My wife, Sue, and I have three daughters.  Our oldest, Jo, is studying to be a missionary, and did her internship last summer at an orphanage in Uganda, Africa.  Then, in September, the director of Agape House, Joseph, came to the US, and spent a couple of days with us in Maine.  He spoke at the school where I teach, and he gave us the names of all the kids that live in the home he runs.  There were exactly the same number of kids at Agape House as I have in my class.  He and his wife also have two babies, and I have an aide in my class, so the numbers still worked out into a perfect 1:1 ratio.

So after Joseph headed back across the ocean to Africa, we decided to write to all the kids of Agape house.  But instead of just a generic letter, we each wrote a letter to each child personally.  My aide, Amanda and I wrote to the babies, and my students got to choose age range and gender. Some of the kids included book marks or ribbons or other small gifts that pack flat.  We also sent pictures of ourselves.

Today we received a package back from the kids at Agape.  Each one of their children wrote a letter to the student who initially wrote to them.  What a great way to start our day at school.  My students (and Amanda and I) were so excited to read our mail and to share our letters with the rest of the class.

Some of the kids who received letters from the younger children received coloring pages.  Some got Christmas cards (the package was dated November... it took a month and a half to get to us) and we all received pictures of our new pen pals.  But the most precious part was their writing.

My daughter, Rose, is in my class this year, and her new pen pal is a little boy named Vincent.  He wrote, "My eyes are black.  I do not have light skin like you, my skin is black."  Another one of my students, Katie, got this message in her letter: "My birthday is June 3.  try to send me gifts on my birthday and Christmas.  This is a secret."  Kids are kids wherever you go.  Many of us were invited to Uganda.  I wrote to Agape, Joseph's and his wife, Gladys's, baby boy.  Needless to say, Gladys wrote the letter.  she spoke of how much they all loved having Jo with them last summer.

So my students have until Tuesday to write letters back to the kids in Uganda.  We will purchase postcards of Maine to show them the wildlife and scenery of our home state.  This is one homework assignment they'll all do willingly.

Read more about Agape House here:  http://agapeuganda.org/agape-house/