On My Sponsor Trip
We heard what you think about visiting your sponsored children. And some of you shared some great experiences with us too, which got us wanting more.
Want! Want! Want! That’s us. 🙂
So, if you didn’t comment, haven’t ever commented or still have more to say, finish this sentence:
Continue Reading ›On my sponsor trip . . .
Give a Gift, Not Guilt
Last week, I was able to attend the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit at a satellite location here in Colorado Springs. It was so encouraging to hear many of the speakers talk about the need to lead people toward answering the Biblical mandate to speak up for and care for those in need.
Something Wendy Kopp said at the Summit struck me about how we approach leading others toward caring for those in need.
Wendy Kopp is the founder and CEO of Teach for America, a non-profit that asks college graduates to commit to two years of teaching in under-resourced schools.
She was asked how she approaches asking these graduates — some of who could otherwise accept six-figure jobs — to sacrifice so much, putting aside wealth and “success” to teach in schools many would avoid. She said (and this is paraphrased, as my little hand could only scribble so fast as she answered):
You’re giving people an opportunity to be part of something larger, and of significance — people want that … are we afraid to ask people to sacrifice and set a high bar? Your own personal conviction about the work makes it easy to ask others to sacrifice because you’re giving them a gift that will change their lives.
When we tell others about the opportunities to care for those in need, we might feel like we’re putting a burden on them, but far from burdening them, we’re giving them a gift. We’re giving them the opportunity to enter into another aspect of our relationship with Jesus as we follow him.
Several times when talking with someone who has come across the book I wrote about responding to poverty, they say they’re scared to read it. So many are scared of this issue of poverty, and understandably so — it’s big and hairy and complicated. And God might ask us to do scary things.
But I think there’s a third reason people are afraid of poverty — they’re worried a big, fat load of guilt is going to be placed on their shoulders. We’ve been bombarded by so much guilt when it comes to poverty, seeing so many images that evoke guilt and being told “shame on you for drinking that Starbucks instead of caring for a baby.”
Are we guilty for not responding to God’s mandate to care for those in need? Yes, but God hasn’t appointed us as judges of others. He has appointed us as messengers of his grace. And I think when we do approach others not with guilt but with grace, they grasp that helping those in need isn’t about checking off a requirement on our good-Christian to-do list so that we can not feel so guilty. It’s about our relationship with Christ — about following him, obeying him, and knowing him all the more as we become like him in our service to others.
Continue Reading ›“He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 22:16, NIV, emphasis added)
I’m Going to Mexico
I’m going to Mexico! And I want you to come with me.
I was left behind once, and I’m grateful it wasn’t in the “missed the Rapture” sense. Because of that experience I will do my best to make you feel like you’re in Mexico with me.
I’m going to Mexico as a co-leader on a sponsor tour, not as a Compassion Blogger.
My first responsibility on the trip is to support the sponsors who are traveling with us to meet their sponsored children. However, you will always be in my thoughts.
I intend to:
- upload photos to our Flickr photostream, and I’ll add the best ones to our Flickr group, which you can see in the sidebar under Your Flickr Photos.
- tweet – send regular text updates of what’s going on – so follow us on Twitter
- write colorful and moving commentary you’ll find here, on this very blog
- take some Blair Witch/Cloverfield amateur-style video to share with you when I get back
- eat lots of beans and rice
- hug lots of kids
- et cetera
I don’t sponsor a child in Mexico but if you do, and they’re at one of these child development centers, let me know. I will TRY to get a photo of your child for you. I cannot promise anything other than I’ll try.
The child development centers are:
- The King’s Children Ambassadors Student Center (ME-730)
- The Jesus’ Friends Student Center (ME-737)
- The House of Bread Student Center (ME-708)
Please don’t leave your child’s name or number in your comment. Just let me know you have a child at one of the centers and someone will contact you via email to get the information.
What’s Your View?
My husband and I first moved into our apartment because of the great view it afforded us — not of an apartment parking lot, which I have grown quite tired of — but of beautiful leafy green bushes and the Rocky Mountains.
Pitying myself for still living in an apartment, my view was my solace.
“That’s odd,” I thought, as he drove away.
Not long after, there was more beeping. And another big green dumpster. And then another truck pulled up, and my new green neighbors were met with a shiny new Port-o-Let. I was less than thrilled.
It seems that our little view had become operating central for the crews that were methodically painting our entire apartment complex.
Each morning, instead of gazing out at my view and enjoying the chirping of the birds and the occasional sight of a fox bounding down the ditch, I gazed down at work crews banging in and out of the Port-o-Let and whistling along to the polka music blaring from the trucks. Again, less than thrilled.
As they moved in and got comfy, they got messier and messier. Trash flung here and there, half-started painting projects, and an overflowing dumpster.
Each day, instead of gazing past it all to the Rocky Mountains, which still loomed as tall as ever, I found my eyes fixated on this blight on my view.
These children are smiling and laughing, despite being surrounded by worse conditions.
I had developed tunnel vision, or garbage vision, only noticing each day not the incredible blessings of God around me — the trees and mountains and birds who still chirped along with the polka music — but only what was in my life that wasn’t right, that I didn’t want to be there.
God blesses me so much every day. Sometimes I see it, and other times I don’t see the blessings for the garbage. What’s your view? How do you remember the good God has given you instead of what’s still not quite right?
Doing a New Thing
It is officially my last Tuesday in the office, and I am … speechless. Where did the last six weeks go?
