The Other Side of the Photograph

Late last week Paul asked me if I
would be willing to go over to one of the neighboring schools to help take
photos of the kids to send to each one of their sponsors.  I was so excited from the moment he asked
even though I kept being reminded of how long it would take and how many kids
there were.  

            I don’t
know how many sponsor card photos I have seen over the years but this
experience forever changed the way I will look at one of those pictures.  Kc, Jenessa and myself would go over to the
school find the best spot to take the pictures and pull the students out of
their classes a couple at a time. KC would arrange them in the right order and
Jenessa would wipe up their faces and fix their collars before coming to me.  Then it became the task of trying to get each
one of these shy and kinda nervous children to smile or at least to not look
terrified.   

I wish there was a better way to represent them to their sponsors. I wish their sponsors could see their little personalities as they stand there in front of me.  Each one of those children have a different sounding laugh and posture and interact with me in a different way as I take their picture.  I fell in love which each one in those few short moments I spent with them and I know that their sponsors would treasure a moment like that with their far away children.  

It is funny to me to think about these photographs that I have taken being posted up on refrigerators and bulletin boards all over America. I have looked at so many of these pictures over the years and I think that there had always been a big disconnect for me between seeing their pictures and really recognizing how real the child is who that pictures represents.  

When my dad was here I got to meet the two little girls our family sponsors.  They are so much more real than the photograph shows.  

Its a really big deal to sponsor a child.  The kids who are sponsored often talk about the people that sponsor them and keep any photo that has been sent or letter posted up by their bed or tucked away somewhere important.  You are very real to them.  You are literally changing their lives.  When I was younger I sponsored a little boy in India, and I was thinking about him the other day and how I wished that I would have taken that more seriously.  I wish I would have written him more letters.  If you are reading this and you sponsor a kid… I think you should write them a letter today. And I want to encourage you to stick with that child.  Be committed to them, its hard for them to find a new sponsor.