Compassion Joys: October

I love reading everyone's Compassion Joy posts at the end of every month, and I've decided to finally join in! I'm linking up with Compassion Family. Here are some happy Compassion-related things from this past month. : )

Two new kids!

Bonifas is our new sponsor child (mom is helping me sponsor him.) He's 8 and he lives in Tanzania. And Elisha is our new correspondence kid. He's 7 and also loves in Tanzania!

Bonifas

Elisha

Letters!

This month we got two letters from Prayer, one from Tasya, one from Brenda, and one from Mishel. Brenda and Mishel also drew pretty pictures!

Tanzania Trip Progress!

On the 12th a local restaurant hosted a fundraising night for my trip with Compassion next March. It brought in about $40 total, but every little bit helps. I also had a few donations come in. I was able to book my domestic flights, and I found out that most of the immunizations I need are available for a really great price at my local pharmacy! I can't wait to get to Tanzania and see Said, Bonifas, and Elisha!

Advocacy!

I posted some pictures of waiting kids in a recent post, and was able to find a sponsor for one of the girls who was waiting a really long time- my mom! My mom's name is Karen and I posted a Karen in Nicaragua. Mom picked her up and added her to her Compassion family. : )

Surprise presents!

My mother in law left for India on the 17th, and she will be there for 6 weeks. She took a mini backpack full of presents for my Jayid, and gifts for my mom's Amisha and my friend Blaire's girl Nisha as well. They should have been sent in the last day or so! I hope that the field offices are able to get the gifts out soon- Jayid's birthday is November 8, and it would be really cool if he got his stuff for his birthday!!!

Birthdays!

This month, our Brenda turned 6 and Prayer turned 11. They had their birthdays on the same day- October 22!

New Pictures!

We got new pictures of Carlos and Victor this month!

Carlos

Victor

Christmas fun!

Not only did we send our kids their Christmas goodies (cards and sticker books along with letters), I was also able to collect a ton of Christmas cards for unsponsored kids. Thanks to my friends and families' donations (plus my obsessive hoarding of cards), I was able to write out and send 178 cards for unsponsored kids! I filled up a whole flat rate priority mail box- and let me tell you, that thing saved me a lot of money on shipping! Anyway, my prayer is that every unsponsored kid will get a card this year. It would be even better if they got sponsors!

Christmas Ornament fundraiser!!!

Soon I will be starting a new and exciting fundraiser for my trip. I wanted to go ahead and tell you a little bit about it, as a preview! Just in time for the holidays, this fundraiser involves SHOPPING- and it's for an amazing, excellent cause!

Starting sometime in the next week or two, I will be selling handmade ornaments made by artisans who work for the ApParent Project. I have talked about this ministry a little bit before on my blog, but here's a refresher: ApParent project is a ministry that helps parents in Haiti. We all know that Haiti is a poor country- the poorest in our hemisphere, in fact. Sadly, because no one (almost) in Haiti has any money, parents there often give up their children because they can't afford to care for them. There are many ministries working in Haiti that try to reunite kids with their parents, rather than immediately shipping them off to North America (Children of the Promise, the excellent facility where my little buddy Anell used to live, is one of those good-guy ministries), and ApParent Project fits that description. Here's the gist: local parents in Haiti get jobs with ApParent Project and their suppliers, Market Haiti. They make crafts, and all the money from those crafts goes back to the artisans who made them. Because of that income, moms and dads are able to raise their kids instead of giving them up! It's pretty amazing! And each handmade piece comes with a little tag telling you about who made it. I have several bracelets from ApParent Project (which I bought from my friend Ashley when they were fundraising to bring Anell home), and I have saved all the tags. The most recent one showed a picture of a young man who is living in a tent, trying to raise his son. The tag tells you what they're working toward- whether it's a new home, an education, or whatever. It's just indescribably awesome.

