eat instead of toast and sandwiches for every meal.

August 4: Today my first letter from Eduardo arrived, and it included an extra picture! It made me very happy to finally get a letter from him after six months, one week and two days of writing letters, and extra photos are always a blessing. However, I am tremendously burdened to pray for Eduardo....I think he must have some really tough stuff going on in his life. So while I was happy to get the letter, I also felt sad reading it and looking at the picture.

August 5: Much of my happiness this week was food based. Today I left work at 1 and went straight over to my parents' house to sit with my mom. I picked up some fast food on the way, but as a special treat I stopped by the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen and got pie and cookies for my family. The Pie Kitchen is a local chain of stores around my city, and as their name implies, they sell ice cream and pie...and cheesecake and cookies and upside down cupcakes (which have frosting poured over them!) I got peanut butter Reese's cup pie for my mom, chocolate cherry pie for me, and giant football-shaped cookies for my dad and my brother. I hope they liked it! It was nice to have a sweet treat.

August 6: I wasn't feeling too well today, and was happy to settle in with my laptop for a bit and watch some Netflix before Brandon came home and I had to go to work. I started watching the show "19 Kids and Counting" (which started as "17 Kids...") and it made me really happy. I have loved the Duggar family since I first found out about them- before I got married I watched all their specials on TLC, but I only caught their regular show periodically in the little while between its start and the time I got married. I am really enjoying watching the show! It's fun to see what all the Duggars are up to (like meeting Dolly Parton!) but I also think they're a pretty great family. The dad, Jim Bob, is really involved with his family and has a lot of fun with the kids, and is so supportive of them. He also mentors other kids who have lost their dads. Michelle, the mom, is such a peaceful person- she just sounds like someone who should spend all day reading children's books. She's so gentle and loving with all the kids, and even sounds sweet and kind when the kids are being disciplined. Anyway, I had a good time watching that this morning. And then I went out to the mailbox and found letters from Patricia and Jayid!

August 7: Today was my last day with mom for a while, but the happy thing is that the doctor says she is getting better and won't have to be hospitalized or anything for her infection. She can go back to work soon- she has some swelling left over and the pain isn't constant, which is good. I also got my first letter from little Erick today, and my mom got two letters: one from Karen in Nicaragua, and her first letter from Herlan in Bolivia. I want to share Karen's letter here, because it was so pretty:

Hello esteemed sponsor Karen: 

I hope you are in good health together with your beautiful family. I want to thank you for your faithful sponsorship and for the letter that you sent me where I found words of encouragement for my life. 

I want to tell you about the weather in my country. We are in winter. The climate is a little bit cool. The leaves of the trees are green and there are pastures for cows, horses and other farm animals. It is cloudy and the sun does not come out. Nature looks beautiful when the sun is hidden; all is cloudy. The road with ponds and mud; the birds sing in the morning for water. Winter is beautiful. Thank God, the rain is a blessing from God. 

I always pray for you. I ask you to pray for my family to be always together; this is my greatest desire. You are a very important person that God placed to light my path. You cannot imagine how grateful I am. 

I say goodbye to you with love, Karen Nathalia

Last year I did a blog post of waiting kids who had the same names as the members of my Bible study group at the time, and Karen was on there. I'm so glad that my mom decided to be her sponsor! 

August 8: Tonight I went upstairs to try to cool off a bit. Brandon's cousin brought over a window unit air conditioner for us to borrow, and it has been keeping our pets safe and cool in their room. I was trying to get some cleaning done, and the heat was making me feel sick. Anyway, my husband was up there playing with the animals (the rats and the bunny get an hour of playtime every night- not at the same time, though!) and since I went up there, I got to spend some more time with him, and my pets! I cut up the remains of a big cucumber I had bought and took it to the animals, and they really enjoyed it. Seeing my animals happy and being able to provide them with a special treat made me happy. 

August 9: Today was the summer reading finale at work, so it was really busy and crazy. And it was also my last day working with my best friend. Neither of these things make me happy (although it is always nice when SR is over.) However, not long after I got home, our air conditioner was working again!!! It's been out for about a month, and the timing couldn't be better, as it's supposed to be about 100 degrees several days next week. I'm so thankful to have the air again- I can sleep better, we can turn on the lights, and it will be so nice to be comfortable in my own home again. And a big shout out to cousin Wayne for working so hard to fix all three problems our AC unit had, giving up so much of his free time to come do work for us! We'd be lost without him! 

Guest Post: Hannah talks about prayer!

