The last few weeks at church, as I sit in the pew wrestling my 3-year-old or pulling him off his 6-year-old brother before they come to blows, the message has been persistent: do something.

Do something. Reach out to the people around you. Love them and help them. Give of yourself. Reflect Christ to them.

The pastor reminds us that there are many ministries at the church where “doing something” can be accomplished. Some church members visit nearby nursing homes. Others collect backpacks for school children. The more adventurous travel on missions, both within the United States and internationally.

The choices of ways to do something seem endless, yet each time I consider one of these options, my responsibilities at this stage in my life weigh a little heavier on my shoulders.

As a stay-at-home mom who is homeschooling six children, from high school all the way down to preschool, and shuttling most of them to various activities each evening, I don’t have a lot of free time. The idea of adding one more item to the to-do list seems about as possible keeping the above-mentioned 3-year-old quiet through an entire service, or at least convincing him to sit in his seat rather rolling around under it.

So I shrug, sigh and go home feeling a little defeated, knowing that some day I’ll be able to do something, but it’s going to be a while.

When I arrive home, I fall into the usual Sunday afternoon routine of catching up on chores and making sure we’re ready to start the following school week.

Once those things are done, I usually steal a few minutes to answer some letters to my sponsor children. It’s not uncommon for me to have a stack of three or four letters waiting to be answered, and it’s something I love to do.

I love to hear from each of my sponsored children, and I enjoy writing back to them. It makes me happy to know that I can provide them some encouragement from so far away. Poverty tells them they are worthless, but I’m able to tell them they aren’t. They are so important that a person living in another country, whom they have never met, is willing to write to them, and send them stickers and soccer cards, and love them.

It occurs to me that I am doing something. The proof is in those letters. It’s in lines like this, from 9-year-old Roxana in Guatemala: “I put all of the pictures you sent me in a frame near my bed, that way I always pray for you and your family.”

And this, from 11-year-old Jhon in Colombia: “Thank you for your beautiful letters.”

And from 8-year-old Ritik in India: “Me and my family are thanking you from the heart that you have chosen me to support.”

From 19-year-old Favian in Guatemala: “Kerri, every time that you send letters to me, we read them with my family, and we enjoy them very much… I send a big hug to you with much love.”

I could quote endless beautiful words from these children.

So if you’re finding yourself in a busy phase of life like me, why not sponsor a child? You can make an impact right now in the life of a child living in poverty.

You don’t have to put it off because you have too much laundry, and baseball practices, and youth group activities, and whatever else is filling your life right now.

You can do something.

Just click on the following link to get started:

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=129652