The Importance of Letter Writing

This weekend I was blessed to be able to attend an advocate gathering in Seattle, WA. It was a bit of a drive for me, and I ended up having my two daughters along, but I'm so glad I went. Not only was it wonderful to connect with other Compassion advocates, it was very informative and inspiring, and we got to hear from Ben Mwangi Kinyanjui - a formerly sponsored child from Kenya.

You'll definitely want to click on his name to read more about Ben and his story, but I also want to share a few things he shared with us.

At age 10 Ben was registered into Compassion's program and soon learned he was now a "sponsored" child. He received 4 letters from his sponsors that first year....not too shabby....but he then waited 11 long years to received his 5th letter.

Yes, you read that correctly.....11 years.

It was time for him to complete Compassion's program and he was required to write his final departure letter to his sponsors. It was then that his sponsors responded.

"I thank God I had sponsors. I thank God they sponsored me all those years. But they didn't write."

Since coming to America, Ben has been able to meet his former sponsors and share with them how their silence  affected him. He says they didn't know what they were doing, but now they do and now they are good sponsors. They sponsor another child and Ben reminds them periodically through Facebook to write to their sponsored child.

"I insist it's important. Let's write letters."

Ben and his wife now sponsor four children of their own, and correspond with 14 more. I think it's so cool that God is using Ben in this way - to pour into the lives of children who weren't hearing from their sponsors, just like he experienced.

"Encourage your kids. You never know what they will turn out to be."

It just happens to be letter writing time for me, and even though I'm pretty good about writing regularly, I'm thankful for this encouragement.

Ben with my daughters.