A Gift of Joy

I remember the first time I received stickers. I was only 9 years old. As soon as I opened the package, I saw a letter, but underneath the letter were stickers — beautiful stickers. I remember picking up the first page of stickers and running out to my friends to share about the exciting gift I had received. We were all so happy. I gave my friends a few, but I remember hiding the rest so I could keep this joy. So I could savor it and make it last.

Now, to many, simple stickers would not mean much, but to me, they meant the world. I was living in a place where beauty and joy was lost. Poverty had stripped us of everything. Patches of stagnant water, stray dogs, tin roofs, unsafe roads and inescapable dumpsites were my world. Stickers restored beauty and joy for me.

These stickers were more than stickers to me; this joy that they gave me was more than I could ask for.

Heather, my 15-year-old sponsor, continued to send me stickers and to write to me with words like, “Richmond, I am proud of you," "I love you," and “You are important.” These words reached deep into my heart, and with the help of Pastor Peter, who was the pastor of the church that partnered with Compassion, I become a Christian. Soon, the joy that was once forgotten began to become more familiar. Poverty might be a physical state of depravity, but once one finds the indescribable joy of Christ, they can no longer be impoverished.

I experienced joy when my father was still with us. God used him to bring great joy to all six of us as children and to my mother. But as a result of one act by robbers, we lost it all as we saw our father lying there, helpless and lifeless and eventually passing on. Joy can be stolen.

But I thank God for a 15-year-old girl who decided, in a world of selfish ambition and apathy toward the poor, to stand up and fight for the voiceless.

She wrote letters, sent stickers, sent birthday cards, chose special words such as, “We love you and are praying for you.” These thoughtful gifts changed my world.

I encourage sponsors to take the sponsorship relationship not merely as a philanthropic connection but as a discipleship relationship where God is working through both child and sponsor to birth joy in their lives. Therefore, as you write your sponsored child, pray, think, smile, go the extra mile, picture the child receiving your letter — do anything that gives you confidence that what you are sending is a packet of joy. God always honors your gift and will do much more than you can pray for.

God used an ordinary person to change the life of a child, and He can use you too.

Richmond Wandera is the senior pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Kampala, Uganda. This is the very church Richmond attended as a Compassion-sponsored child. Richmond’s passion to push back heresy and develop pastors who are rooted in the Word led him to found the Pastors Discipleship Network — a ministry that is touching lives and impacting Africa.