Encouragement

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PAPER OR PLASTIC?

For most of us, this is a common question. It's posed in the grocery store, at the checkout line.

Generally this question is not something that weighs greatly on our minds.

It's not a life decision that has much consequence.

I haven't bothered to write up a "Pros vs. Cons" comparison on a piece of paper, with point values, etc.

The "Paper or Plastic?" question just isn't up there on the priority list.

I also used the phrase in my job-when sponsors asked what kinds of things they are allowed to send to their child, I would often respond "Anything of paper or plastic that will fit into a standard #10 business-sized envelope." And, more or less, that's what we process and send once a month in our "In Touch" shipments.

Some might argue that these letters and tokens we send don't have much consequence, don't have a notable monetary value, etc. They might ask: what good is it? What good is something, especially something made of paper, going to do for a child in a Developing Nation, a child who (without sponsorship) has no food for today, no shelter for tonight, no hope for tomorrow...?

Well, a letter sent from a Christian sponsor in a far-away land saying "I'm praying for you," "my family always prays for you" or "my children pray for you every night" can instill exactly that-hope for tomorrow...

A one-paragraph note expressing to the child "you have value," "God sees you," "God cares, and we do, too" or "we love you" can mean everything, and can take so little time out of your busy schedule...

So, I'd have to answer the hard-headed realists/doubters that paper can shoulder a great deal of value, an eternal value vastly beyond the dollars and cents worth that we might assign to it. Truth is, we might never really know what our words on paper meant to someone, somewhere, and the "Kingdom Impact" we have had through plain-ol'

everyday

paper or plastic.

Brenda Kern
January 18, 2001

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