Christmas Cards

 Like I mentioned last week, at Talita Cumi, we’ve been busy making and sending out Christmas cards! When you live over 4,000 miles away, you have to get a head start on these things if you want them to get there before spring.

Earlier this week, we had all the kids writing letters to their sponsors. Talita couldn’t function without the support of sponsors in the states and it is very important to us to say thank you and show how much they mean to the children here.

Because I am one of two English speakers here, I got the job of translating the letters. Here are some of my favorite lines:

Luis is a sweet quite boy with a smile to melt your heart. I’ve never heard him get scolded or yelled at and is rarely in trouble. His card read: “Hello. Merry Christmas. I know that I am a sinner. Luis” It seems we need to work a bit more on the grace part of the Bible.

Shirley is a young girl who tries to be good, but who keeps getting in trouble at school. She is an instigator and likes to cause mischief. She wrote: “Merry Christmas. I am studying at school. I hope to be better behaved one day. God bless you, Shirley”

Juan de Dios, whom I’ve mentioned a couple times before, had no front teeth until a couple months ago. They didn’t come in and the other children made fun of him and called him ‘abulito’ (little grandpa). This year he got a bracket put in to help his teeth grow and to avoid a costly surgery. In his Christmas card he wrote:  “Hello. Merry Christmas. This year, I got my teeth. Juan de Dios.”