If You Sponsor a Kid, Write to Them

Compassion International booster Shaun Groves recently took a trip to the Dominican Republic and shared a story about an 11-year-old sponsored child named Daniel:

The conversation eventually turned to his sponsor.  Daniel said his sponsor is a man named Benny who has written him once in the last four years.  “Do you write Benny?” I asked.  “All the time,” he said.

After hearing about all the care Benny’s $32 a month provides for Daniel—education, nutrition, friendships, spiritual mentoring, medicine—I asked Daniel, “If Benny were here, what would you tell him?” I expected some variation on “thank you.” Instead, Daniel looked into our camera and said, “Write to me, please.” And that’s all.

Ouch.

I can sympathize with Benny. It’s hard to find time to sit down and write a letter, never mind the complicated issues involved in corresponding with a child in a foreign country who you’re supporting. I’ve talked about that difficulty before. But I think the only solution is to suck it up and do it. It’s going to be hard and awkward to forge a relationship, but that’s the only way to do it.

So if you do sponsor a child, I encourage you to drop them a line. I think building that relationship is a way to open your heart and start to do more than just send your $32 a month. Sending that monthly amount is huge, but we’re in trouble if we think that’s enough. Compassion International even has an online form you can use to send them a note and make it easier.

City Pages’ Best of the Twin Cities 2008

The City Pages recently released their Best of the Twin Cities list for 2008. I’m always eager to see who made the cut, but as I get into it I’m usually disappointed. It seems like you have to be way too hip to get all the jokes and references and be way too social (and rich) to actually experience all the best of’s.

Though they do offer a Google map, which is pretty cool (and lets you visually see the hipness centered around Minneapolis).