I got a friend request on Facebook the other day. I couldn’t believe who it was. He certainly didn’t seem old enough. And how in the world did he get on a computer? I remember him as a little kid. I remember him as an AIDS orphan at the Lakeside Orphanage outside of Kisumu, Kenya. But now he is grown up. Now he has a job. Now he is able to talk to me on Facebook.

His message was simply a message of gratitude. And he wanted to know about the well being of his two sponsors. Yes, two sponsors. He was thankful for both of them. I knew both of his sponsors. One was family. One was a friend.

My son Patrick sponsored Lawrence when he was a student at U.N.L.V. It was a great time as Patrick tried to get students in the dorm to sponsor CRF children. He had a goal to see each wing of his dorm sponsoring a needy child together. Patrick gave Lawrence frisbees, footballs, and friendship. But after Patrick went to about five different colleges and just as many different countries—something went wrong. Patrick thought he was still sponsoring Lawrence, and so did I. But between changing credit cards, addresses, and continents—Patrick’s payments didn’t get to us.

When it happened, one of our great friends from Seattle, Frances Palmer, noticed the unsponsored child and began sponsoring Lawrence. After all was said and done, Patrick now sponsors another child and Frances continued to sponsor Lawrence. And Lawrence is grateful and loves both of them.

Sometimes things happen and a child who was sponsored becomes unsponsored. We really don’t want a child who has already experienced the grief of losing a parent to lose a sponsor too.

So here’s what we do. If a child becomes unsponsored, we don’t drop them. They still eat. They still go to school. We just have to cover them out of our general funds. But it is hard to do this for an extended period of time.

As soon as a child becomes unsponsored, we try to get them a new sponsor as quickly as possible. But if we get too many children unsponsored at one time or for a long time, it becomes financially difficult for CRF. Now is one of those times when we have too many unsponsored children.

Could you help us? Maybe you can sponsor another child.

Or perhaps you could become an advocate for one of these children and see if one of your friends might like to save a child.

And if any of your credit card, address or financial information with CRF changes, please let us know. When you are issued a new credit card or something changes with it (like an expiration date), your child sponsorship can be affected.

I am so thankful for the longevity of CRF sponsors. Rarely do people drop their sponsorships. And if it happens, it is usually accidental.

So from all the kids—Thank You!!! – Milton Jones

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