July Sponsor Reminder Letter

Hey Sponsors!

Here we are, on the 6^th of the month and its time for me to knock on your door for a friendly reminder to write to your sponsor child. Click here to take 5 minutes and fill your little kiddo in on what summer is like in the States. Tell them what you have been up to for fun. And if you’ve been reading in your Bible… tell them what you’ve been reading.

One thing that has come to our hearts this past month is the desire to have a night dedicated to PRAYER for the children at the Good Samaritan School. So, we’ve decided to organize an evening of prayer on Tuesday July 24^th. If you live in the Austin area, you are invited to come over at 7:30pm (until whenever you are done) and pray with us as one big sponsor group. We hope to make different stations and arrange our house in a sort of prayer walk. As you move from station to station, we will provide prompts for different topics of prayer. Everything from the kids & their education, the kids & their families, the school staff, the issues of India, and more.

If you are not in Austin, we will be preparing a little prayer guide that I can send out so you can join us.

Whether you are here in person on the 24^th praying or whether you are sitting at home on your couch, we ask you to set aside the evening of July 24^th so that we will act as one big concert of intercessors to the Lord. From wherever we are… for the children. So, mark your calendar now and let’s get our prayer on! If you plan to attend the night of prayer AT our house in Austin… please let me know if we can expect you in person.

On a separate note... we have 3 sponsors traveling to India July 21-29 to visit their kiddos. Please pray for their trip. I know from first hand experience that these visits are so impactful... for the kids AND the sponsors. We hope you consider joining us on a team in 2013!

Together for the kids,

Anna Melvin

for the Unlikely Sons & Daughters

First Generation Learners

As I mentioned in last month’s email, our kids have now advanced to 4^th grade. We want to invite all our sponsors to pray for their child's encouragement and perseverance in their school work, pray they would study hard, respect their teachers, and be motivated to learn.

When we were in India in February, one of the things we learned about most of these children is that they’re “first generation learners”. When we asked if most of the children’s parents were literate, the staff explained that usually, no, the parents are not literate. But beyond just that, many of the parents have never attended school a day in their lives. Many of our children’s parents do not value getting an education at all (much less a quality education). It would benefit them more in the short term if their children would simply work and contribute to the family’s income & needs. It is difficult for them to see beyond today, to have a vision for how their child getting an education will ultimately lead to a better job & more pay-- and an ability to help the family even more. So going to school is not necessarily a high value to many of them. 

Because of this reality, for your sponsor children to have an adult like YOU positively impacting their life for education… encouraging them to stick with it, to study hard, to learn all they can… this is a unique gift. You have a voice of influence. Use it when you write to your child.

These are mothers of our students who came to an event we invited them to at the school.
Many of these women have never attended school. 

Recommended Reading: "Behind the Beautiful Forevers"

Katie Patel, one of our sponsors, recently read Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo and recommended it to me. I've started it and think it is really pertinent to the work we are all partnered in. I asked her to write a review for our blog so that we could encourage all our sponsors to read it.

If you want to know  what daily life might be like for your sponsored child, I highly suggest reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.  The book's subtitle is “Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” and that is exactly what you experience when reading this narrative nonfiction. The author spent three years  observing, and interacting with the residents in the Annawadi settlement near the Mumbai airport, getting to know several residents and their stories.

As you read, you are immersed in the daily life of specific Annawadians, while also getting a bigger picture of what life in general looks like for those of lower caste/economic status in India.  You will meet Abdul, who makes a living collecting and reselling garbage; Asha, who aspires to be the political liason between the Annawadians and the big-city politicians; Manju, who will become the slum's first female college graduate; Karam, a Muslim who has plans to purchase his own land and leave the slum.

The book is a great read in general, in terms of getting you close to the characters, and interested in how their stories end. More than that, however, is the way the author shows you what daily life in the slum is like, without making judgements or being condescending toward India and its culture. She paints the picture, and lets the reader make their own judgements as to what, exactly can or should be done to alleviate the poverty and the inequality that the slums reflect.

