Meet Jan Ramus! Jan has four children, nine grandchildren and 3 great- grandchildren. In addition to spending time with her family and serving with World Vision, Jan also plays golf, duplicate bridge, and enjoys watercolor painting. Jan became a Child Ambassador after receiving a memorable letter from one of the girls she sponsors in Tanzania. In the letter, Jan's sponsored child thanked her for the goats their family received from Jan's special gift. Her child went on to explain that this gift was so important because the goats' manure would now provide fertilizer to make their garden more productive. The impact of this small gift, combined with her child's deep gratitude brought Jan to tears. "God spoke to my heart telling me I had to do more to get people to share this blessing by helping these precious children." Jan, how would you encourage other Child Ambassadors who are getting started in their ministry? It is not easy being a CA but it is so worth the effort each time someone sponsors a child. I hope God can use me to encourage other CA's to stay the course. Do you have a favorite scripture or quote that gives you encouragement in this ministry? Hebrews 12:1&2: "Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus." Contributed by Laura Walls with Melodee Miller Melodee Miller is filled with a beautiful, joyful grace and her cheerful kindness is contagious! She cares about people, especially children, and makes those around her feel valued and loved. She's such a special part of the Child Ambassador team! Melodee lives in Washington with her husband and four children. This year, she ran a half marathon with a special goal - for every mile she ran, she linked a child with a sponsor. This creative idea caught fire and inspired her friends and family across the country! I hope that as you hear her share her story, you're inspired to see that you don't need a particular set of talents as a child ambassador. Just follow God's lead and be open to Him guiding you in ways you never expected! Mel, did you ever think that you'd run 13 miles? Ha! No! I have never been athletic in my life! I’ve always been the artsy theater and choir girl. This was completely new for me! What motivated you to do the half marathon and link it to sponsorship? Getting to the point of doing the half marathon was definitely a journey for me. As I said before, I’ve never been the athletic type. Over the last couple of years though, I’ve been trying to work on being healthy and living a healthy life. One, I want to be that example for my kids and two, I want to take care of the one body God gave me. I had been working out somewhat consistently when I met people who run for Team World Vision. I was really inspired by them and their training for half marathons to raise money for clean water. I wanted to try to see if I could train for a half marathon too. It was partly for me just to see if I could do it, but I didn’t want it just to be about me. I wanted to align it with something. I thought about raising money for clean water or anti-human trafficking. Then it hit me to do what I’m already doing as a child ambassador, asking people to sponsor! That takes care of clean water, anti-human-trafficking and more! I was so excited to be running for children all around the world! What steps did you take to achieve that goal? I followed the Team World Vision training plan they have laid out on their website. It worked great! It also helped to have my husband join me. He kept me motivated and it was wonderful having a partner to train with! How did you enlist the support of family and friends? Was it hard? Honestly, it was all through Facebook! I was so hesitant to share what I was doing for so long because I still wasn’t sure if I could really do it. Finally, about 3 weeks before I ran the half I decided to announce what I was doing on a Facebook live video. I got such a great response that I kept making videos (I even convinced my husband to do a couple with me) and people came out of the woodwork to sponsor kids! It was awesome! How was the run itself? So good! I didn’t die!! Ha!! Seriously though, it was a really special run. I had taken one of my old World Vision t-shirts and wrote every name of who sponsored inside a heart with the name of the child they sponsored. I did that for anyone who also became a Refugee Responder. I wore the shirt for the run. At every mile my husband and I prayed for the sponsor and the sponsored child. It made the run go by really fast and I felt so connected to every name written on my shirt. It really was so special! What were the results? My hope in the beginning was to have 13 kids sponsored, one for each mile I was running, and 1 Refugee Responder as the cherry on top for the .1 mile of the 1/2 marathon. In the end, 15 kids were sponsored and 3 people signed up as refugee responders!! God is awesome!! What would you tell others who might be considering trying something similar? Or those who think they could never run that far? Go for it! If I can do it, the one who has never been athletic, then you can do it too! If it’s something that God is laying on your heart to do, then God will give you all you need to make it happen! Do you have any tips for CAs who are trying to find their niche in this ministry? I think one of the most beautiful things about being a CA is that you can completely tailor your ministry to your life style and personality. There is no one right way to be a CA. Seek God and see where the Spirit leads you. I fully believe that if you honor God with your gifts and talents in this ministry then God will bless it and bring people to sponsor those kids! And be open to God doing something new in your life that will bring you down a path you never thought you would see yourself doing, like running a half-marathon! Update!!! Mel is running another race for sponsorship on June 10th and needs our prayers and encouragement! Head over to the CA Facebook page and cheer her on!!! |
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