bakerjw
09-11-2020, 08:25 AM
We all know where we were and what we were doing. Here is an angle few of us ever consider.
My wife and I sponsor children in third world countries through Compassion International. There are many agencies out there such as them but they are the ones we picked and we have been with for 30 years.
Angela, one of our sponsored children, was a young girl living in the mountains in Guatemala. She had very little in the way of material goods. For Christmas, with money that we sent to her family through Compassion, they'd bought her a wardrobe and they sent us a picture of her standing next to it. It stood on bricks on a dirt floor with a blue tarp over it to protect it from the rain because their roof leaked. Christmas paper was hung over the window of her room in lieu of curtains. Dirt poor describes her family. I've spent time in Central and South America and have seen this firsthand. It is the norm.
We always love to get letters from our sponsored children as well as drawings that they send us. We have folders of them as we've sponsored close to a dozen kids so far and I hope to have another 20 years to keep doing so.
Anyway, several months after 9-11, we received a letter from Angela. She was still young so it was written down by a worker at the project that she attended and translated at the bottom. At the end, she closed by asking us if we were okay. Normally it is "I hope you are well" or something similar. This was different than her regular letters. Enclosed was also a picture, drawn by Angela, very much like the ones that are drawn by American children and get placed on the refrigerator in the kitchen.
It was of a fireman spraying water at the base of 2 large buildings with flames and smoke.
Here is a small child living in destitute poverty who has seen an image of what happened on 9-11. She happens to have sponsors in America. In the midst of all of the hardships that they face, she asks us if we are okay. When we realized the significance, my wife and I cried.
She was worried about us. Not because we help her attend a program in her small town but because she cared for us.
Never forget.
My wife and I sponsor children in third world countries through Compassion International. There are many agencies out there such as them but they are the ones we picked and we have been with for 30 years.
Angela, one of our sponsored children, was a young girl living in the mountains in Guatemala. She had very little in the way of material goods. For Christmas, with money that we sent to her family through Compassion, they'd bought her a wardrobe and they sent us a picture of her standing next to it. It stood on bricks on a dirt floor with a blue tarp over it to protect it from the rain because their roof leaked. Christmas paper was hung over the window of her room in lieu of curtains. Dirt poor describes her family. I've spent time in Central and South America and have seen this firsthand. It is the norm.
We always love to get letters from our sponsored children as well as drawings that they send us. We have folders of them as we've sponsored close to a dozen kids so far and I hope to have another 20 years to keep doing so.
Anyway, several months after 9-11, we received a letter from Angela. She was still young so it was written down by a worker at the project that she attended and translated at the bottom. At the end, she closed by asking us if we were okay. Normally it is "I hope you are well" or something similar. This was different than her regular letters. Enclosed was also a picture, drawn by Angela, very much like the ones that are drawn by American children and get placed on the refrigerator in the kitchen.
It was of a fireman spraying water at the base of 2 large buildings with flames and smoke.
Here is a small child living in destitute poverty who has seen an image of what happened on 9-11. She happens to have sponsors in America. In the midst of all of the hardships that they face, she asks us if we are okay. When we realized the significance, my wife and I cried.
She was worried about us. Not because we help her attend a program in her small town but because she cared for us.
Never forget.