The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast
Could Writing a Letter Change Your Life?? I CCB Podcast Special Series - Jonathan's Story Part 6
Thu, 20 Mar 2025
When is the last time you thought about how powerful writing a letter could be? In part six of Jonathan’s story, Candace and Jonathan talk about the powerful impact of a relationship that grew from letter writing. Jonathan shares more about growing up in poverty and how he got support from a local church and his sponsor Jamie. He recalls the first letter she sent, a simple note that made him feel special and loved: "Good afternoon, Jonathan. I wanted to send you a little note to let you know I was thinking about you." That simple message meant so much to him, especially since he never those words of encouragement from his father. Come back each week to hear more about Jonathan’s story. To see how we can make a difference together, go to https://ccbpodcast.com/compassion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: How can writing a letter make a difference in someone's life?
Life is like a roller coaster, but it's so much better when we go through it together. It's true. We are better together. And this season, I'm asking our podcast community to do something together to make a difference in the world. There are hard things going on around us. Hurricanes, floods, fires, people hurting.
And as followers of Jesus, we show up in the hard stuff and we build relationships with people who need us. We give. Each week, I'm bringing you a short piece of an interview with a special guest. And each week, you'll hear more about what we can do together. These are short episodes, less than 10 minutes. So come join us.
Chapter 2: What role did the local church play in Jonathan's upbringing?
Well, again, I didn't know at the moment Compassion was involved on the service that this local church was giving me. The only thing I knew was a local church in my community serving me through the week. That's the only thing I knew. But then I am receiving these letters from someone that I was supposed to call sponsor. Which was really weird for me.
There were moments that I was thinking, are these letters coming through some bear or something?
Right. A little stork is dropping them off and bringing them in a basket.
Because we don't have a good letter system in the DR. Got it.
Right. So you're going to this church. The church is helping you. The church is providing the food, the clothes, essentially, the things you need for school, even...
maybe things for home too like soap and shampoo or um but you have now these letters coming in from a person that's your sponsor and you don't quite know how this all fits in like who's this weird person i'm getting letters from because it's the the church itself that's in your local area that's helping you exactly so tell me about like the first letter you received or
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Chapter 3: Who was Jonathan's sponsor and what was her impact?
This is an example. Okay. And the reason I want to share this is just one paragraph. Very small. Typed. Typed on a typewriter. So this letter came in the 90s. So I got into the program in 1997. Okay. So maybe 1999.
Uh-huh.
Chapter 4: Why is writing letters important even if they are short?
I had a sponsor at the beginning. It seems like she couldn't continue. And so I got another sponsor, Jamie. And she was the one that I spent the most time in the program until I graduated. So she sent this small note. Let me just quickly read the portion. Good afternoon, Jonathan. I wanted to send you a little note to let you know I was thinking about you. It is getting warm up here in Michigan.
I hope your family is doing well. Love, Jamie. Very small paragraph. Very small letter. And I want you to see this and those listening to the podcast because some people say, I don't want to sponsor because I don't have time to write. Or I don't want to feel guilty that I am not writing.
Number one thing is you can sponsor a child and if you cannot write, it's okay because there is a local church serving that child. There is this emotional need being covered by the discipleship of the local church, a tutor, a pastor.
Thank you for that reminder. Because while I sponsor, I think right now I have, I mean, I have four kids. I've sponsored more through the years, but some of them have graduated through the program. So I've taken on new children. And and I do feel that way often because I do write, but I don't write as much as I would like to. And I always feel terrible about it.
But it's a good reminder in that while I will always continue writing, but if I it's not as often as I want to know that, you know. I do know that the church is there. Exactly. Being the hands and feet and providing that in person. Exactly. But I do know how much the relationship means to the children too. It really makes a huge difference.
And it makes a huge difference. But I will say also Candace, two letters a year is enough. Like sometimes we feel like we have to write a lot, but the reality is children write twice a year, the sponsor write or not. But every time you write, they have to write back. So imagine someone writing a letter every month. That's too much for a child. They love the letters.
They're not as happy of writing letters back. Because the idea, what Compassion aims is to keep these relationships strong and going back and forth. And so immediately you write, they get a letter generated to write back. So I will say maximum four letters a year is more than enough. Okay. Two a year. Very good. Very good.
Kind of right on the nose. I got it.
Even once a year. That's a good number. So don't feel, please don't feel like that. Because again, there's this local church and the sponsor is joining God in this local church, this community, local followers of Jesus serving that child. So the sponsor is not the only one. He's an important role. But for example, in this letter, She, one paragraph, but she said she's thinking about me.
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