Christmas Letters 2021

If you sponsor a child through Manna 4 Lempira, the deadline to send Christmas cards by physical mail was October 5.  However, you may also send email letters which are due by November 5 and should be delivered around the same time. 

Since most of my sponsored children are now teenagers, I decided to go a little deeper into the salvation message this Christmas.  During recent conversations with others in my personal life, I've recognized a great need for sound doctrine when it comes to the gospel.  I talk to my sponsored children about the bible all the time; but I want to take a step back and first be sure they know Him.  I plan to continue this theme of salvation/repentance/following Jesus in my Easter letters.  The younger children will receive a simpler version of the same letter. The coloring pages were all found on Google Images.

Teen Version:

Hello beautiful!  How are you?  I am sending this letter around Christmas 2021.  I pray that your family has a beautiful Christmas together.  

Christmas is when we celebrate that Jesus was born to rescue us from sin and allow us to become children of God.  He was born to die to take the punishment for our sins and rise again to defeat them.  Only He could do this, because only He was without sin.  Sin in the world is the reason no one lives forever on Earth, but the coming of Jesus to save us is the reason we can live forever in Heaven as children of God when our lives on Earth are finished.  To become God's children, we just need to believe this and turn to Him in repentance.  The word "repentance" means "change of mind".  It means letting go of our own ways and sins, and turning to follow Jesus.  When this happens, we are born again, which means our souls are born into the family of God.  When we make the decision to follow Jesus and be born again, we are His children forever, even if we make a mistake in the future.

Our Christmas decorations and celebrations are a time to remember this great gift of God.  It is a hope that no one can take away from us, which helps us to celebrate it no matter what is happening.  I pray that you and your family will experience the joy of Christ this Christmas.  How do you plan to celebrate this year?  I plan to decorate my house and give little gifts to my family to celebrate God's gift of love.  Here is a picture of my mom and I with our Christmas tree last year, and a Christmas decoration for you to color.

Child version: 

Hello beautiful!  How are you?  I am sending this letter around Christmas 2021.  I pray that your family has a beautiful Christmas together.

Christmas is when we celebrate that Jesus was born to rescue us from sin and allow us to become children of God.  This is a hope no one can take away from us, which helps us to celebrate it no matter what is happening.

How do you plan to celebrate Christmas this year?  I plan to decorate my home and give little gifts to my family to celebrate God's great gift of love.

Here is a picture you can color.  It is a drawing of Baby Jesus when he was born, with his parents.

Thirteenth Birthday Letters

When my sponsored girls turn 13 years old, I send them each a special themed letter.  It celebrates becoming a teenager while also sharing a memory of myself at their age.  Here is a letter I wrote to one of my girls who will be turning 13 next month.

Hello beautiful!  How are you?  I am sending this letter around your birthday, in November 2021.  This year, you are turning 13 years old!  I can't believe how much you've grown!  I recently saw some photos of you at the youth conference you attended with your church.  I am very proud of you for being so involved with your church.  Youth groups are a great way to grow in Christ with others your age.  Did you have fun at the event?  What was your favorite part?

Since you are turning 13 this year, I want to share a special memory with you.  Many years ago, on my 13th birthday, I felt very mature because I was finally a teenager.  So, I wanted to try coffee for the first time.  Where I live, children don't usually drink coffee until they are older (Note: I added this because children in Honduras often drink it from a young age.)  So, on my 13th birthday, my mother took me to a café called Starbucks and bought me a coffee and a cookie.  I decided the coffee was too strong, so I only ate the cookie.  I learned to like coffee later, when I was a little older.  

Do you like coffee?  Do you like it black, or with cream, sugar, and flavors?  I usually drink it with just a little sugar, but sometimes it's fun to add extra flavors.  In The United States at this time of year, we sometimes add pumpkin flavoring to our coffee, because pumpkins grow so abundantly here at this time of year; from September to November.   (Note: I write about a different type of coffee drink or flavor depending on the time of year.)  I wish I could be there for your birthday, to have a coffee with you to celebrate.  I hope to come soon, but until then, here is a picture of coffee that you can color.

When I'm sending the letter by physical mail, I include coffee-themed stickers.  I'm a huge fan of Shine Sticker Studio and their adorable coffee-themed sticker options.  I love that you can choose the skin tone of the characters and that they're so fun and girly.  Click the photos to enlarge.

When I'm sending the letter by email to be printed for the child in-country, I attach a coffee-themed coloring page from Google Images instead of the stickers.  They have many beautiful options.

On the rare occasion that I'm visiting around the time of one of the girls' 13th birthdays, I will bring a coffee-themed gift or take her to a café for the celebration.  These Starbucks instant latte packets, which I brought for my Estefani's 13th birthday, are fun because we get to share the exact brand of coffee I first tried at their age.

While this tradition is fairly specific to me and my girls, I hope it encourages you to use your own childhood birthday memories to celebrate your sponsored children.  Another example I've used was sending American Girl paper dolls for Christmas, and writing about how my American Girl doll was my favorite Christmas gift as a child.  You can also tie in the tradition of gift giving, and how it reminds us of God's great gift of love when He sent Jesus to save us.  Sending this type of gift for a holiday rather than a holiday-themed gift (such as Christmas stickers) is also a great way to be sure the gift is still useful if it arrives late.