So now on to the fundraiser part. I will soon be receiving a box of 150 handmade ornaments. A popular art medium in Haiti is metalwork from recycled materials such as oil drums. These ornaments are made from recycled metal. There's a loop of ribbon at the top, complete with some paper beads. And of course, there's the tag telling you about who made it! When the ornaments arrive, I'll be adding a PayPal "Buy Now" button to the top of my blog. If you'd like to purchase an ornament, you can do so that way, or get in touch with me directly. And now I will host a little question-and-answer session with myself, for details.

Q: How much will the ornaments cost?
A: If you buy an ornament (or more than one!) online, I am requesting $10 per ornament. This is what was recommended to me by ApParent Project staff. If you would like to mail a check, or live near me and would like to pay in person, just get in touch with me- there's a little discount. : ) The $10 per ornament cost DOES INCLUDE SHIPPING. Just FYI.

Q: Why would it be cheaper to buy the ornaments in person, rather through PayPal?
A: Because PayPal charges a fee. That's the easiest answer. So does WePay and GoFundMe, the other fundraising tools I'm using. For example, a $10 donation actually gets me $8.90. It makes things easier, but it does take a bite out of donations. Checks are totally fine, though, if you want to pay that way. And, like I said, the $10 covers shipping.

Q: How much money will go to the moms and dads in Haiti?
A: More than half. I will be sending back $5 for each ornament I sell- which is really awesome and it's a great way for all of us to help each other!

Q: What do the ornaments look like?
A: There will be 3 different designs- -50 ornaments of each. They say "peace", "love", and "joy", which are three of my favorite words! There's a sample picture at the bottom of this post.

Q: How long will this fundraiser go on? 
A: I will have the ornaments for 6 weeks once they arrive. After that time period is up, I send the money I've collected, along with my leftovers, back to ApParent Project.

Q: What would I do with an ornament, anyway?
A: I have compiled a list just for this occasion! Here are some people you could give an ornament to:

• Your boss
• Your coworkers
• Teachers
• Pastors
• Neighbors
• Your veterinarian
• Bible study group leaders and other church-y friends
• Your mechanic
• Use them as stocking stuffers
• Or Secret Santa gifts
• Give one to your kids' babysitters
• Hand them out to those hard-to-shop-for relatives
• Buy one for the mailman
• Or the garbage man
• Or any other person who helps you out day to day
• Keep some for yourself
• Buy them all and donate them to a children's hospital (just a thought!)

Q: When will the fundraiser start? 

A: As soon as I get the ornaments. There was a slight delay recently because of a customs strike in Haiti- nothing was coming out of that place. But the strike has ended and the folks at ApParent Project (who work out of Florida) have been working like craaaaazy to get boxes packed and out to folks who are doing fundraisers. I was originally supposed to expect mine by Halloween, but things have been delayed by a week or two. 

So that's the deal! I'm really excited about this fundraiser! I hope I will be able to help you out with at least some of your Christmas shopping this year! : )

Here are the ornaments! Aren't they cute??

Outgoing Mail

No letters for me this week- but I do have some going out when I get paid on Thursday! Here's a little bit about what I'm sending to the kiddos this week.

This week, I'm sending out Christmas goodies! Since Christmas is about two months away, this is the best time to send Christmas gifts and cards to your kids. If you  have sponsor kids, I strongly recommend that you go ahead and send them some treats for Christmas now, so they get them in time for the holidays!

This year, I am sending out sticker books for each of my kids. Michael's craft stores already have a ton of Christmas stuff in their stores. They usually have some great dollar items (for you shoebox shoppers!), but this year, I haven't seen much there that will work for our Compassion kids. However, they ALWAYS have really amazing sticker books from a company called Darice. They do sticker books for all the major holidays, and they have a huge variety of sticker books for Christmas! Licensed characters, neon, an "alpine" theme, more traditional scenes, etc. I got some more mature looking sticker books for some of my older kids, some nativity books for the youngest ones (they are really cartoon-y), a Minnie Mouse one for Tasya (because she is always wearing a Minnie Mouse shirt in her pictures) and I specifically got a snow-themed one for Joane, who lives in Haiti. Ice does not form naturally anywhere in Haiti- even in the mountains! Snow is something she would never ever see. I know some of my other kids live in tropical, hot areas, but for most of them, they have a snow-capped mountain somewhere in their country. I just thought of Joane when I saw this book, so I picked it out for her.