After reading this book, I felt like I was given a snapshot of what life is probably like for my sponsored  little boy- Akash; the problems he faces day to day, what he might dream of, what his family dynamic might be like. If you are interested in India, and also if you are a child sponsor there, I highly suggest you read this book!

VBS for the kids

Just got word that the school just finished up a two-week break (I guess its like a spring break for them in India?)... and during that break, the local believers put on a week-long VBS for the area children at the school. How awesome is that? Join us in praying that whatever seeds were planting in the children's minds & hearts will continue to grow. And let's thank God together for the tireless work of the staff in India. Even when given a break from their daily work, they still served the Lord by loving on the children from the area slums.

PS-- Wish I had a fun picture from the VBS to share. But because I don't, I'll just post a fun picture from our Feb trip : )

This is Master Halder... He is a student who doesn't have a sponsor yet. Here he's learning to make tissue paper flowers to help him remember God loves him more than the lilies of the field. If you know someone who would like to sponsor Master, please send me their info! 

Video Testimony: Importance of Sponsorship

I saw this video from Children's HopeChest about "The Importance of Sponsorship: Meet Yana" and it made me hopeful that one day, we will be able to look back at our sponsor children's stories like this.


Yana was 8 years old when she met her sponsors for the first time. That is the same age as of a lot of the Unlikely Sons & Daughters' sponsor children.

I look forward to walking with these kids through their schooling, adolescence, and young adulthood. What precious stories WILL come from our children & their connections to YOU!?

25 New Child Profiles

Last week in the mail, I received 25 new child profiles!!!

When our sponsor team was in India in February, we met "our" 3rd grade class from Madanpur Khadar. We decided to pull each kid out one at a time to take a picture for you guys... and in the process we kept taking pictures of kids I previously didn't have record of. CHC set out to investigate if these kids didn't need sponsors or already had sponsors from someone else. And when the answers came back and we discovered they were available, of course the band said "We'll take em!"

These kids are so adorable! They've got great names like Tapas, Master (pictured here), and even Ravi Shankar. There are 8 girls in the new group. Most of the kids live with 4-8 children in the home!

So, now we set out with the goal to raise up 25 new sponsors for these kids. In addition, we still have 8 children from our Jasola 3rd graders that need sponsors (these are the additional kids we got profiles for the week before our February Trip).

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE in your circle of friends WHO MIGHT WANT TO SPONSOR A CHILD? We would love to have them join our group of sponsors. You can send them a link to our "Who Are We?" tab on this blog and if they are interested in sponsoring, here's the link that shares "How Do I Sponsor?"

My personal goal is to find sponsors for all 33 children by JULY 4th... Independence Day... a reminder to me that an education for these kids equals hope that they might one day live in freedom from the poverty of their childhood! Will you help us meet that goal?

4 Favorite Things From Stu's Letter

Stu Smith, the guitar player in the band sent me this pic of his first letter from his sponsor kiddo... Here are my 4 favorite things about this precious letter:

1. He underlined "My favorite game is CRICKET." I was tickled by this. Obviously very important to him. : ) Him and about every other boy in India!
2. Love the fact that God put Stu and Ankit together... they both play guitar. That is awesome matching, Jesus.
3. "I am going to church - my school." One of the amazing things about the ministry of this school, is that a small church has sprouted up in the community and they meet each Sunday in the 5th grade classroom at the school. The school is a light in the community, to the kids, and even reaches beyond them to their families. When we were in India this past February, we noticed that a Hindu mother of a Hindu student came to church the Sunday after we visited her in her home. She even sang some of the worship songs. It was beautiful to know that the school staff and church members would continue reaching out to this woman!
4. "In English medium." This is adorable. I am assuming he is giving himself a score on his English skills... but keep trying little buddy!! You're doing great!