Letter from Leniel

Loved this letter.  Short and to the point!

Dear Beverly Sykes,

I thank you for all of your letters and gifts.  Do you eat fried chicken?  Continue to pray for me.  I send you a hug.

Leniel

Letter from Somai

Dear Beverly,

Greetings to you in Jesus name.  On behalf of your sponsored child I am writing to you.  By God's grace Somai and his family are fine.  He is studying well.  He was promoted to Class I. 

He received your letter and beautiful family photos.  He love your photos very much.  Specially he praying for your mum and your family members.  Every Sunday he attend the Sunday School.  He love to sing a song. 

Here climate is very hot.  Somai is very excited for summer vacation.  Please continue to pray for hisstudies.  Godblessyou.

Ella
(Project staff)

Letters from Fred

 This one is dated May 21, 2012

Dear Auntie Sykes

Christian Greetings!

Thank you for the toys, the Peter Pan book and the clothes.  Thank you for giving us those things.  Peter Pan book is good to read.  What do you feel that I am writing to you now?  For me, I am feeling good.  Please pray that I will be mre intelligent.  I will be in grade 3.

My mother is the one waking me up.  I often play.  I am the one washing the dishes.  Your grandchildren are very cute.  Thank you for the pictures.  God bless you!

Love,
Fred

This one is dated May 25, 2012

Dear Auntie Sykes,

Christian Greetings!

I will be in grade three this opening of classes.  During the camp, I went home every night and I just went back to the camp during the day.  I was so happy.  I am so kind to my mother and father and also to the teachers here in the church.  I joined the Daily Vacation Bible School.

Thank you once again for all you give.  The clothes, bible characters, car, candy and many more.  What is your favorite story in the Bible?  I would like to know.

Thank you for everything.  God bless you!  Please pray that I will be more kind.  I love you.

Love,
Fred

Letter from Emmanuella

It was nice to receive a letter from Emmanuella.   I've discovered something, though.  I think she is not the first child who reads that my mother is 93 years old to think that she is SICK.  I have received several letters saying that they are praying for her recovery.  

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Thank you for your letters and prayers for me and my family.

Tell grandmother not to be sick.  If I am invisible I will travel to other countries to say hi to all friends of your family.  I love to hear Lacie can sit on her own.  Good job for her.

I learned a new poem last week entitled "A Wish for Peace in Africa" at project center.  Have you recited a poem before?

I pray that grandmom, your mother, will get well soon.

Psalm 24:1 -- the world and all that is in it belong to the Lord, the earth and all who live on it are his.

Letter from Fred

Fred is now writing his own letters, which is very good, though I will miss getting the letters written by his mother.

Dear Auntie Sykes,

Christian greetings!  I will be in grade 3 now.  I am Fred.  I am happy that I am the one writing now.  Thank you so much for the letters.  I am excited for more letters.  I promise not to do bad things for ou.  Now I will say "I love you, sponsor."  Do you have children's camp?  We will have on May 1.  Please pray that Iwill learn the Bible more.  Thank you very much.

Love, Fred

Letter from Murugi

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Let me take this chance to greet you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour.  God is so wonderful for he has given me such an awesome sponsor.  I thank God for all.

This Easter holiday has been marvelous and I hope that you celebrated well too.  Jesus Christ has shown us a lot of love by dying for us on the cross.  By him we are saved and we are able to get the eternal life from him that is great. 

I attended church service and I am able to learn about the love of God who gave his only begotten son to the people of the world.  This is so amazing.  I believe that you have accepted Jesus as your personal saviour so that you may have the eternal life through him.

My family members are doing well too and they also celebrated the Easter holiday in style.  I have much to share with you next time.  Thank you so much for your good support.

Yours faithfully,
Murugi.

Letter from Briana

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Briana warmly greets you and your family in the name of Jesus Christ and she is glad to write to you, hear from you, and to know if your mother is getting better.  She thanks you for the pictures, especially the one where you left her a place at the table.  She said that if she was invisible she would go to your house and sit at the table to celebrate with your family and play with Brianna and feed your dog, the one you love a lot. 

She would like to know where you go to church and if it is a baptist or a catholic one.  She always prays for you and your family so that God could give you strength, let you be healthy and protect you and she would like you to do the same for her.  She thanks you for the gift because she bought a beautiful dress with it and she was very glad about that.

May God bless you!

A special gift

I received such a special gift today.

A couple of months ago, I heard from a woman who was going to Kenya and offered to take my child Murugi a doll or something.  It would be something she would buy because she had no room in her suitcase for me to make up a package, as I did for Fred.  I thanked her but said that as Murugi is 19, she wouldn't be interested in dolls.  But she said she would try to take some pictures of her for me.