My kids are also getting Christmas cards. I am sending out penguin Christmas cards this year, with a brief message inside. I got these cards last year at Lifeway, where my mom works. They are made of a really nice quality paper, so they should hold up in shipping and will probably last a long time. The younger kids are also getting nativity sticker scenes, which I found at Hobby Lobby. They're about $4 per dozen sticker sheets, but Hobby Lobby is always running their stuff 40-50% off.

Now, on to the letters. I am sending regular letters this mail run, not Christmas themed ones. I will send a Christmas themed one closer to Christmas, describing my family's traditions and what we'll be doing for the holidays. I found some really pretty paper at the Dollar Tree last week. It's just printer paper, but the borders are dark blue with yellow stars. I really like the paper!

In my letters this month, I've written a greeting paragraph. I mentioned that it is starting to get very cold where I live, and that on Wednesday, we saw a few snowflakes in the air- but they melted before they hit the ground! I asked each of my kids how cold it gets where they live. I know that some of them live in areas where it's constantly hot and humid, but there are some areas, like the mountains, where it can get cool.

In the next paragraph, I mentioned that a sad thing has happened recently, because my friend Jessica passed away. I mentioned this in all my letters except for the very youngest kids, and for Bonifas and Elisha (they got introductory letters this week.) I said that Jessica had some disabilities and she had been sick for a long time, but now she is in heaven and she is healthy and whole. I asked them to pray for my friend Laura, Jessica's mom, and her family.

After that, for most of my kids, I wrote a little bit about my Bible study group. Most of my kids are aware that I do Bible studies with some friends of mine. Sometimes I write about what we're studying, and ask them if they're familiar with the story or the topic. I usually get a response! Right now we're finishing up Priscilla Shirer's One In A Million. Here's what I wrote this time:

"My friends and I are doing a Bible study together about the Israelites in the wilderness. Have you read this Bible study? After they left Egypt and escaped from slavery, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before they reached the promised land. It was frustrating, but God took care of them the whole time! He provided food and water, guided their travels, and He never left them. God is always with us, even when we feel like we are in the wilderness." 

I wrapped up the letters with some affirmations for my kids: I reminded them that they are precious to me and I love them very much, and that I'm praying for them every day.

So that's what I'm taking to the post office this week! I am going to put everything in a flat rate envelope this morning, because my last package was so heavy, it cost more than $10 to send! What are you sending your kids for the holidays?

News of the World

Here's your weekly update on what's going on in some of the countries where Compassion works!

Colombia- This is a news story about one specific family, but it brings to light two issues: what happens when families are faced with such abject poverty that it leads to desperation, and the kind of trafficking and exploitation kids around the world face every day. A Colombian woman was arrested this week after it was found out that she sold the virginity of her daughters- 12 of them- for about $200 a piece, to make ends meet. Girls are trafficked and abused all around the world, and I think that often it can be traced right back to poverty- girls being sold because their family needs the money, kids born into brothels and raised to grow up to be prostitutes because their moms can't buy food any other way. It's so sad. Pray for this family, but really, this could happen anywhere. It does happen everywhere.

India- Recent rains in eastern India have caused quite a bit of flooding, which has killed 16 people so far. My mother in law is currently in eastern India and told me yesterday in an email that it has been raining a lot there- she is safe, though. Pray for the people affected by this flooding, that they will be able to rebuild quickly and will be able to avoid some of the problems that come with flooding, which includes the rapid spread of disease. Pray for the Compassion centers in the area as they work to meet the needs of the people there, both physical and spiritual.

Dominican Republic- For a while now, the Domican Republic has been struggling with the influx of people from Haiti. Both countries share the same island, but economically, the DR is having an easier time of things than Haiti. Therefore, a lot of people from Haiti try to find work in the DR or even move there. This has led the Dominican government to crack down on immigration in recent years, just trying to keep things steady and regulated. It's understandable. Anyway, at the moment, many Dominicans of Haitian descent are about to be stripped of their citizenship, because when they were born, their parents were in the country illegally. They will lose their citizenship even if they have never been to Haiti or left the DR. It's causing a lot of political unrest in the region. Pray for the governments of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, that they won't become hostile. Pray for the people who are facing losing their citizenship and identity. Pray for both nations, that their economies will improve, because they are really struggling.

