an update on Juan boy

We received a new picture of Juan in the mail today! I can't believe how much he has changed since last year!



We also received a letter from Juan's teacher and a drawing from Juan :)



His drawings are getting better and better!



Here is what's been going on with Juan since our last update...

*Juan bought clothes and chocolate with the Christmas money we sent him.
*Juan passed his classes and is moving on up to kindergarten!
*He celebrated his 5th birthday at his aunt's house.
*Juan LOVED the bandaids we sent him! He had never seen colorful bandaids before. His teacher said, "They left him enchanted!" Isn't that just precious?!
*Juan thinks Lincoln is cute.
*His teacher said that Juan is a "very good, intelligent, dedicated student."
*Juan is learning the letters of the alphabet, numbers, and is very excited that he is learning to write his name.
*They celebrated Easter at Juan's Compassion Project with a special supper.

It's a Christmas Miracle

I put up a post over a month ago about my Christmas Child, Idris, in hopes of finding him a sponsor before Christmas. Weeks went by and I had no one. I was feeling very discouraged. I continued to pray for him and that God would put it on someone's heart to sponsor Idris.

When I offered to make Idris my Christmas Child, Compassion sent me information about him along with three Christmas cards I could send to people I know asking them to sponsor Idris, if I didn't have someone volunteer. On December 7th, I filled out my three cards that were to be mailed the next day. On December 8th, I received a message from my friend, Alyssa Brown. It said that she had been looking for a way to help others that are less fortunate, that she saw my blog post, and that she wanted to sponsor Idris! I was beyond thrilled! I am so thankful for Alyssa. And I am so excited for Idris! His life is about to change drastically.

Thank you so much, Alyssa! You are going to be so happy you did this! Now, if I could only get you to start a blog .... :)

What I want for Christmas ...

You might remember, I started sponsoring Juan through Compassion shortly after Lincoln was born. Sponsoring Juan has been such a blessing. Chris and I talk all the time about how we would adopt Juan if his parents would let us!

Compassion has a program called Christmas Child. There are tons of children without sponsors and so, Compassion offers to send an information packet about one of those children to any sponsor who agrees to pray for that child and help them find a sponsor. The goal is to find them a sponsor before Christmas. I received my Christmas Child yesterday.

Meet Idris ...

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Idris lives in Indonesia with his father and mother.
Idris works at home running errands.
He has two siblings.
Idris is not presently attending school because he does not have a sponsor.
Singing, bicycling, and listening to music are his favorite activities.

Idris faces a harsh, daily struggle for survival. Many children in Indonesia go for days with little or no food, or have little access to clean water. They are often living in areas where disease, violence and abuse overshadow their lives.

What I want for Christmas is for this sweet little boy to find a sponsor. For just $38 a month, you can provide Idris with nutritional supplements, clean water, an education, Bible teaching, and medical checkups! I know times are tough and it might seem unfair for me to even ask. I'm starting to realize that us at our tightest is rich compared to what these people are dealing with. Just think---if you cut out something like a Starbucks coffee or fast food once a week, you would almost have enough money to sponsor a child right there!

All I'm asking is that you pray about this and if you feel like God is calling you to sponsor Idris, that you be obedient. I can assure you that you will be happy you did. You can send me an email at mnk8891@aol.com or you can leave me a comment here if you are interested or have any questions.

a letter from Juan

We received our first letter from Juan and it included this precious drawing.


Since he is only four, someone wrote the letter for him. It said that he enjoys playing with marbles and coloring. His favorite food is pasta. Juan and I have the same favorite color---green. Juan and Chris' mom, Kathy, have the same favorite animal---cat. For those of you who don't know, Chris' mom has seven cats! :) Juan's best friends are Davison, Maicon, and Pedro.

I wrote him a letter last night and sent him picture of our family, Rufus too. I hope you will pray for Juan. If you would like to sponsor a child, you can click on Juan's picture on the side of our blog.

Meet Juan Xavier

Chris and I have been on a budget since we've been married and with that budget we also get allowances every two weeks. We are allowed to spend our allowances on whatever our little hearts desire. Normally what my little heart desires is coffee, movie rentals, tanning bed visits, and highlights. But a couple weeks ago I heard a commercial on the radio supporting a ministry called Compassion International.

Compassion focuses on spiritual, physical, economic and social needs of children. They encouraged listeners to sponsor a child for $32 dollars a month. I looked into their ministry and it's everything they claimed to be. There are several music artists who support Compassion International---Michael W. Smith, Rebecca St. James, Caedmon's Call, and Point of Grace are just a few. I felt awful when I thought about how I've been spending my allowance, when I could have been helping a child in need and still have allowance left over. Although I still plan on getting an occasional coffee, tanning, renting movies, and highlights ... what my little heart desires is helping a boy named Juan Xavier.

Juan was born on July 1, 2005 and is three years old. He lives in Brazil with his father and his mother. He helps his family by running errands. For fun, Juan enjoys playing with cars, art and walking. Chris and I looked at many children and we just wanted to sponsor all of them! Each child's biography told some of their favorite things to do, and we thought it was so sweet that one of Juan's favorite things to do is walking. How precious! We plan on writing to Juan and sending him pictures often. I'm going to start praying for this child as if he's a part of our family and I hope you will pray for him too!

I'm not trying to guilt anyone into sponsoring a child. I admit that I had seen tons of commericals on the tv and radio about sponsoring children and I would think, "Oh, that's sad," and it wouldn't enter my mind again until the next time I heard a commercial. I hadn't ever felt moved to do something about it until we had Lincoln and now it just breaks my heart. If you would like to sponsor a child, click here. You can sponsor a child for only $32 a month and they will receive:

nutritional supplements
clean water, as needed
Bible teaching and learning about God's love
medical checkups
Encouragement from you — you can write to your child and even visit your child on a sponsor tour!

I will definitely keep you updated on this!