Today we have a guest post from my good friend Hannah! She blogs over at Because of Shamim, and I just love her. She has a precious family and lots of sponsor kids, and her posts have provided me with a lot of information! I asked her if she'd be willing to do a guest post on prayer- specifically, praying for our sponsor kids. When people ask us to pray for them, we usually know specifics about what's going on. We pray for people we see regularly and know well, or we pray about situations. But how do you pray for someone you've never met, and you only know through letters? Here's what Hannah has to say! 

I’m so excited to be posting on Jessi’s blog today! She asked me to share about praying for our sponsor kids, so I thought I’d share what I do and have done over the years.

To be honest, some weeks I have wonderful prayer times for the kids, and other weeks my prayers are brief and generic. I suppose many of us go through similar ups and downs in many areas!

In order to do better remembering to pray for our kids, I had my husband help me hang 5x7 photos of our kids on the wall. We call it our “Compassion Wall” and it hangs in our eat-in kitchen/dining area. I like being able to see the photos of our kids throughout the day, as the photos remind me to pray!

I also have signed up to receive the monthly prayer guides from Compassion (if you’re interested in becoming a prayer partner, check out this link.) I asked them to mail them, as I probably won’t print them out in time to pray! But I take these and put them on my fridge. Then, each day when I get my sons milk in the morning, I pray for the day’s prayer request.

Both of these are just practical ways for me to be praying for our sponsored kids and Compassion’s ministry throughout the day.

Another thing I try to do periodically is to sit down for a lengthy time of focused prayer for our kids. Many of our kids share prayer requests, which helps me pray specifically. Other great resources are the pastor’s letters from the kids’ projects! And, on the back of the bookmark you receive with your introduction packet, there is a basic prayer guide for each day of the month (you can see a detailed version of the 31 days here.) (And Compassion has a 52 weeks of prayer guide, if you would like to have a focus for each week. )
For a time, I was documenting my kids’ prayer requests in a journal. I have since lost that journal, but writing this post has inspired me to find a new one! I like keeping track of my kids’ prayer requests so that I can follow up in future letters.


Occasionally, when I sit down for extended prayer for our kids, I will journal (usually by typing) as I pray. Then I have copy and pasted a part of it and sent it to the kids in an online letter! I wish I could be there to pray over each child in person, but this is a little way for me to do that. I figured that since they can’t actually hear me pray, they might enjoy knowing what I am praying for them!

The eleventh seven days

A few days late, but here are last week's happy moments. : )

July 27: We had a nice evening at home today. Some of my other happy moments in these posts have been related to good movies we have watched- that is how we like to spend our time, and when a movie is really good, and I get to watch them with my husband, and we have a good time. Tonight we watched "Howl's Moving Castle," which is another film from director Hayao Miyazaki. I really liked this one as well!

July 28: Today was my observation day at the preschool where I applied for a job, and it was so much fun!! Ridiculously so.

July 29: I had a nice evening at Bible study. Mom got dinner and we had some good discussions. Then we stopped by the store on the way home and she bought me a few things, like princess band-aids and Hello Kitty fruit snacks!

July 30:  Many things to be happy about today. I had the most relaxing dentist visit today. Which sounds impossible, but it happened! I went to see the new endodontist since the last one I visited didn't finish the job. He was super nice, they had a "Tempurpedic" brand exam chair (so comfy) and I popped in my earbuds, they turned on the nitrous, and I basically just zoned out for over an hour. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. Which is the first time in my life that has happened. No exaggeration. Also, my dad brought me a milkshake at work since my mouth was tired and hurty, and then later that night, I got texts from my friend Ashley- I sent my buddy's A.'s birthday present over to him via his dad (who is my mom's boss) and I got pics and a video. They really made me happy. I love my buddy so much! The bubble mower was apparently a big hit! : )

July 31: I'm happy with myself because I got some work done around the house today! Between having no energy and having a hot house (still no AC!) I haven't felt like doing much. So I'm happy I got some stuff done today.

August 1: Today was a pretty good day at work. Nothing particularly special happened- I had a nice cup of coffee when I got to work, and had a really long day, but nothing traumatic happened and there were no major problems. I am glad that I got to spend the day with my best friend- this was my last regular day working with her as she is going to work at another branch starting next week. And now I will stop writing because this is supposed to be about happy things, not sad things.

August 2: A letter from Elisha arrived today! It was short and didn't say much, but it was still a nice surprise. I feel like I have heard from my TZ boys so much lately- that's definitely something to be happy about!