I actually had forgotten all about that.  I remembered briefly, when I heard from Fred thanking me for his gifts, but I had not yet heard from Murugi.

Tonight I received an e-mail from the woman who had gone to Kenya, apologizing for not having contacted me sooner and telling me about her visit with Murugi.

In my talk with her, she wanted to know why you weren't able to come but hoped that you would be healthy and be able to come visit her one day as she wants you to be proud of her. Her dreams are now to be a businesswoman rather than a nurse. She is in college program and she hopes to become rich so that she can help others like herself. As we talked, she wanted to know if it was true that we Americans kept dogs in the house! She and her friend were laughing so hard at the thought.

They asked too if we Americans would call her, a black person, a dirty N---- and tell her to go away. This shocked me as I couldn't imagine what brought on this thought, but I reassured her that if she did come to the US, it might be hard but that not everyone was this way and that the church would accept her with loving arms and help her.

She mentioned the idea of becoming rich a few times - so if I were her sponsor and I tried to be her mentor, I might remind her that rich is good but gently remind her that "love of money" can quickly take over ....though I have a hard time trying to say such a thing in the face of my own wealth and such poverty around us.

She really wanted me to share email information with her, but I told her that I was sad not to be able to do so but wanted to follow guidelines. It would appear as though she does have some access to email, so that is a thought for when she graduates.

Embu is very rural and is considered a village. There are some things that you might find within a town but it takes some time to get to this project but they are taking care of their girls and boys

I loved the photos especially.  I had only seen one photo of Murugi since I began writing to her and she was so solemn.  It's so nice to see her smiling and to see her with the photos and letters I've been sending her.

It makes me feel more like she is a part of our family.

The woman who visited her promised video some time when her life settle down again.  How special that will be!

Letter from Anjali

Dear Beverly Sykes,

I am fine.  I hope same with you.  Indian food is really tasty food.  Indians' marriage is very fine.  I think you enjoyed football game.  Buddy photos are looking very cute.  I sit Buddy liking you very much! That's why he snuggles in your arm.

I am studying well.  Now we are in summer.  The temperature is very high.  We have mangoes in this season.

I am praying for your health.   I am very thankful to you.

After annual examination I will going to my mother-in-law's village.  I am not playing here because the temperature is very high.  How is your health.  I am praying for youahnd your family members.  I thank you for your loving sponsorship.

Your loving child,
M. Anjali.

Thank You from Fred

This picture brings me tears.  It is Fred, with the gifts I was able to send to him with someone who was going to the Philippines.  This is the letter that accompanied it:

Dear Auntie Beverly Sykes.

Christian Greetings!  Thank you for the gifts I received.  Thank you for the little silver heart for my mother and the little bear for my sister.  The two t-shirts are fit for me.  Thank you for the Peter Pan book, markers, stickers, jelly beans, flash cards, butterfly toys, key chain, toy cars, smiley bag tag, glitter cards, magnet, milk chocolate and magic towels.  Thank you for your letter.  We play the toys.  I have read the book.  Thank you that you love me.  Please pray that I will do right.

Love,
Fred J. Cardinal

Letter from Anjali

I can't remember when this letter came.  It was at least a month ago, but I'm not posting it until today.

Dear Beverly Sykes

Greetings to you in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.  I am fine here.  I hope same with you there.  I received 4 letters from you.  Yes, the air balloons are very special to me, because we have no air balloons in our town.

How is your grandchildren?  How are Ned and Marta?  I am very happy that the empty chair at the table is for me.  I am thinking when I am sitting with you in the empty chair.

I like the fog.  I also love the fog, but here we have no fog.  I have some subject in my class now.  My favorite subject is English.  I am also like music.  I am praying for you and your family members.  I thank you for your love and kind letters.

Yours loving child,
Anjali

Letter from Fred

Dear Auntie Sykes.

Christian Greetings!!!

We hope that all is well there.   Buddy is really cute.  Here, we have lots of dogs just roaming around.  Some are free to go from house to house.  That is their way for survival.

We know that you live both in beach and mountains.  Here, we are on a flat land.  Still we have fields in our city.  We must travel also about 30 minutes so we can go to the nearest beach.

By the way how is your mother now?  Is she feeling well?

Fred's favorite team is their center,called the Jabez players.  Last year they won the game during their Chidren's Camp.

We are glad you prayed for us during the earthquake.  Now we cannot feel any of earthquake any more.

Please pray that Fred will alwaysbe in safety.  He will be in third grade son and your prayers are helping him a lot.  Thank you for everything.  God bless you!

Love,
(Fred's Mother)

New Photo

I received a new photo of Leniel, who has grown so much since I first saw his photo!

