Last night I sent electronic Christmas cards to our Compassion sponsored kids. It took me less than 10 minutes of cutting and pasting into a form on the Compassion.ca website. I even included a picture of our family (including Rachel — that’ll completely goof them up!). Now usually we send them handwritten letters in response to their wondeful letters (I love the translations and the honesty in the ones they send. I should start posting them here. Hmmmm….), but Compassion sent me this nice convenient way to send them an extra greeting that I said I’d do (Nancy usually does the letter writing).
When I was sending them, it got me thinking about this upcoming weekend (Thanksgiving) and how much we have here — even if we’re poor. We send them $25 or so for Christmas and birthdays. They buy a multitude of stuff, but usually it revolves around food or supplies for their family, and usually something for them. And then every year we get these wonderful pictures back showing them standing SO proudly in front of the stuff they were able to buy, accompanied by a wonderful letter thanking us SO much for our generosity. It was $25!! I loaded my Tim’s Card with $50 the other day!!!
This weekend, I hope that we will all think hard about all the blessings we have — family, friends, possessions, safety, health, jobs (or social assistance if that’s the unfortuante case). I know that I often complain about things I wish I had and shouldn’t. We don’t need the latest and greatest. We don’t need the luxuries. They’re nice to have, but we don’t NEED them.
We have seven sponsored kids through Compassion and I wish we could sponsor more (I don’t say this to brag at all!). It’s one of the best things we’ve done ever. Seeing these kids go from poverty to being healthy kids and wanting to give back to their community as way of showing their thankfulness makes the small amount of money and time we give MORE than worth it.
God has SO richly blessed us in this country. The least we can do is give back. Consider sponsoring a child (we’re biased towards Compassion (http://www.compassion.ca)) or even send a gift this Christmas through the “Gifts of Compassion” (http://www.compassion.ca/Shop/) or the “Christmas Gift Fund” (https://www.compassion.ca/donation.asp?intid=6).
Have a great weekend! And remember to be thankful!!
TTFN
PS. If you want to see pictures of “our kids” click here.
Last night you had an e-card experience, probobly around the same time I was in Papyrus… I bought 50 xmas cards.. ugg
TIS THE SEASON
<3 Kel