I'd like to thank one of my readers (you know who you are!), whose kind words tonight reminded me of what I have been trying to do with this blog for the past 11 months. So I am reinvigorated, despite my fatigue, to get back down to business.
I have some news: Michael and I have a new sponsor child. Her name is Mwansiti, and she is an 11-year-old girl from Kenya. We're sponsoring through Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. As I had mentioned at the end of last year, I have really enjoyed their blog, and my mom has been a sponsor for a number of years.
A photo of Mwansiti. The scanner is buried, so I took a picture of the picture.
I thought it would be interesting to have a different kind of sponsor experience in addition to Mayan Families. For one, this is a different country. For another, this is a large, long-running organization. It doesn't offer the immediacy of contact you can have through Mayan Families (for example, getting photos emailed to your inbox of your sponsored kids receiving their school supplies, which is brilliant!). But it does focus on building a lifelong relationship with a person through letter writing.
As a child, I had a number of penpals, and I remember the unique joy of handwriting and sending and then receiving a letter. I fear this art will probably be lost by the time I have any children of penpal age. But CFCA uses this as the basis of the connection between sponsor and sponsored. It's intriguing...and soul-satisfying -- the idea of each getting to know the other as a person and a friend, that that is part and parcel of this relationship.
What's great is that the organization offers mission awareness trips to various countries that have programs. These trips are very reasonably priced, so they make it a very real possibility to visit your sponsored child, even in a place like Kenya. So, someday, Michael and I plan to go there!
But what I like even more is that the organization gives Americans who would never think of traveling to the developing world the opportunity and the motivation to do so. I can think of few things more exciting than that.
So, off we go with this new relationship!
I commissioned a card for my first letter to Mwansiti from a friend of mine who has a shop on Etsy: Lucky Sevens Card Design. Now I just have to write it and get it in the mail!
I want to know: what are some of your favorite sponsorship and/or penpal experiences?