Letter from Emmanuella

Dear Beverly Sykes,

I pray that God almighty bless you and your family.  I really appreciate your Christmas gift, prayers, letters and wonderful pictures.

Yes, we also take our lost tooth and throw it on the roof, hoping it will grow again.

I have been taught how to play the trumpet.

How is Brianna and Lacie and your father and mum?

I pray that God should protect Lacie and Brianna.

I want you to pray for me to pass my coming exams.

Emmanuella Aniagyel

Letter from Theresa

Today I had a letter from Theresa, along with a photo of the things she was able to get for Christmas, with the money sent by sponsors.  While I love the photo, how I long to see a picture of this little girl smiling.

Again, I have more information about her since she is only 5 and not able to write (or dictate) letters by herself.  So I know that she gets water from a tap instead of the river or well; her house floor is made of dirt.  She does not have electricity in her house.  Her house is made of mud with a tin roof.  The comments by her coordinator are:

Theresa is living in a mud house in which all the brothers, mother and father are in one room.  She is well and today, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Theresa says she will play ampe today and will be playing with friends.  She says she will like to play ampe and making rounds with her friends. to make them enjoy their games.  She says thank you so much for your love and prayers.  She loves you too. 

Letter from Anjali

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Greetings to you in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.  I am fine.  I hope that same with you.  How is your health?  How is your family members.  My family  members are fine.  I am studying well now.  We are enter into summer season.  The weather is getting hot.  We are in Lent season.  We have prayers on Wednesday and Friday at night times.  Recently we celebrated harvest festival.  All family members went to church to take the blessings of food after we take part in auction.

I am preparing for my annual examinations.  Pray for good results.  We will be preparing for Easter.  We will be celebrating watermelon in this season.  How is your weather?

How is your family members.  I am sending advance Easter greetings to you and your famiy members.  I am praying for you and your family.  Remember me in your prayers.  Once again, I thank you for everything.

Your loving child,
M. Anjali.

Message from Murugi

Murugi is 19 years old and lives in Kenya.  The other day I received a package from a guy named Greg Birgy, who had led a sponsor tour to Kenya.  They visited Murugi's center and took this picture:

They also had each child trace around his or her hand, decorate the paper, and put on each finger something they are asking you to pray for.  Birgy writes, "The hope was that you could symbolically "join hands" in prayer with your sponsored child by placing your hand over the traced outline of your sponsored child's hand as you prayed."  He also said he hoped this would be a tangible reminder to pray for our children.

I was very touched by this "gift" from my Compassion child.

First Letter from Somai

Somai is a new correspondence child from India.  It seems that his first letter got here very quickly.  He's only 6, so this is more "about" him than "from" him. The first page gives the name of his parents (who are 35 and 30) and his favorite food (rice, dal, egg) favorite color (red), favorite game (football), and farorite song ("Hindi Song").  Given the choice of city, town, village, riverside or mountain, he checks that he lives in a town.

On the back side is the "Message for my sponsor":

Dear Beverly,
Warm greetings to you in Jesus most holy name.  I am writing to you by God'sgrade.  Somai and his family are fine and doing well.  Somai is belong to Malto tribe in ?Therkland, India.  Generally they are very poor and non-literate. Literacy rate is very low.  Somai is the first generation to attend the school in his family.  By God's grace his family members are accept Jesus Christ.

His parents are very happy and thankful to you.  Thank you so much for your love and concern for this child.  God bless you.

Yours in Christ,
Ella
(Project staff)

There was also a drawing by Somai.

Letter from Wainaina

I was amazed to receive a letter from 14 year old Wainaina, who almost NEVER writes.  He is obviously not a writer, as I can tell from this letter, but it is still nice to hear from him.  Ironically, in this week where we have lost not one but TWO of our good friends, he sends me the psalm that is generally read at funerals.  :(

Dear Beverly Sykes:

First is greetings from me.  I am fine and I believe you are fine too.  For know I am happy because of writing this letter to you.  I hope you and your family are fine.

I am very happy for it.  I am informing you that now our school is a boarding school.  When I am in school, I usually pray for both you and your family so that God may protect you.  In school, I am doing well and my performance is now improving, so I thank God for this.  I am working hard to pas my (?kere?) well.  May God bless you.

Read Psalms 23:1-6

He is, however, a wonderful artist and includes these drawings.

New Kiva Loan

Mlongo Civunde is a married woman in Kenya with two children, both of whom attend school. She owns a house that has neither electricity nor piped water. Her greatest monthly expenses are food, clothing and medical bills.

For the past six years, she has operated a tailoring business, selling from home to her neighbours and passersby. She faces the major challenge of increased prices in her business. Mlongo dreams of expanding her business in the future.

With the Kshs 50,000 loan, she wants to purchase cloth materials for her tailoring business.