Fellow advocate and sponsor Dannette McKellar, shared this story with our region. With her permission, I am posting it here to share with you. I hope you are encouraged and will take time to write your child in the next day or so.
“I must be too ugly for a sponsor to care about me.” Erlan was a young boy from a Buddhist family when he registered with Compassion. His first two sponsors never sent letters and sponsored him only a short time. Disappointed and feeling sad, Erlan wanted to stop going to the project.
But Erlan’s third sponsor was different. His sponsor family sent stickers, bookmarks, and many letters. They encouraged Erlan. They told him he was handsome and had his picture on their refrigerator. Erlan felt special and grew confident. He became a Christian. After being sponsored 9 years, Erlan attended the University. He now works for Compassion, where he enjoys encouraging children in Indonesia.
Erlan shared his story with our group of Advocates to reinforce the impact that sponsors have on their children by writing letters ... or not writing. As Advocates, it’s not enough for us to sign up sponsors. We need go a step further and encourage sponsors to write to their children.
“Sponsorship is not about the money,” says Erlan. “It’s about relationship. It’s about grace.” Erlan experienced God’s grace through the love and encouragement of his sponsor, and that made all the difference in his life.
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On Compassion's blog, there was an excellent post yesterday about the impact of letters. Be sure to read it.
