Oh, Fredeline, I am so proud of you! I just received a letter from my first sponsored child in Haiti. Because of this, Fredeline will always hold a special place in my heart. In her letter she let me know that she participates in the Compassion project’s choir and that this choir has sung in several churches in Haiti. How I wish I could be there just to sit in one of those services and watch this sweet girl sing!
© 2015 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
I love these special valentines!!!
© 2015 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
Today I received a sweet card in the mail from Compassion International wishing me a ‘Happy Sponsor-versary’. The card included a picture of the first child I began to sponsor slightly over a year ago — Fredeline.
It was a special reminder of some of the tangible services that my sponsorship dollars have helped to provide for the children I support which include, as noted in the card, “medical checkups, nutritious meals, health and hygiene training, educational opportunities, and most of all — the hope of Jesus Christ.”
I have a joyful feeling whenever I think of the children I support. I have absolutely no regrets for the decision I made to support Fredeline and the others. The ‘Thank You’ card I received today is a nice reminder, but I have been receiving heartwarming Thank You’s all year in the form of the children’s letters to me. By my focusing on these children and wanting them to be blessed by my sponsorships of them, I too have been especially blessed!
© 2015 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
When choosing a child to support, there are no wrong choices. Each child needs someone to care enough to sponsor them through our gifts and communications to them. When I peruse through the potential children to support on Compassion’s website, there are so many cute little ones. Each young child certainly needs a sponsor. What I am appealing to today are the older ones, perhaps the not so lovely in pictures. These children won’t need our support for as many years in the future, but they need our help as much or perhaps more than the youngest children. Two of the nine children whom I support are at least fifteen years old. These two girls are the ones that are best able to send me letters which have always been very heartfelt. One lives in Haiti and one lives in Uganda. Because they require no assistance in writing their letters (except for translation), I have been able to get to know their own thoughts and have gotten to know them better than the younger ones whom I support. Each girl tells me that they pray for me and my family. They tell me their dreams and they tell me how thankful they are for me and my support.
So if you are considering supporting a child, whether it is your first or next child, please consider the older children. They need us too.
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
Birth Date – January 1999
Country – Haiti
Favorite Food – Stew (Bouillon)
Favorite Song – God, You are My Strength
Favorite Subject – Math
Favorite Color – Yellow
Favorite Game – (Jeu de patience) Solitaire
What I like to do most – Reading
Favorite verse or Bible character – Esther
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
The depth of my sponsored children never ceases to amaze me. In Fredeline’s recent letter to me, she let me know that her favorite colors are red and yellow. Following are her translated words –
“I like the red because it is the color of blood. The blood is a vital element to man. As for me, it is life. I like yellow because it is the sun’s color. It shines and is life to man. We need it to stay in good health.”
Fredeline then asked me what my favorite color(s) were and why.
Her color choices and the reasons behind them stretched me to really think hard about my choices and why I chose them. This fifteen-year-old in Haiti did not tell me that red and yellow were her favorite colors because they were the fashion colors of the season or give me some other flippant reason. She had no shallow words — she has a wisdom about her that touches my soul.
So here was my response to her –
“I love a rainbow of colors. If I have to pick a favorite right now, I think my favorites would be green and blue. Most trees are green and I love to look up into the sky and see the tall trees we have here. It is like the trees are reaching toward Heaven and when they are set against the blue sky, they are beautiful. I love to take pictures of trees.
This reminds me of a favorite poem of mine. It probably won’t rhyme when it is translated, but it is a beautiful meaning.”
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
***
I also attached one of my tree photographs.
What are your favorite colors?
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
Today I received a special handwritten letter from Fredeline. What she said in her letter was a reminder of how important the letters I write to the children are. Her letter to me was so long that she actually had to staple an additional page to the form normally used. It warmed my heart to read her words. I am sharing a portion of her own writing and the English translation below.
Fredeline‘s Letter Excerpts
English Translation –
“Today I feel so happy to be able to answer your letter finally. Above all, how are you and your family? I want to tell you that I am happy to be your sponsored child. I am glad to receive your letter and any other things because my first sponsors did not make so much effort to write me so often like you do. I want to tell you that I love you for that. I hope this feeling is strengthening throughout the coming years. It never snows in Haiti because it is a tropical country. For this reason it is almost warm during the whole year. I would like to see some snow, to feel how it is exactly. What do you do on snowing season? In my country Valentine Day is generally the celebrating with chocolate. But as for me, flowers and heart are more important to me. I really loved the song you wrote me on my birthday. It is funny!” …
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
And now there are nine! Nine children – that’s how many I support with a monetary commitment each month. But just as important as the monetary commitment is the commitment to communicate with these children on a regular basis – to remember them by keeping a regular correspondence to them going, to remember them on special occasions, and to continue to pray for them daily.
After deciding to sponsor Fredeline in December 2013, when the new year arrived I was so excited about sponsoring her that I wanted to do more. During the January timeframe, I chose three additional children from Haiti – first Chalanda, then Anne, then Anold. After choosing the four in Haiti, I must have been making up for lost time because the next month I decided to begin considering children in Africa. I started questioning myself as to how many children I felt I could comfortably sponsor now. I say ‘comfortably’ because a commitment to these children is a big responsibility. These children get so excited when they are chosen by a sponsor, and it is up to each sponsor to live up to his/her end of the deal. I knew I could do more. So in February I chose Rosine and Akoete, both from Togo, and Emeliya from Ethiopia. Then in March, I chose the final two – for now – Hasimat and Kigongo, both from Uganda.
These are the nine precious children I have chosen to support in my role as sponsor. I am happy with my decision to do this, and I only wish I had done it sooner!
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
It all started last December. It was almost Christmas Day. After learning there would be no additional family members to join my husband and me on this holiday, I was feeling a little empty inside. I had recently joined a couple of friends for lunch, and one of them had mentioned that she was supporting a nursing student in one of the African countries. A lady in Sunday School had also recently mentioned that she and her daughter were supporting a girl named Brunhilda who lived in one of the Eastern European countries. Learning about their experiences, combined with my own inner urge to put more focus on others during the holiday season, helped spur me to start reviewing organizations which support children worldwide. After doing much research, I chose Compassion International. Getting on their website and viewing all the children’s faces and backgrounds was almost overwhelming — so many precious faces with so much need in so many countries. I decided to focus on the Haitian children. One by one I viewed their profiles … and then I stopped at Fredeline‘s profile. There was something about her smile that pulled me to her, and once I had seen her, I knew I wanted to sponsor her. That’s how my child sponsorships began.
© 2014 MYCOMPASSIONCHILDREN
My Compassion Children 