Letters of Love

In the new handcrafted community center built by the community at well #5, in partnership with aid for the roofing and wooden shutter materials from Embrace Compassion, the children gather around to collect a bright yellow page with their name carefully printed on the top right hand corner.  

One of our treasured volunteers, Mara Klassen, carefully creates and maintains our spreadsheets with all of the children’s names with all kinds of helpful data to keep us organized and to make sure we are preparing for each child by age, especially when we send their gifts.  The yellow pages are written or colored on by the children and turned back in to return to their American friend in the US.  The children are not all writing up to their grade level so they labor over the words they write and the pictures they draw.  

Once we receive the pages back in the US, carried by one of our traveling team members, volunteer Susan Dato helps sort them and prepare them for a Tuesday morning in Canby where more volunteers gather to address envelopes and mail them out to our American friend sponsors.  While the process is laborious and slow, the letters, going back and forth between American friends and our Ethiopian friends, bring friendship, share hope and give purpose for both the sender and receiver. 

We have children waiting to be chosen by their very own American friend.  Sign up at http://embracecompassion.org/how-can-i-help/ or message mailto:jen@embracecompassion.org for more details.