The Ripples of Child Sponsorship
“What can I do in the face of such hugeness?” we wonder. “What good would my pebble do in such a vast sea of suffering?” But here’s the amazing thing about pebbles dropped in the water — they create ripples.
Continue Reading ›All Aboard the Poverty Train
Are we, through our exposure trips, simply promoting another form of poverty tourism?
Continue Reading ›A Thousand Thanks
We asked, and you responded. Mille grazie! A thousand thanks. Actually, 2,618 thanks. That’s how many votes we received.
You can help advance the work they’re doing by telling your family and friends about them. The more people who view the ads on their site, the more ad revenue that gets generated and donated. That’s how it works.
With God All Things Are Possible
Hey! I have new photos of Amisi. I was so blessed to meet him on my trip to Uganda last month.
I was told the outfit he’s wearing, along with his shoes and socks, were purchased through the Christmas Gift Program.
During my visit, I also gave him a banner that says, “With God, all things are possible.” As he grows up, I hope he clings to this message. I can’t wait to see how God works in his life. He may be living in a poverty-stricken African village now, but with God, the possibilities for his life are endless.
Have you visited your child? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment and tell me!
And if you have any photos, add them to our Flickr group. Be sure to include brief descriptions and I’ll share some of them here in a few days!
A Mosquito Bite Away
One of the things that shocked me when I visited Uganda last month was finding myself scared to death of mosquitoes. It was the strangest feeling to be afraid of something so small — something we usually think of as just a pest. But in Africa mosquito bites don’t just make your arm itch — they kill.
Malaria, which is transmitted by infected mosquitoes, is killing one million people a year. Most of these are children under age 5 in Africa. That’s right. Malaria, which is preventable and treatable, is killing more than 750,000 children a year in Africa.
Before visiting Uganda, I never really understood how mosquitoes managed to claim so many lives. But when I visited homes there, I understood. Many of the houses don’t have doors — just sheets covering the openings. And the windows are usually bare, too. So at night, the mosquitoes help themselves.
Catherine, a single mother I met in Uganda, told me that before Compassion gave her an insecticide-treated mosquito net, she did everything she could to protect her 10-year-old daughter, Irene. But her efforts were in vain.
“Every night, I tried to cover Irene with a blanket, but she would still get bitten all night long,” said Catherine. “I wanted so badly to buy her a net, but I couldn’t afford it.”
And when Irene got malaria, Catherine certainly couldn’t afford doctors’ bills. “Before Compassion, I would go pleading to doctors for help and beg to pay later,” she said.
Thank God that Compassion intervened! Through the ministry’s Complementary Interventions Program, Irene is now getting medicine and sleeps under a quality net. Today, she’s healthy and thriving.
You can make a difference and help protect vulnerable children like Irene! Since today is World Malaria Day, take a minute to learn more about this disease and see how you can join the fight!
Who Writes the Compassion Blog? A Bunch of Marketing Cheerleaders?
I don’t think it’s possible to be authentic without being transparent.
By consciously withholding something or avoiding a subject because I fear a reaction – anger, rejection, judgment, etc., I’m not being authentic. I’m being manipulative.
Choosing what to share and what not to share is lying by omission, and it’s not being transparent or authentic.
What does this have to do with children in poverty and Compassion International?
- You’re reading Compassion’s blog about child poverty.
- A blog is media — social media.
- Media is manipulative.
- We want to get more children sponsored. More! More! More!
- The blog helps us do that.
- We’re afraid to say anything that will muck that up.
I’ve had conversations with employees who have said that “the blog is just a big commercial for Compassion.” And “the blog is too rah-rah, like it’s written by a bunch of cheerleaders.” Or GASP! Marketers.
I agree that our first two months have been filled with lots of feel good posts, and I know we can’t be everything to everyone, and I don’t think we have a problem yet; however, if you perceive the blog to be a one-dimensional commercial about how great Compassion is, as opposed to an authentic and sincere communication with you and for you, rather than at you and for us, then I’m wrong and we have a PROBLEM.
Am I wrong?
And what’s your perspective, meaning how involved with Compassion are you? Are you drinking the same Kool-Aid as us employees? Are you Super Volunteer or Super Sponsor … or are you just passing through?
How do we share anything positive with you without sounding like a bunch of cheerleaders?
Am I over-thinking this stuff?
If you’ve never commented before, please consider doing so now. You non-commenters have opinions too. I know you do.
Care for the Poor by Caring for the Earth
It’s Earth Day, so the message that we can care for the poor BY caring for the Earth is particularly relevant today.
