Today I received my first letter from the Compassion child I sponsored last month. Someone had to write for little 4-year-old Andrew Okwaja, but this letter still melted my heart. I learned about his family, his favorite color, that if he could visit anywhere he would go to his grandmother's, and that he wants me to pray for him to go to school. He said he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. His parents are just 23 and 20...kids themselves. Pictured are my 2 favorite parts of the letter. First, a section called "My Drawings" where Andrew drew some things for me with colored pencils. I can make out a truck but other than that there are just blobs and splashes of color...but a masterpiece nonetheless. The other is on the bottom of the page next to where he will sign when he is older. It is a stamp of his fingerprint. Somehow that smudge of ink makes me feel close to him. It makes me realize how incredible it is that in today's day and age I can have this link to a 4-year-old on the other side of the world.
I'm going to love sponsoring Andrew in the years to come. If you want to build your own relationship with a child in Africa, consider signing up for Compassion today.
We've sponsored a girl in Uganda for 5 or 6 years and it's been so fun for our girls to write her and share bible verses and news about school and life....we've contacted Compassion to see if we can visit her on our way to Ethiopia to pick up Peanut!!
Posted by: Gretchen | November 14, 2008 at 07:54 AM
We've sponsored thru compassion for years ... and twice compassion has had to drop the child we were sponsoring, either due to violence in the area (Guatemala) or the family moved. :( It's heartbreaking, but Compassion hooks you up straight away, with a new child. We now have a girl in Brazil thru compassion & another girl in Brazil thru world vision. We've done it for 13 years now. Blessings to you & your child, he is very blessed to have you for his sponsor! :)
Posted by: pam | November 17, 2008 at 08:15 AM