Letters from Africa

Meet our 4th child....

This is Moses, our 4th child.  Jay and I together started sponsoring him through Compassion when we were just dating, almost engaged in 2002.  He lives in Kenya and both of his parents are blind.  Moses has worked in the fields and done the housework since he was able as a young boy.  He stole our hearts from the day we met him in this picture to the right when he was only a little tot at 4 years old.  We have watched him grow up and communicated with him through letters over the past 8 years.  He is so appreciative of our sponsorship of him and always sends us pictures that he has drawn with his letters.

We even tried to arrange a meeting with him when we went to Kenya in January of 2008 but due to time and money constraints, we weren't able to do so.

That little 4 year old boy now has grown up and today is a special day because it is his 12th birthday!  It has been amazing to share these years with him even though we have never literally met him.  Our kids love him and pray for him and his family.  They have pictures of him up in their rooms and he is just one of us, part of the family.

Every year we send him a Christmas present and he sends us a letter back letting us know what he did with the money. It is so neat and eye-opening to see how well the money is spent.  We just received a letter this week from him with that exact info on it.  With his Christmas money, he didn't buy toys, candy, or other things that we might buy for our  children.  It is always a joy for him to just buy the necessities, things that he couldn't have without our help.  Check it out for yourself...

Instead of toys, he bought clothes, flour, tea and corn!  If I put that in my children's stocking they would look at me in disbelief, probably followed by an ugly, selfish comment or whine.  Boy are we blessed beyond belief and we don't even realize it most of the time!

Happy 12th Birthday Moses!  We love you and you will always be our 4th child!

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Also this week we received another letter from Uganda.  I was taken aback when I saw the stamp and wondered why in the world someone from Africa was sending a letter addressed to my children.  That will make you think and get defensive real quick.  Ok, maybe just me.

But I was absolutely thrilled when I realized that it was the recipient of one of the Christmas shoeboxes we sent before Christmas!  It is soooo cool to see that it was received, needed and appreciated.  It was received by a little boy in a family of 5, a youth pastor there.  They gave us their email address and wanted to keep in touch with us!  It was a joy of mine to see my children's faces light up when they understood what had happened.  They participated in putting the boxes together, we prayed for the kids that would receive them and their families, and they helped us present them in the service at church.  Now they got to see and witness the fruit of their labor.  It was a sweet moment!

The Lord has given Jay and I a heart for Africa for so many reasons and this just adds to the list.  Thank you Lord!