Fred

I received not one, but TWO letters from Fred today. One was another thank you for his Christmas gift. The other was a thank you for the family gift.

Dear Auntie Sykes

First of all I would like to say hello to all of you!!!

Thank you for the Christmas card and the bookmark you send for Fred. He like very much. And a beautiful picture wedding. Where they celebrate their wedding (I think this was Walt's cousin's daughter's wedding).

About Fred, he study hard so that he can get a high grade and he can passed on the next level. Right now we recover also our loneliness since my daughter pass by last December 6, 2010.

By the way, Fred join playground demonstration because our city celebrate the feast and all the school have a participation. So please continue to pray for us that God will strengthen our family circle.

God bless you!

Fred and Esther

I received not one, but two thank you letters from Compassion kids today. Esther says that for her Christmas money she bought new clothes. She also answered one of my letters where I suggested that she tell me five things about herself (and I told her five things about myself). Her 5 things were

1. I have tan skin and my friends often mock me, but I keep giving thanks for the grace of God.
2. I also love to read. Usually I choose to read novels and teen age magazines.
3. My favorite color is white or light purple
4. I often go with my friends to make photos
5. my favorite subject is the Javanese language

Fred is telling me what his family bought with the family gift I sent at Christmas. "We bought blouses, t-shirt, shoes, shorts, sandals, umbrella. We used it for Sunday. The t-shirt and the shoes Fred used for his playground demonstrations at school. The rest of the money we bought groceries for our daily needs. Your gift is a great help for us, so from the bottom of our heart and our family we would say thank you very much. May God continue to bless you.


I'd love to know what this means. I think I'm going to send a copy of this back to him and ask him to explain it!

New Kiva Loan

Mwanasiti is a married woman from Kenya with one child who attends school. Her husband is a driver and he supports his family financially. They live in a rental house that has electricity and piped water. Her greatest monthly expense is school fees.

For the past three years, she has operated a tailoring business in a shop where neighbors and passersby are her potential customers.

With the 80,000 KES she is requesting, she wants to purchase a motorcycle and bundles of clothes for resale. Mwanasiti faces a major challenge of competition from those who sell similar products. She dreams of building her own house in the future.

This is my 31st Kiva loan. I chose her because in this photo she is obviously pregnant and I have a soft spot in my heart for pregnant women!

Briana

There is a new photo of Briana.

I saw that the photo had been changed on the Compassion web site and wrote to ask if they could send me a .jpg, since I had not received my copy in the mail yet.

Victor

I received information about Victor today. This has got to be the last child I agree to sponsor!


He was born October 9, 2000. He lives on the plains of Jaihuayco in Bolivia. Where he lives is home to ~10,300 people. He lives with his mother. While is father is alive, he does not live with the mother, so Victor's mother is a single mom and there is no man in the house. The mother is "sometimes employed" (the average employee in Jaihuayco makes ~$65 a month).

Victor has no siblings, apparently. He likes playing with cars, running, singing, playing hide-and-seek, and other group games. His school performance is average and he attends Bible School

Clarisse

I finally heard from Clarisse, the woman in Rwanda that I am sponsoring through Women to Women, Int'l. The picture is on a hand made note card. She writes:

How are you doing? May you have peace. I would like to thank you for your compassion and for helping me to improve my life. I feel so happy now and I believe that your support will help me a lot.

Thank you. May God keep assisting us.

Fred

So glad to get my copy of Fred's new pictures!

Shallon and Leniel

I returned home from Santa Barbara to find the introductory packet for Leniel (my new correspondence child) and a nice letter from Shallon, written January 1. Leniel's packet was just a repeat of what I posted earlier, but this is Shallon's letter:

Dear my mother in Christ, Beverly Sykes,

I first thank God who has given me this chance to communicate with you. How are you and how is your life? Back to me, I am okey, doing my works in these holidays. I am very proud of you and your family members of sending me another calendar, Washington and Christmas card. I think you very much because you give me a gift of Christmas. This gift I bought the following items:

Skirt
Blouse
Stockings
Thanksgiving
Photo
Sweets

I bought these items in the money you have sent to me.

How was Christmas? Back to me, Christmas was very good. I request for prayers from you because I am going in another step. I send my warmly greetings to your mother, Peach, Ned, Kathy. But how is Kathy's lungs?

I would like to ask you a question. Write in full [she has something here that looks like a Delta followed by a C--I don't know what that means].

I am very glad to hear that you and your husband attended the wedding of your cousin.

In another calendar you have sent to me I would like to ask you a question: what do you celebrate on April 19th because it is highlighted and what do you know by the word Hanukkah, 21st December.

Thank you for sending me the photo of your president. I would like to send you a verse. It is in 1 Peter Chapter 3, Verse 8. [I looked it up. It is Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.]

I thank you for everything you have sent for me. Let me stop here.

Yours loving daughter Katsuiime Shallon

Welcome Victor

I've added Victor to the family. I don't know too much about him yet.

Thank you from Anjali

I received a thank you from Anjali for her Christmas gifts. I always imagine her being tied to a chair and forced to write SOMETHING to me. She has been my sponsored child the longest and I know her the least. But this is not about me it's about helping her to have a better life...and I do have several other children who write wonderful letters.

First Letter

I've received the first letter from Wainaina (Erick). In addition to filling out the form with basic information, he adds,

I am very happy to have you as my new friend. Thank you so much. I will be praying for you. I want you to pray so I can perform well in my studies.

Welcome, Leniel

What a lovely surprise to discover I've been assigned Leniel, from the Dominican Republic, as a new correspondence child. I don't have any information on him yet, other than that he is 5 years old and appeared magically on my account information this afternoon.

More information will be coming, as it becomes available!

