Amazing Letter from Jack

Jack wrote this letter in January, the day before my birthday.  Kinda cool.  :)

First the bad news.  Jack had his appendix removed.  Therefore, he did not have a good Christmas, and he is not permitted to play the trumpet (mi instrumento preferido) or . . . futbol!  He loves futbol.  So I guess Jack and I have something in common--neither of us can do what we like because of an injury.  I am very glad that Jack is in the Compassion program so that he was able to receive proper care.  

Jack writes to me more than any of the others that I sponsor, but this is the first time he has sent pictures.  In his previous letter he said he would try to send some, and he sent four.  I LOVE them!!  In the letter and with the pictures, he says, "I love you very much, Mindi" three times.  I can NOT wait to meet him.

This picture is of him and his friends who like music.  He is second from the left.  He writes on the back of the picture: "En esto foto salgo y con mis amigos que les gusta la musica."  (If you know Spanish, you will see that his spelling and grammar are not perfect.)  The picture is printed on plain paper, so the quality is not great.

For this one he says that he is with the instrument he plays in school.  Is he a cool cat, or what?  :)  ("En esto [esta] foto estoy con mi instrumento que toco en mi coligio [colegio].)

In a previous letter, Jack told me that his school football team was playing in the championship.  I'm wondering if this is from that championship.  He says it is when he and his friends played in the Olympics.  I love this photo, too.

And this is the best one.  He says this picture was taken of him when he was thinking of Christ and that he hopes I will put it in a frame and think of him when I see his picture.  (Esta es mi foto cuando me tomaron pensando en Cristo.  Espero lo lengo (?) en un cuadro y cuando lo via mi foto piense en mi.)

There are no words for this one.  <3

This is the part of the letter that really gets me (other than the three times that he says he loves me very much).  He says, "I want to know will you ever visit me so I can meet you?  I long to meet you and I hope God will allow me to."

And I long to tell him that I plan to be there in six months, but I dare not say it. Not only have I read Of Mice and Men, but I have taught it several times, and I know about those "best laid plans," although I believe this one will work out.  There is a special bond between us, so we need to meet.  It is so cool to me to think that Jack was originally my correspondent child.  

So that's my awesome letter from Jack.  I hope it brings you some joy.  It certainly brought great joy to an otherwise very tiring day for me.

I can't wait to meet him.  I just want to sit and talk with him . . . and maybe play a little futbol.  :)

I'm Going to Peru!!!

Okay, this is major, big time, scary, putting-it-all-in-God's-hands stuff for me.  My journeys out of the U.S. thus far have included Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas.
Wow.

About 18 months ago, Jack, the soon-to-be 16-year-old boy I sponsor in Peru wrote that his father had died and that his father's family then made him, his mother, and his sister leave their home.  He told me that he was very sad and lonely and asked if I had ever had to go through anything like that in my life.  I wanted to rush to Peru and hug him then.  At that time, he was my correspondent child, but shortly after that, his sponsor dropped him, so of course, I had to pick him up.  He had already lost so much.  He still writes that he misses his father and is very sad.
I have always thought it would be amazing to join a sponsor tour, but my mindset is that things like that are always for other people.  There's no way I should ever spend that much money to go on trip.  It will never work out for me.  Really awesome stuff like that isn't meant for me.
I decided if I could ever visit someone, it would be Jack because he is my oldest child.  Then the letter about his father and the following letters have made me want to visit him even more.
So I decided to pray.
Recently, a friend from OurCompassion asked me if I would ever want to join her on a sponsor tour.  I asked her which countries we have in common (our sponsorships), and she said, "Only Peru."  Well, not only is it Peru, but it's the exact same project in Peru.
However, there were no trips to Peru planned for 2012 at that time . . . well, not that we knew about.
A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from Jack telling me that his prayer request was to meet me in person.  I can't even begin to find the words that describe how that made me feel. There are none.
On January 30th, I received an email from Compassion about a sponsor tour to Peru with an Advocate discount.  I wanted to pray about it for at least a week, but the tours fill up fast, so I knew I might miss my chance.  Besides, I had already been praying for months, and it was too obvious that everything was falling into place for this.
So I took the huge leap (my heart is pounding even as I type this) and registered for the tour.  My mind was telling me that I shouldn't spend so much money (have only paid the deposit so far), that I have no experience traveling in a foreign country, especially into the poor parts, especially into the JUNGLE, that I have to get my passport renewed, that I can't even guarantee getting the days off since it's in October, and that's next school year (I'm a secondary educator).
But my heart told me this is my chance to minister to the poor, to use the Spanish I've been working so hard to learn, and most importantly, to meet Jack, to put a smile on his face, to let him see that I love him enough to travel all the way to his country just to hug him.
Peru Sponsor Tour