It is hard to imagine that a letter means so much to a child immersed in poverty. One thing that Compassion stresses as equal to financial sponsorship is emotional sponsorship; personally investing in a child's life through handwritten letters. On the social networking sight for Compassion International sponsors, child sponsors report with joy when they receive a letter from one of their 'children'. They often post those letters for other sponsors to read. The sweet words of gratitude and love from the children convinces me that their sponsors' letters do make an impact on them.
What happens if someone wants to sponsor a child financially but does not want to or is unable to write letters to that child? Compassion has a plan in place...correspondence sponsors. Correspondence sponsors step in and take over the letter-writing aspect of sponsorship. Compassion matches up each prospective correspondence sponsor with a child needing correspondence, and a relationship is born. Children actually view the letter-writing sponsor as their real sponsor as letters and photos are exchanged. The children form a bond over the miles with someone who truly cares for them.
Soon after financially sponsoring Andreas from Indonesia and Thamyres from Brazil (and sending them letters immediately!) I called Compassion to sign up for the correspondence sponsor list. Within a few days I was rewarded with three new little faces on my account, Johan and Noriel from the Philippines and Dita from Indonesia. In His awesome way, God immediately gave me an overwhelming love for these children. And I knew He would equip me to write the words that would brighten these children's world and show them their value in Jesus' eyes. Most of all he gave me the desire to lift each of them up in prayer daily, that their precious hearts and souls would be protected in a world full of hurt.
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