Your sponsored child may live halfway around the world, but you have more in common than you think in terms of Christmas traditions... especially food! We even included some recipes if you'd like to try something different this year!

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In the coming weeks you should receive a Christmas card from your sponsored child, and on it will be Christmas wishes in their own hand. We love this time of year because you can see the anticipation of Christmas in the children's heartfelt wishes. 

But very few of the children in our programs speak English -- so what do their Christmas wishes look like?

In most of the countries in which we work, the language spoken does not use a Latin or Roman alphabet such as what we use in English or what many of the countries in Africa or Central America use above. 

Yet the result is just as beautiful. Several countries, such as the Philippines and India, have regions that use different languages or dialects, which are represented below.

And then there's the Middle East, where Christ and the Christmas season was born. What wonderful wishes!

It's a bit early to wish you a Merry Christmas, but we can't help getting in the spirit! 

In the aftermath of the recent flooding in southern Honduras, information about our children and projects has slowly started to trickle in.

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Honduras, and a large portion of Central America, has been receiving heavy rains as part of a slow moving storm. The heavy rains have caused severe flooding throughout the region. 

Our projects in southern Honduras, near Choluteca, have especially been affected. The Choluteca River has already overflowed and it is expected to rain for another 28 hours. The city of Choluteca is on alert for mudslides and continued flooding.

The flooding has ruined all of the crops in the area, which is the poorest in Honduras. As most of the residents in the area are subsistence farmers, this loss of income is devastating.  

So far, approximately 30 of our children and their families have been affected and are taking shelter in schools and churches that have been set up as refugee centers. As this storm continues, we are expecting the loss of more homes as many of our children live along the Choluteca River.

Our staff in Honduras is working hard to get us more information as soon as they can. As we receive updates, we will share them with you here. If your sponsored child is affected, we will personally contact you with the information. 

There is an urgent need for food, water, and clothing. We are sending funds to cover these immediate needs and to help our children and their families recover from this crisis. If you would like to help, please consider giving to our Children's Crisis Fund.

Please keep our children, their families, and the staff in Honduras in your prayers!

We anxiously watched as Tropical Storm Emily approached the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And we are praised God as this storm weakened to Tropical Wave, which is weaker than its previous category of Tropical Depression.

Those praises continue as our field staff reported no damage. Some rain fell in the northern parts of the DR and Haiti, but not enough to cause concern. We thank God that our projects can continue to operate normally as they minister to the children and the community.

In this image from August 3, Tropical Storm Emily approaches the DR, Haiti, and after that, Cuba. Image: NOAA

The mission team in Honduras wrapped up their projects in Choluteca and Tegucigalpa and safely returned to the U.S. God has surely knit their hearts together, so we can continue to pray that they can hear God clearly and have the time and space to seek God's face about all they saw, felt, and heard in Honduras.

One of the teams in Honduras boasts FIVE mother-daughter teams... and there's also a husband and wife who brough their two sons on the trip, as well!

One of the mothers wrote that "when you go on a missions trip, you never know who you'll be serving alongside, but you always see God's hand at work in the people He brings together. None of us had any idea there would be other mother-daughter teams along, but we've all been so blessed to be serving the Lord alongside our children."

How do you involve your children when you sponsor a child overseas? Has sponsoring a child helped you teach your own children about God's kingdom and work in the world? Share your answers in the comments below!
 

These are the faces of children in our projects in Honduras.

What do you see when you look at their faces? Do you see hope? Joy? Dignity?

That is the goal of all of our programs in each country we serve, to give each child the opportunity to learn, to feel accepted, to see just how much God loves them. And when given that chance, these children truly transform.

The mission trip participants currently in Honduras are seeing this first hand. One participant from our radio partner WPFF in Wisconsin wrote this:

The difference in the children who are in the program [and those who are not] is like the difference between night and day...it's the difference between hopelessness and HOPE...hope of a happy, healthy life. YOU may be the one to put an end to their family's cycle of poverty that has been in existence for generations.

Over the course of this week, several of our partner radio stations will be asking listeners to sponsor some of the children their friends and fellow listeners are serving. If you came from WPFF, WNLI, KSLT, KLMP, WMSJ, or 97.9 The Point, welcome.

If you came looking for more information about child sponsorship, please explore this blog. But if you want to see the impact of child sponsorship, look no further than these faces. Listen to the experience of others, such as this trip participant from WMSJ:

Today we were reminded that we are all one family and these children in God’s eyes are ours. You wouldn’t believe the joy in the eyes of each child who was able to meet their sponsor. It was hard to hold back the tears as we watched when a child was overcome with joy upon meeting their sponsor for the first time, and the hugs and sheer gratitude they had in knowing that they had a sponsor. It was almost as if they were meeting a long lost family member.

But there was also some sadness as one little girl mistook one of our team members to be her sponsor. When he told her he was not her sponsor, she said to him that the sadness in his eyes reflected the sadness in her heart.

