Dear Sponsor Lady

Will you help me?

Dear Sponsor Lady,

Hi!  I am friends with Willy and Cristhofer and they thought you might be able to help me.  I was hoping one of your friends might want to be my friend too?  I made sure that I looked as good as I could when they took my picture.  Do you see how tall I stood?  I even tried to clean up my shoes, which was hard because I wear them to carry firewood and water every day.  Do you think I look the right way for someone to want me?

My papa and mama are still married and that makes me happy.  One of my friends is worried because he thinks his mom might leave their house.  He has three sisters and his grandpa, grandma, and his uncle and aunt live with them.  It is a small house, just like mine, with concrete floors and brick walls, but that's a lot of people in there, and I guess mamas just have too much to do sometimes.  My friend told me he heard her say she had had enough.  He told me he asked you to pray for his mom and he said you really care about him, so I believe you prayed!

I am happy my parents are together, but they do fight a lot.  My mama stays home and I get to help her take care of my siblings when I'm not carrying firewood or water.  It scares me when my parents fight.  I don't know if someday my mama will have too much to do, and had enough, and want to leave me.  My papa works hard in a factory, but I hear them when they fight because it is so loud and scary.  It is always about money.  We don't ever have enough.  My papa works hard, but sometimes there just isn't any work to do.

My friend Cristhofer likes to help his mom with the fire while she cooks.  Me, too!  I work very hard, so if you have a friend who might want to sponsor me I promise I will work hard in school.  I don't think I am very smart.  My papa says that sometimes, but I know he loves me.  He says that when he comes home looking so sad that he is angry.  But if I could go to school I know that I would work hard.  Cristhofer says it is good to be together at the center. There are many boys who are together in our village that are not nice boys.  The pastor at the center said they are gangs, so violence has increased lately very much.  He said it is because so many papas and mamas struggle to stay together that the older boys just form a gang because they have been forsaken.  I don't know what all of that really means, but Cristhofer told me some classmates hurt his head.  He also told me you prayed for him.

He has shown me the letters you send.  You look like a very happy family.  I love the pictures you sent him, and sometimes I pretend that you are my sponsor.  I really can be as nice and good as Cristhofer.  He said one of the staff members read your last one to him and you told him you pray for him to become friends with the other boys you sponsor.  He said that you want him to walk with wise boys and take care of each other.  He and Willy, and their friends Mario, Jorge, and Moises, want me to be in their group.  He said it is not a gang, because those are mean boys, but kind of like we can be brothers for each other.  Brothers look out for each other.  So far we have played ball, hide and seek, and cars.  They tell me they love you very much.  Sponsor Lady, could you please help me find someone to love like this?

I am happy that I have friends.  Willy shared some stickers with me that you sent.  He told me you sent an extra Christmas gift and he received a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and his favorite part of the present were the toy cars, the grapes and the apples.  I love grapes.  I only had them one time, but they were wonderful!  We usually only have maize, beans, bananas, chicken, bread, and rice.  Grapes are very special.  I hope I have a sponsor before Christmas so that maybe this year I can have a special present.  I have been waiting forever!  Okay, not forever, but six months seems like forever when you are seven years old!

So, dear Sponsor Lady, can you help me?  I want to know that someone cares about me and that I can be special too.  Do you think maybe if you can't find a sponsor for me, that you could write to me sometime?  It would make me so happy to get a letter on mail day, like Willy and Cristhofer.  And would you mind saying a prayer for me?  I want to grow up big and strong and see my mama and papa happy.  I would like to learn more about Jesus too.  The pastor at the center said Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them" and that he loves me.  Maybe Jesus will help me find a sponsor friend.  That will make my heart very happy.

Thank you, Sponsor Lady.  And may Jesus bless you.

I say goodbye with lots of love.

Sincerely,

Jairon Daniel Leiva Mendez

(Dearest Favored One ~ as a final Compassion Blogger assignment I have written you a letter from the eyes of a child in poverty, hope-filled that someone will let him know how valuable he is.  It was a preposterous assignment.  Who am I to attempt to write through the lens of abject poverty?  The best glimpses I could give are written in red, the phrases cut from letters my sponsor children have sent me.   Jairon and our five Guatemala boys are not from the same center and don't know each other.  I was simply asked to write a letter and I found a child who needs to be sponsored.  Everything written about Jairon is fiction and pieced together from general knowledge of life for these families.  As of last Friday, we were at 2,006 new sponsorships this month.  We have one week left to give 1,102 more children the gift of being sponsored this month.  Won't you consider sponsoring Jairon?  My promise to you is you will receive so much more from his sweet little heart than your $38 monthly sacrifice can cover.)

Favored One, this Sponsor Lady was asked to help Jairon find a friend he can love.  Will you be that friend?  Click on the Will you help me? link under his picture above.  If some blessed person has already adopted him, you will certainly find another child just as happy to get to be part of your life.  Click away, Favored One.

Please leave me a comment.  I want to celebrate your joy with you!  And if you have been touched, please share this with someone else.

Linking today with kind friends ~