Kenya- Again, this is another story that happened in one country but illuminates issues in all countries. In this case, we're talking about violence against women, gender inequality, and the mishandling of justice. A few weeks ago, a 16 year old girl was raped while she was on her way home from a relative's funeral. The attack was more violent than just sexual assault, however- she has been left permanently disabled as a result of the violence. There are fundraisers to raise money for her medical bills. The girl, who has been nicknamed Liz, was able to identify some of her attackers. Neighbors took the attackers to the police station. The police's response? Have the attackers mow the grass around the station, then set them free. Obviously people are outraged. Pray that justice will be served against the people who attacked this girl. Pray that girls around the world would stop being attacked like this, and pray that governments would realize it's in the best interest of everyone to protect ALL their citizens and give fair punishments for crimes.

Sweet Greetings

I completely forgot about doing a mail call post yesterday. My mind was on other things. So here is my Tuesday Mail Call Monday post.

I was very happy to get a letter from Tasya this week. The letter-writing changes implemented a year or so ago mean that I don't receive quite as many letters from her as I used to, but since she's getting older, the letters have a little more substance than some of her old ones (which I think were at times just written out of excitement because she got a letter from me- "hello mama! We are all fine here! That's all for now!" haha.) 

26 August 2013

Shalom!

First of all, I would like to say that right now me and my family are in good health. Are mama and family in good health? It's rainy season here now. People tend to get sick on rainy season, so I use my umbrella to go to school so that I won't get sick. A few days ago, me and my family planted several plants. I planted tomato, chili, rambutan and poki-poki. I am happy because the plants that me and my family planted have grown bigger. I also have a cousin named Safti. Safti is my class mate. And also Meidelin. She is my classmate, too. Both of them are 12 years old. I'm glad to have cousins like both of them who are kind to me. That's all of my letter. I'll be waiting for a letter again from Mama. 

May God always keep and protect Mama's family. 

With love, 

Tasya

Well, if you're like me, you have no idea what poki-poki or rambutan are. I looked them up. Rambutan is a little tree grown in Southeast Asia. Its fruits are red and spiky. When they're peeled, they look like white, skinless grapes. And I found many recipes for poki-poki and they all included eggplant, so for now, I'm going to assume that that's a regional term for eggplant! Also, I'm glad Tasya wrote to me telling me about her cousins (I wrote about my cousins earlier in the year.) I think I'm going to decorate my response letter to her with some umbrella stickers I have. : )

In other sponsor-related news, I received an email last night from Compassion. I had submitted a few inquiries recently about getting another correspondence kid. I actually asked to be put on the list over a month ago, and after a month passed, on the advice of some fellow sponsors, I sent an email. And then I had to send another email when part of the response I received didn't quite match up with some other sponsors' recent experiences. So I got a very nice email from a staff member who picked out a little boy for me and went ahead and added him to my account! His name is Elisha and he's 7 years old. His birthday is September 10. And can you guess where he lives? Tanzania, of course! I just cracked up when I read that in the email. I was at work at the time and this gave my friend Jess and I something to laugh about. I went from expecting to spend a whole day with my boy Said when I go to Tanzania next year, to adding Bonifas to our account, and now we have Elisha! I was worried about how to keep ONE boy entertained (girls are easy- you can paint nails, play with dolls, and things like that.) Now I have three!!

Anyway, Elisha is super cute. I love the fact that he's wearing blue- he looks like a UK basketball player in the making! He looks like he's about to run out on the basketball court in those warm-ups. : ) I can't wait to get to know this little guy better!

Last but not least, we got a new picture of one of our kiddos last night! I logged into Our Compassion so I could see if any of my friends had kids at Elisha's center (he's at 606) and when I saw my account, there was a face on there I didn't recognize! Our Victor has a new picture!! We have had the same picture of Victor for the past year (the first one we received) so it was pretty surprising to get a new one! Here's Victor's old picture....

