A Sample Letter

I try to write to our sponsored children on a monthly basis. Some letters are quick hand written notes, some are in cards and others are longer and are typed. I usually include stickers, book marks and little paper tokens in my letters. I just recently wrote and this is an example of one of my letters. An underlying theme for me is to always let them know how special they are. The best support I can offer is positive reinforcement and encouragement. Extreme poverty is so difficult to comprehend from Boise but I hope that my letters lift their hearts and help bring Jesus Christ to them in their lives.

Dear Lidia,

Today at church we were blessed to have a Christian musician share his talents with us. Did you know that Psalms in the Bible is full of passages about singing to the Lord? Like the Passage from the Old Testament Psalm 18:49 “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.” And the Passage from Psalm 21:13 “Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.”

When I was little (about 5 years old) I would sing the refrain to a hymn called Blessed Assurance. The words to Blessed Assurance were written by a woman named Frances “Fanny” Crosby in 1873. I learned it in Sunday school from the teachers but all I could remember was the refrain because I was so young:

This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior, all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior, all the day long

Fanny Cros­by was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blind­ness, she said:
“It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.”

To this day, the vast ma­jor­i­ty of Amer­i­can hymn­als con­tain her work. Fanny was a woman who used her gifts that God gave her and made the most of them. Always keep in mind the special gifts that you have. Your gifts are a blessing from God and they are a joy to everyone in your life.

May God bless you with health and happiness each and every day!
Love, Kelly, Anthony, Alex, Nick, Raisin and Jay

These are pictures of Fanny. One when she was young and one when she was older with her husband. What a blessing her hymns are to us today!