Letters, Letters!

I love my job! We are starting to get correspondence flowing between the orphans and their sponsors. It is really precious to read what some of them write. One little girl drew a picture of a cigarette with a line through it and a caption that said, "Don't sock!" There was an "m" inserted above it which corrected it to "Don't smock!" Some of the children ask for prayer as they are struggling with illness or school work. Some share their favourite Bible verse or talk about what they want to be when they grow up. Those are the ones that make me cry, because statistically, some of these children will not live long lives due to HIV/AIDS. They are already affected by it, having lost one or both parents to AIDS, and the odds of them going to university are not good. YET....

The encouragement of one person can be huge, can't it? That's where our orphan centres, the local church, and sponsors come in. Hopefully there will be a whole group of people encouraging these children to keep going, to not give up. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." -Philippians 3:12

The sponsor letters are precious as well. Some write of losing a spouse and can easily relate to the sense of loss these orphans feel. Some write of life lessons learned. All are encouraging and uplifting. The power of the written word is tremendous. How often have you read and reread a letter that was special to you?

Here's your challenge for the day: write a letter to someone and encourage them. You never know how much it might mean, how timely it may be, or what the impact will produce in that person's life.