And here's his new picture!

He looks so grown up! : ) It's funny- I emailed and asked for Victor's previous picture (before we got him) and I think this picture looks more like younger Victor than the other one does! Maybe it's the lighting in the photo. No matter what he's wearing, he's still my handsome boy!

"There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning."

Today has been really, really hard.

This morning, right before I started running my errands, my boss called me and asked if I could possibly work this morning instead of this evening. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, though, so I wasn't able to make the switch. He was calling because my coworker Laura had called out because she and her husband were taking their daughter Jessica to the emergency room. This was not a good sign- I mean, it's never great when someone goes to the emergency room, but Jessica has had health problems all her life, and has almost died more than once since I've been working at the library. When Jessica gets sick, her parents wouldn't take her to the doctor because there's really nothing they could do. It's just the way things are. And I figured that a hospital stay might be coming soon because Laura told me last Thursday she didn't sleep the night before because Jessica was coughing so much. Fluid builds up around her heart, among other things, and that lead to the coughing and everything.

This afternoon, after I had my appointment and ran my errands, I came home and got frustrated after a phone conversation with my husband. When I hung up, I had a new text message from my best friend Jess, who works at the library with me. She said that she wanted me to know before I came to work that Jessica, Laura's daughter, was in the ICU and they had signed papers to let her go if things got bad. I called my mom at work and asked her to be praying, for Laura and her family, and also for me because I was just starting to feel so upset. I took the garbage out, came back in the house, and there was another text saying that Jessica had passed away. And then I cried for the next 35 minutes.

In all the time I have known Laura (which is a very long time), I have been aware of Jessica. I have met her on several occasions, like at staff parties and on the rare day that she would come to work with her mom and hang out in her office in her wheelchair (Jessica didn't really speak many discernable words, but oh my goodness, that girl loved to laugh!) And she was always happy to see everyone.  She loved animals and was the most tender-hearted person to ever live on this planet. Her mom never got to watch the news because the bad news in the world moved Jessica so much, it upset her really badly. And Jessica had kind of a sixth sense about animals. I remember one time Laura told me that they had taken one of their cats to the vet, and there were some kittens up for adoption. Jessica checked them out and started crying. Laura told the person working behind the desk that she knew one of those kittens must have had a sad story, and the staff member, very surprised, said yes, that one of the siblings out of the litter had died. When one of us would lose a pet or a loved one, Jessica would send an email saying that she knew that that person or pet was OK and happy and safe now. I think that maybe God gave her the ability to see and notice things the rest of us don't have, to make up for those abilities she lacked but we take for granted, like walking and talking and living a normal life.

All the other times Jessica has been sick since I've been working with her mom (the better part of a decade now), she has hung on by a thread and then rallied. There have been at least two occasions I can remember when we all thought she would pass at any time, and her mom said that Jessica didn't want to die in a hospital and she would carry her out of there herself so she could be at home. And that didn't happen. I'm having a hard time processing it. I guess I took it for granted that this very strong young woman, who has defied all odds and completely destroyed all the expectations doctors have ever had of her, is gone. I am so sad for her family. I am shocked that this all happened so quickly. And I know it sounds cliche, but I do think that the world got a little darker this afternoon. It had to. Jessica was such a bright, happy force for good. And now she's gone.

Anyway, we've been dealing with that this afternoon, and Jess and I just tried to get through the evening without collapsing into puddles of tears by talking about lots of random things while doing our jobs. While we fielded a few phone calls about what had happened, we learned that another coworker, my friend Linda, has cancer. Linda is my grandparents' age and is healthy as a horse. Probably more so. She is a vegetarian and walks to and from work every day. She does yoga and is just very zen about life. She has had some hard times but I have never seen her really rattled. And she still isn't rattled. But finding out that she has cancer is scary. The prognosis is really good, and Linda herself has a really zen attitude about it (I keep using that word....I should explain that Linda is a very peaceful person who, when she feels like she might have a stressful or upset day, recites Psalms from the Bible, Buddhist verse, and I don't know what else to herself on the way to work.) But still. This day was HARD. And there will be a lot more crying to come.

