{"id":782,"date":"2010-12-03T15:15:02","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T15:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html"},"modified":"2010-12-03T15:15:02","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T15:15:02","slug":"advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html","title":{"rendered":"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One thing we underestimate is the power of a personal letter to a child who has been told by the world that they are of no value. Worthless. <\/p>\n<p>I have seen too many children who no longer believe they are special&#8230;or important&#8230;or loved.<\/p>\n<p>But then, I have met some that will tell me all about their special American friend. A person or family who writes them and sends pictures. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you know Donna?&#8221; (Or John, Marvin, or Mary)<\/p>\n<p>They ask me in the way a child thinks all Americans must know each other by their first names only. <\/p>\n<p>Then they produce a stack of letters and photos, clutching them as if they were made of the purest gold.<\/p>\n<p>Never underestimate the power of a letter written to a child. <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Day6.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/104\/import\/Day6.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"text-align: center;margin: 0pt auto 20px\" height=\"531\" width=\"360\" \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One thing we underestimate is the power of a personal letter to a child who has been told by the world that they are of no value. Worthless. I have seen too many children who no longer believe they are special&#8230;or important&#8230;or loved. But then, I have met some that will tell me all about&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter... - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter... - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One thing we underestimate is the power of a personal letter to a child who has been told by the world that they are of no value. Worthless. I have seen too many children who no longer believe they are special&#8230;or important&#8230;or loved. But then, I have met some that will tell me all about&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-03T15:15:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/import\/Day6.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter... - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter... - Red Letters","og_description":"One thing we underestimate is the power of a personal letter to a child who has been told by the world that they are of no value. Worthless. I have seen too many children who no longer believe they are special&#8230;or important&#8230;or loved. But then, I have met some that will tell me all about&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2010-12-03T15:15:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/import\/Day6.jpg"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html","name":"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter... - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/import\/Day6.jpg","datePublished":"2010-12-03T15:15:02+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-03T15:15:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/import\/Day6.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/import\/Day6.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/advent-day-6-never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-letter.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Advent Day 6: Never underestimate the power of a letter&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}