Do You Love a Letter Like I Love a Letter?

There are so many things that I love. I love these fall days with a blaze of leaves against a Carolina blue sky. I love an unexpected lunch with Hubby. I love a little red dog that has to sit as close to me as possible.

And I love a letter.

A hand-written, personal note just for me. I'll clarify by saying that I'm personally a terrible letter writer, so I'll be undyingly appreciative of any note that you write to me, but you might not get one in return for a long time. Sad. But true.

So I felt terrible about facing the stack of unanswered letters from our sponsored child, Manuel. We are connected to him through Compassion International, and we love him like another arm of our family. Despite my tendency to avoid rather than face overdue responsibilities, our family sat at the table to write to Manuel. We told him about how we love soccer too and how tall he's grown and how proud we are that he's excelling in school.

When I went to the Compassion site today to give for Manuel's birthday and Christmas gift, I saw a wonderful new way to bless children that I'd like to share with you.

Here's what one sponsor had to say about the letters that we write to our sponsored children:

"Sponsor or no sponsor, turns out what every kid really wants is a letter. A letter to tell them they are special and loved and beautiful and necessary and that they matter much, much more than their circumstances may tell them.

When you’ve stood in a corrugated iron shack that houses a family of five who barely escaped a mud slide and watched them pull an envelope of letters that stretch back for years out from under the mattress pad you know you’re in the presence of something special.

Paper and ink can be an anchor in the storm."

Turns out that these kids love letters too. Like a treasure. Like a lifeline.

So here's how you can send a lifeline to a child in Ecuador for next to nothing--you don't even have to be a regular Compassion sponsor.

Dayspring has partnered with Compassion to send unsponsored children Christmas cards. Follow this link to Dayspring's site where you can design a card to be sent to a child for as little as $1.99.

Send a child in Ecuador a little love right from your own house. Please let me know if you participate and let's encourage each other to do this small but powerful act of kindness!