An Amazing Missionary Kid!

I'll start this post by telling you I am NOT a paper saver! No one sends "snail mail" these days anyways, but my process for dealing with correspondence is simple: answer letter, throw letter away. The only things I keep are letters and papers from family and the occasional, so-special-you-can't-bear-to-throw-it-away letter. To give you an idea of how many of those kinds of letters I have... they all fit into one small shoebox! Josh Gimenez's letters are among those few treasures I have kept in that shoebox.

Josh is the most amazing missionary kid, and I personally do not even know him! He and his family are currently in Canada learning French, preparing to serve as missionaries to the West Indies. So, how do I know this very special missionary kid? Well, it all started out with a letter in the mail 3 1/2 years ago.... and $10 tucked inside. I have included pictures of those letters in this post. And, in case the pictures are hard to see, I am typing below each picture exactly what Josh wrote, exactly as he wrote it:

Dear Sloans,

God has put on my heart to support you for a month at ten dollars a week. I am ten years old and my name is Joshua. I am in 5th grade. The reason I am going to support you is because my Dad wanted us to have more faith in God. So he had us pick a missionary and I picked you. We are also missionarys to the West Indies.

from

Joshua Gimenez

Next, we received this letter, another $10, and Josh's family's prayer card. (And, it is possible I am missing a letter here... sounds like that may be the case by what he writes; however, I can't be sure because there were only 4 weeks in November 2006, and the entire promised $40 is mentioned...):

Dear Bro and Miss Sloan,

I have been supporting you for three weeks. God has been sending the money in. I have been praying for you to be safe. This week at a missions conferance I surrenderd to preach. I am glad I support you God has really mad faith real to me.

Your Prayer friend,

Joshua Gimenez

P.S. I sent you a prayer card of us Please pray for us.

Then, we received this card with $20:

Dear Bro and Miss Sloan,

I am sorry I didn't get off last weeks support so I put both weeks in for this week. This the Month I pick a new missonary. It was fun supporting you

Joshua Gimenez

P.S. Sorry my Handwriting is bad we are on the Road again.

Let me tell you... these letters brought a lot of emotions to my heart. First, I was overwhelmed that a 10-year-old child could have such faith. I was also ashamed... ashamed for every time in my own life that I have not relied fully on God to provide for my every need, just as this child so whole-heartedly did. I also felt fear... fear of using a single penny in a way that would not be pleasing to God. You see, we as Christians all know and understand that everything we have belongs to God. But, for a missionary... every single thing we own not only belongs to God, but is also the sacrifice of dear Christians in supporting churches. We spend our time and money as wisely as possible... but I spent Josh's money with fear and trembling, begging God to bless it and his sacrifice.

Josh is nearly 14 years old now and has his own blog! Go visit him here and encourage him! His sweet mother (who, by the way is a lady I want to learn from... I mean, how many mothers are out there teaching their children how to support missionaries?!) has written a post about Josh where she shares her burden for missionary kids. Go read that post here and begin praying fervently for missionary kids! And, here is their family blog!

Josh, you're a great kid! Thank you for teaching a "seasoned" missionary how to truly give and how to live by faith! You are one of my heroes!