What wisdom in that precious child! Proverbs 27:19 tells us that “As water reflects a face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” What is your life reflecting right now? Did you know you could bring such joy and hope to a child for $34 a month?

"I truly believe that both sides are recieving equally from this experience! The people here have really been blessed with uncomparable humility... I can only pray that some of it rubs off on us!"

-- Tyra, mission team member serving in Choluteca, Honduras 

The radio mission teams in Honduras are going full swing, and here are their first reports from their epic travel day.

And also one of the sweetest meeting-my-sponsor photos we've seen yet!

As jet lag hits, the team will need prayer as they minister to two areas of Honduras.

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What would you pack if you were going on a mission trip? The team who leaves for Honduras tonight has an interesting collection of items to fit into their suitcases!

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We are so glad you joined us in prayer on June 15. Did you know our international staff was praying with us, too? Here's what that looked like in two of our countries...

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Have you ever wondered what your sponsored child's home looks like? If you're the curious type, you'll enjoy this week as we travel around to each of the countries where Mission of Mercy works and show you the types of houses your sponsored children call home.

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How does your sponsored child celebrate Easter? Some of the traditions are more familiar than you'd think...

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Water affects so much of your child's life -- is there enough to wash up before school? Is it safe to drink? Can I go out and play? What season is your sponsored child experiencing right now, and what does that mean for daily life?

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Throughout Scripture, we have the ability to see God's hand at work in all situations, even the painful ones. We can read about how God positioned Joseph (through more than a decade of slavery and prison) to save his brothers’ lives during the famine in Egypt, or how God would be glorified through a man born blind.
 
It's harder to have that perspective in our own lives, especially in the midst of deep personal tragedy. When Bill's daughter Emma died four years ago, his entire world changed. Yet God is continuing to work through that terrible loss and is ministering to Bill (and others) through children around the world.

Watch the video below to hear what God did in Bill’s heart and how he ended up on a trip to Honduras with his church.

For much of this week, Haiti has been on our hearts and minds. The reports continue to drive us to our knees: cholera is spreading, infecting every area of this devastated country.

Why does it take a disaster of this scale to remind us how tenuous life is in the developing world?

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We have received word from our projects in northern Honduras. Tropical Storm Richard passed by with little damage and not as much rain as expected in La Ceiba. Today the sun is shining. Thank you for praying!

Please continue to pray for our projects in Haiti. Most of our child development centers are located in Cap Haitien, Limbe, Ouanaminthe, and Fort Liberte. We have no indication of an outbreak in these northern areas, but we are taking preventative measures to prepare these communities. Please continue to pray protection over our projects and the children they serve.

Tomorrow, our project workers will receive training in proper hygiene and oral hydration techniques to help raise awareness among community members. Our projects have water filters, and we are working with our partners to acquire additional materials to help keep people healthy.

Rapid dehydration is the greatest risk with cholera. Educating families and equipping them to respond at the first instance of sickness is our best defense against an outbreak. Please pray with us for the following:

• against the spread of rumors and incorrect information about both causes and treatment
• that parents are increasingly vigilant of what their children eat and drink
• that those in need will be able to ask for and find treatment quickly
• for necessary materials to reach areas unhindered and without corruption

Dr. David Beyda, our Medical Mercy director, is advising our staff as well as a local doctor and partner. We are so grateful for the expertise available to our projects, and for the prayer that undergirds it. Thank you!

Two news stories caught our attention yesterday. Haiti and Honduras need your prayers this weekend.

Many officials warned that Haiti was at increased risk for outbreaks of infectious diseases after the January 12 earthquake. Now a cholera outbreak has been confirmed in a rural central valley, north of the capital Port-au-Prince and nearly 50 miles south of our projects in northern Haiti.

Cholera mainly spreads through drinking contaminated water. It is very contagious in areas that lack access to clean water or adequate sanitation (which covers most of Haiti, even before the earthquake). There are no reported cases in the regions in which we work, but we are watching the situation closely.

We are working our our Haitian projects to ensure that children and staff have access to clean water and know how to ensure their hands, food, and water sources clean.  Our projects have clean water sources, but children are most vulnerable at home or at their government schools.

Please pray with us for the continued safety of our children and staff, and that they can continue to educate their community on ways to stay healthy.

We are also communicating with our staff in Honduras, where Tropical Storm Richardis currently grazing the northern coast. One community in which we work, La Ceiba, is covered in the Hurricane Watch issued by the Honduran government.

Currently, Richard is rated as a tropical storm, but may strengthen into a category 1 hurricane as it moves west. Please also pray for the safety of our children, their families, and our staff as this storm continues along the coast. Heavy rains have battered Honduras this season, and the risk for flooding is high.

As always, if your sponsored child is directly affected by any event, we will notify you as soon as possible. Updates will be posted on our blog as we receive them. We and our international staff appreciate your prayers.

This week we’ve been talking about the importance of education and how we can help. So how is your sponsored child's education supported at the project level?

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Sports, dirt, cars... when dealing with boys, some things are universal. So too are certain threats... 

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