I'm writing all this to ask you if you will please pray for my friends. Pray for Linda as she begins this fight against a stupid disease that really should go away and be wiped out by now. Pray for Laura and her family as they deal with this unimaginably sad event. Yes, it was unlikely that Jessica would live to be an old lady. But knowing that it would happen someday doesn't mean it's still not hard to process and deal with. It doesn't make mourning any easier. Grief is hard, and it hurts. And I think that's all I have to say for tonight. I promise I'll be back tomorrow with some happy news, but I'm done for this evening. I'm turning off my computer and heading downstairs to do some praying and some crying and some processing.

Insight.

I've had some interesting discussions about my trip to Tanzania lately. A lot of people are really excited for me. After I tell them where Tanzania is, they realize that it's one of those countries that has safaris, and that's cool. Kilimanjaro is there, and they've heard of that. And they know I will be meeting my sponsor child- or children, now that I have Bonifas. But since I'm not travelling with a church, like many "mission" trips, I don't know that they understand what exactly is going to go on during the trip. They know I'll be flying to Tanzania via Amsterdam, and that's a nice place to vacation. They know I will have a good time. But I don't think they realize that this isn't a vacation. This isn't me getting away to a beautiful country for some relaxation. The trip will be hard. Impoverished conditions. Language barriers. Unfamiliar territory. Being away from my family. Being with a group of strangers. Long flights. Huge time changes (Tanzania is 7 hours ahead of where I live.) Bumpy roads. Unreliable transportation. I'm not afraid of feeling/looking like an outsider (how many pasty white blonde girls do you think there are in Tanzania, anyway?) but I know it will be weird, at least at first. New foods. New culture. New everything.

And on top of that, there's the work. We aren't going as tourists. We will be working while we're in Tanzania. We're visiting one of the child survival program centers, visiting the moms and babies, and bringing them supplies and learning about how they are growing and living. We are going to spend several days in the poorest region of the country, putting on a sort of VBS program for the kids in an area where Compassion recently started working- so these kids most likely haven't had visitors before. There is so much exciting stuff on this trip- and I can't wait to experience it! But it's not a relaxing getaway. God has called me to serve. Advocating for others- for children and women in particular- is my life's passion. It is a desire that God has placed on my heart, and it is truly the thing that I feel most passionately about. And now God is telling me not just to advocate, but to GO and be with His children. It's a struggle. There are soooooo many reasons I could give for not going. I could say "I can't do that- I don't have the money." Or "I can't do that- I don't travel anywhere." "I can't do that- my stomach is so weird, I don't know what I'll eat." "I can't do that- I have anxiety and I'm afraid." "I can't do that- I don't know anyone going on the trip." But I haven't let any of that stop me. This is an act of obedience for me. It is so, so important that you understand that. This is God's plan for my life. And I'm doing everything I can to make it happen. Do I need help? Yes, definitely. Financial help, prayers, advice about travel....I need it all. I spend a crazy amount of free time researching airports I won't visit for another five months, making lists of what I need to bring, learning about customs and passports and visas and all these unfamiliar concepts. I've done purchase requests for all sorts of new guide books and cultural handbooks from the library, and am making my way through the ones they decided to add to their collection. And I'm praying for the kids I will meet, and praying for my friends and family, that they might be moved to look into sponsorship. A LOT of work is going into this, even five months out. And it will be hard work while I'm there. And I already know I'm going to come back a different person. No matter how hard I try to prepare my heart for the things I will see and experience, I know this will be life-changing. Being a sponsor to my kids has already changed my life in such a tremendous way- I can't imagine what's next.

I am sharing some pictures here of the Compassion bloggers' trip to Tanzania last spring. All these pictures came from their Flickr photo album from the trip. I'm posting these because I want and need folks to look beyond the picturesque postcard of Kilimanjaro and the opening scene of the Lion King. I need you to see real life where my boys live, and what I'm going to be doing next March. Please keep praying for the trip, and please, please consider donating via my fundraising page up in the top right corner.