Selamat Hari Natal

That is "Merry Christmas" in Indonesia. There was a letter from Esther today.

Beverly Sykes:

Peace in the love of Jesus Christ. Thanks for the letter you sent. I'm so happy to hear about Beverly. Yes, I have 2 cousins, Febi and Risa. They're cute kids. I often meet them because our house is near. When I see other families I just watch them and feel happy for them.

Now I'm facing the final Semester I exam. I hope I get good grades.

How about Christmas there?

I wish Beverly and family there Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love greetings. I thank you for the Christmas gift.

Letter from Briana

It's always such a surprise to hear from Briana, who lives in Haiti. I took her on shortly before the earthquake and there has been such chaos in that country for the last year (even though she's in the north, which escaped damage), that I chalk up the irregular letters to that. So it was a delight to hear from her today.

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Briana greets you in God's name. How are you doing with your family? Today Briana is very happy to write you, by the grace of God. She is not too bad in spite of the cholera problem which have in Haiti. God protects all her family.

Briana did her exam for the first trimester, so she obtains a good grade of 6.99. She will have a nice Christmas with her family. She says you have prayed for her to have a nice Christmas and also for her to do good grades, the same way she will pray for you too, with your family.

She thanks you for the letters. She is very happy for the book. She sees Joseph, Mary and Jesus. To celebrate the birth of Jesus, Briana went to church.

Compassion's project will organize a nice feast for them in the 24th of December. She wishes you a happy Christmas. Briana is very happy to know that your step-mother (she means mother-in-law) is doing well, she is healing. Greet her for Briana.

She thanks you because when came to see your step-mother even though you were driving the car but you were thinking about her. She asks you what kind of vehicle do you drive?

Briana loves you a lot. Thank you. May God bless you more for the Christmas gift that you sent for her. She will guy a dress with it, also for the game that have the music that you sent.

Papa li Luma Elisee, Briana's father.

Latest Kiva Loan

I discovered I had $44 in my Kiva account, from loans which had been repaid, which I could re-loan through Kiva, so I have chosen a group in Uganda to loan to.

45-year-old Naume Basiimwe is a member of Mirarikye Abaryakamwe group-Bushenyi. This happy-go-lucky, married mother of 5 has been retailing in Mirarikye for 5 years. Her retail shop attracts many people within her local area. Naume says to take root in this business she got ideas from a close friend. Before that she was doing mostly farming. She still farms, though it is on a smaller scale now. Weekly, this business generates her 200,000 UGX. Naume says with this loan she is going to purchase more retail stock to sell.

I'm all about loaning to a "happy go lucky mother of 5" !!

Sad news from Fred

My heart is breaking for Fred and his family. I sent them a donation for Christmas and thought it strange that I had not heard back in a longer time then usual. Today I received 2 letters and the first one told the tale:

Dear Auntie Sykes,

Christmas Greetings!!

We would like to say to you that thank you very much for the family gift that you had sent to us. We received [amount]. It is a big help because we bought one sack of rice that we used for the burial of Fred's sister. We bought us some of our clothes to wear every Sunday and also groceries for the Christmas eve and for New Year, so our family really appreciate your kindness and generosity to us. Hope that God will continue to bless your work and your family circle.

May God bless you!!

Another letter, dated the same date reads:

Dear Auntie Sykes

Christmas greetings!! Hope this letter will find you wel;l. Auntie Sykes, thank you so much for the stickers, pictures and Christmas card. We are so blessed because of your life.

Auntie Sykes, we're so sad on this Christmas because Fred's sister died last December 6, and she buried last December 15, 2010. Our family experience lonely because one of our family was gone away, but in behalf we are so happy, because April Lyka is in the hand of our almighty God. He doesn't want to suffer her sickness. We love her so much but God really love her.

From our home to the school of Fred, 1 kilometer more or less. Fred sometimes he walk and sometimes he rides. This is the name of Fred's sister: April Lyka. She already died. Danica and Diana. Does your children will spend with you on this Christmas?

Our family asking your prayer that God will able to heal our loneliness. Once again, thank you and God Bless you!!!

Love,
Lyra (Fred's mother)

Letter from Pedro

Hello, dear sponsor Beverly Sykes,

It's a joy for me to write you this letter in this special time. I'm doing well. It's summer here and Christmas is coming. It's very beautiful. Thank you for the Christmas gift of R$24.58. I got a shirt and a car and liked it a lot.

Now I'm on school vacation and I'm happy because I'll have lots of fun and play with my friends.

In school I hope to pass to 5th grade.

I got your letters and pictures of Russia and stickers. Thank you a lot. I'll answer your questions with love: I'm doing well, I have cousins and visit my relatives often.

Sponsor, I'll tell you something that you don't know. I use my right hand to write and use my right foot to score goals in soccer. I like to sing and love reading.

I got your post card from Sacramento and band aid.

I finish this letter missing you. I hope to write you again soon. Warm kisses from me and my family, until next time!

Love, Pedro.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2011.

Shallon

Today I wrote to Shallon to tell her that I will now be her "real" sponsor and not just a "correspondence" sponsor. This week the two of us share a birthday (February 17) and it was just a year ago that I received her information and became her correspondence sponsor.

I'm starting to feel like a Compassion hoarder...but it's all for the good.

New Picture of Pedro

There was a new picture of Pedro in the mail today.

But the interesting thing is that he's wearing the exact same shirt he was wearing in the picture I got of him last year!

2010 ----------------- 2011

To Shallon

Today I made a collage of a walk that I took yesterday and printed it on high gloss paper to send to Shallon, who says she likes to walk.


(I print on high gloss paper because my printer does a lousy job on regular paper, but a lovely job on high gloss)