Despite the fact that there are only three days left in this work week, it feels as though there is two weeks worth of work to be done. I will be putting the finishing touches on the proposal today and will be presenting it to the marketing “big-wigs” on Thursday.
The presentation is weighing heavily on my mind for a number of different reasons. For starters, it will be the first, and potentially only, chance that I have in front of such an influential audience here at Compassion.
Secondly, I simply want to do well. This project is close to my heart and I want to do it justice. I don’t just want to sell it. I want to inspire my audience to feel as passionately about it as I do and see the vision that I have for it. I don’t want them to merely associate this proposal with “the intern’s project,” but instead I want them to think that “this is where Compassion could go; this is what Compassion should do.”
While there are other matters that seem to float aimlessly around in my thoughts, the most important and imperative at the moment is the question of my immediate future. I have applied for several positions here at Compassion, (more…)
I Share Love
There aren’t any half ton puns today, but there is some cheap rhymin’ goin’ on.
‘Scuse us as we put on our business faces.
Alright. Finish this half for us.
I share love with my sponsored child by . . .
My Sisters Are Sponsored. What About Me?
In the courtyard, Mariam’s sisters, Assanata and Zourata, are preparing to leave. They both have weekly appointments that they would not miss for anything in the world. They are registered at the Assemblies of God Central Church of Koudougou Child Development Center.
Mariam always awaits their return so she can taste the food that her sisters bring home, and she does not fail to learn the songs that they sing as they return.
A Day in the Life of a Bangladeshi Cycle Van Driver
Kamrul opens his eyes and looks out the window. It is still dark outside. He gets up and goes outside his house.
Kamrul washes his face with the water from the nearest pond. He breaks a branch from a nearby neem tree, whose branches are thin and good for teeth, and begins to clean his teeth. He is wearing just a lungi, the traditional Bangladeshi skirt for a male. He prepares himself for the hard day ahead of him. Kamrul, the father of Compassion-registered* child Mukta, is a cycle van puller. (more…)
10 Questions With Dennis Tumusiime
10 questions? Yes. You asked ’em.
10 answers? Yes … kind of. They’re just not all in this post.
Here we go. 10 Questions With Dennis Tumusiime, a tours and visits specialist with Compassion Uganda.
1. Do the families that Compassion works with have a pretty good understanding about what the program entails, and are they open to their children being evangelized? Is there a balance between being so desperate that they feel they must enroll their children and thus expose them to the gospel in order for them to be educated and fed? (Kalaya G)
I’d say that 80 percent of the communities where child development centers are located have an understanding [at least partially] of our program components. There have been instances where children are denied the benefits of the programs by their parents because the parents have different beliefs and norms, but like you said, they are compelled to enroll the children because of lack of supplies to the children’s needs.
2. What are the qualifications for the project workers to work at the child development centers? (Kayla)
Each position, be it health, finance, or sponsor donor ministry has a professional element that an aspiring candidate should have. But Compassion also has a holistic approach to the work we do, and the same idea applies to the workers in the child development centers; they should be holistically qualified –- not just academically qualified. The applicant’s spiritual status matters, and it is paramount.
It’s Happening
For those who have been following along these last few weeks, you know that I have been trying to come up with a new viral marketing campaign.
As of about a week ago, I think I have finally got my hands around something solid. Now, the fun and creative part is over and the nitty-gritty, detail heavy part is looming.
In all honesty, it’s wearing me out. I’m not a detail-oriented person. I like to look at the big picture. And it’s in the details that I get lost, feel inadequate, and am ready to toss it to the wind or pass it off to someone else. After all, I’m just the intern.
But I read something yesterday that revitalized my efforts and has given me a hope about the future of this project. (more…)
Running for Children
Just crossing the finish line of Colorado’s U.S. Trail National Championship June 29 in Steamboat Springs was quite a feat on its own. Winning an age-group division in this 12-kilometer race was even more of an accomplishment. But what really qualifies Tim Smith as a champion is succeeding in all this with a symbol plastered across his chest to represent the millions of impoverished children around the world.
Tim is a Mail Services Specialist at the Global Ministry Center (GMC) in Colorado. As he says, he is “deeply passionate about and committed to our work … to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”
Tim is a prolific runner and runs as passionately as he works. He approaches both his job and his races with fervor because in his mind these two worlds are not isolated.
The U.S. Trail National Championship was the 10th race he competed in since March 2007 while wearing his jersey and representing Compassion — clearly Tim utilizes running as an opportunity to speak up for children living in the bondage of poverty.
How many eyes saw his Compassion jersey as he warmed up, raced and recovered?
How many individuals wondered about Compassion or for the first time considered the harsh reality of poverty that affects so many today?
Neither Tim nor anyone else may ever know the results of his choice to race in that jersey. All Tim can stand on is that we are all called to “seek justice,” “encourage the oppressed,” and “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Isaiah 1:17) in every area of life. The results are not our responsibility.
Tim’s grass-roots advocacy captures the core of Compassion’s desire: to break hearts for the poor in a way that permeates who we are and causes us constantly to remember the voiceless.
Not only that, but as Tim explains, “I wear the Compassion shirt because my desire is to honor Compassion and the ministry. … I use the shirt as a platform upon which I can witness to other athletes that I come in contact with.”
Not only could his jersey cause people to consider the poor, but it presents an opportunity for Tim to share with other runners the purpose Christ has given his life. Wearing a Compassion shirt is a simple act, but God uses nonglamorous obedience to further His kingdom.
Story by Barb Liggett, Global Strategy Office Intern