Here’s some of what we’re doing at Compassion to care for the poor Earth and the dirt poor.
And here’s how we in the U.S. are caring.
- Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% of the world’s energy.
- Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day — that’s roughly 200 billion more than needed — enough to feed 80 million people.
- Americans throw out 200,000 tons of edible food daily.
- The average individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world’s population lives on 25 gallons.
Stats from www.mindfully.org — They’re meant for perspective only. Emotion is optional.
“Poster Boy” Done Good!
A few years back, Israel Candia from Bolivia served as our “poster boy” for the Leadership Development Program* (LDP). He entered our Child Sponsorship Program at age 4 and graduated from LDP in 2004.
Today, Israel is demonstrating the Lordship of Christ by serving as pastor of the Villa Moscu Church. He is also supporting himself economically by practicing law. And, on March 29 he exchanged wedding vows with his beautiful bride, Benedicta!
So, our “poster boy” done good! And that means, you done good! Way to go! Way to go Israel! And, of course, way to go God who “is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of…” (Ephesians 3:20, Living Bible).
*This content honors our historical Leadership Development Program. To learn more about our current youth development opportunities, click here.
Will You Help Us …
Will you help us say thank you to Tammy Chalfant, who organized the first ever Compassion Sunday event at Farmland Friends Church (FFC)?
71 children now have sponsors.
Please tell Tammy and her pastor, Kris Sorensen, how much you appreciate their work.
And Shaun Groves too. He spoke at the event, and he’s a TIRELESS advocate for children in poverty.
Then, take a hop over to SearchKindly.org and help us win $1,000!
SearchKindly is a non-profit organization that donates 100% of its ad revenue to charity. This month Compassion is competing against four other charities for the donation. And right now, we’re in SECOND place with $500 on the table. But the amount goes up every time someone visits the website.
Please visit, and please vote. The contest ends “sometime” on Sunday, April 27.
- Help us win!
- Vote every 8 hours.
- And help us set a record for how much SearchKindly donates.
Listen
I like to listen. My wife will tell you I’m not very good at it. But I really do like to listen to the way people say things … and the meaning behind certain words or phrases. I recently tried an experiment. I paid close attention to some of the things we say around the house, and then tried to imagine how different those conversations would be if we were living in a developing country. Think of how these phrases would be different — or non-existent — if we were living in one of the poorest countries of the world:
- “You wanna go out to eat tonight?”
- “What would you like for lunch today?”
- “There’s nothing on TV.”
- “It’s so nice out…let’s go for a drive with the top down on the Jeep.”
- “It’s starting to get warm again. We need to think about turning the sprinkler system back on in the yard.”
- “I need to run to the store to get some more diapers and Diet Coke. Can you think of anything else we need?”
- “Morgan is outgrowing his clothes so fast, is it okay with you if I go to the store to see if I can find him some new pajamas?”
- “I’ll empty out the dishwasher.”
- I’m going to take a shower.”
- “Feel like ordering a movie?”
- “The housing market is so bad right now. I don’t know if it’s the right time to sell our home. But we sure need more space.”
- “I’m starving!”
- “What would you like for dessert?”
I would bet that most of those phrases are NEVER uttered in the homes of children who attend Compassion child development centers. And the ones that are, are said in a much different context.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to listen in on their conversations for a week?
Interns Wanted
Mentos had an intern. And when you plop a Mentos into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke cool things happen. Really!
We (the web team) want to be like Mentos … at least as far as the intern thing goes … but not exactly like Mentos. We’ll be a bit (meaning a bunch) more traditional in our approach.
Apply to the Compassion Internship Program.
The application deadline is May 15.
And as far as the Diet Coke thing goes, we (Compassion) can’t compete with Mentos.
A Radical Form of Criticism
I ran across this quote on another blog. It’s definitely deeper than your average beach reading, but it’s worth your time. What do you think?
… Jesus in his solidarity with the marginal ones is moved to compassion. Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humaness. In the arrangement of “lawfulness” in Jesus’ time, as in the ancient empire of Pharaoh, the one unpermitted quality of relation was compassion. Empires are never built or maintained on the basis of compassion. The norms of law (social control) are never accommodated to persons, but persons are accommodated to the norms. Otherwise the norms will collapse and with them the whole power arrangement. Thus the compassion of Jesus is to be understood not simply as a personal emotional reaction but as a public criticism in which he dares to act upon the concern against the entire numbness of his social context.
(From The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann)