Remember Kamrul, the cycle van driver from Bangladesh you helped buy a cycle van for? Well, David Adhikary is the fine field communication specialist in Bangladesh who reported that story for us. That was one of his first assignments — he just started at Compassion Bangladesh in January. What a nice welcome you gave him!

Now it’s your turn to ask David about his experiences as a Compassion employee, visiting precious sponsored children, and anything else you’re wondering about Bangladesh.

I’ll tell you a bit about him first. He just finished his electrical engineering degree in December of 2007 when he decided that he wanted to serve the Lord by working with Compassion’s ministry. (An engineer and a writer — talented guy!) He loves English and Bengali literature and is a big sports fan too. 
 
Remember when Chris went to Mexico? He got to meet Cesiah Magaña, who has been working with Compassion Mexico for seven years. She says the seven years have been wonderful — filled with blessings and challenges.

She currently works as the communication specialist, is married and has a precious 2 1/2-year-old son, Jair. She loves driving with her family to the towns around Mexico City, seeing their handicrafts and hearing their stories. 

So it’s time to ask your questions of Cesiah and David. I’ll choose ten questions for each of them to answer. 

This is the story of how Compassion’s beloved president, Wess Stafford, traveled to Washington D.C., rubbed shoulders with the mighty and powerful and still managed to return home the same humble man that we adore.

Take it away, Wess. (more…)

I gave a gift to my sponsored child and . . .

Hey! Remember way back in mid-August when we asked you to join our Flickr group and to upload photos.

Do you remember that we also said, “It’s time to change our banner. And we want the next photo up there to be yours.”?

Well…we did. And you did.

• 22 people joined the group. (And we still have room for more!)
• 652 photos were uploaded. Woo hoo! (And we still have room for more! Are you getting that? )
• One photo was chosen for our new blog banner. Here it is, courtesy of AlyssaEryn.

I took this picture last summer in Tena, Ecuador. It’s a small village that is actually about 20 miles away from the place where Jim Elliot and Nate Saint where killed in 1956. I was there doing a Bible camp for kids living along the river.

The little boy in the picture is named Christian, and he stole my heart from the very first day. At the time of the photo he was five years old, but I’m not sure of his exact birthday. A natural model, he would often pose so I would take his picture, then run over to me to view the tiny screen on the back of my camera. – Alyssa

Our next blog banner could be yours. We’ll be doing this again in a few months, so keep uploading.

“Compassion Haiti is a reference and a light house for the Haitian population.” — Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

During the 40 years of our ministry in Haiti, thousands of young people have committed themselves to Christ. Many of those young men and women have won their parents and many other people from their communities to Christ by their commitments and Christian attitudes.

Compassion started its ministry in Haiti in 1968. At that time, we worked directly through the missionaries established in the country while maintaining no country office or local staff. But through the years, our structure has changed as more and more children have been registered in our programs.

Compassion Haiti has grown through the years in all levels.

• From 25 employees in the 1990s, it has now reached 69 staff.
• God has blessed the ministry with a new building adjacent to the old one. That new rented building accommodates program implementation. The office has rooms for more years of fast growth.
• In order to better serve the projects and partners, Compassion Haiti has hired 12 field-based partnership facilitators from fiscal year 2007 up to now. The presence of the partnership facilitators in the field contributes a great deal to child development center growth and empowerment improvement.

Compassion trains and equips local evangelical church partners to administer a broad range of child development activities from child survival to child sponsorship and leadership development.

Our Leadership Development Program (LDP), launched during the past 12 years, is having incredible effects on the Haitian society.

• 72 percent of our graduates are employed in key administrative positions both in the public and private sectors, in comparison to the country-level employment statistics of 20 percent

Among those is Abel, a former LDP student, who grew up in a slum but doesn’t live in one anymore. Abel is 27 years old and a university graduate in business management. Among the five children in his family, Abel is the only who has a university degree. The encounter of Abel with Compassion has changed his and his family life for ever.

“Like many other young men, I would probably be a gang member if it were not for the Compassion program in the community. People treat me with much respect, and they are also proud of me. I want to take advantage of that opportunity to make an impact in the community.”

The level of education provided by Compassion has made a great difference in the academic performance in the whole country:

The table below shows a comparison between national and sponsored children success rate in state exams.

The children whose lives are being transformed through this ministry will become the future leaders of Haiti to, in turn, transform our country.

The 40 years of Compassion in Haiti have been a success — but not without challenges.

“My greatest satisfaction is the fact that Compassion has given me the opportunity to see some of my dreams accomplished. I can see the outcomes of my initiatives in the lives of children, communities and churches as I am surrounded by qualified and committed staff to bring about the changes.” – Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, country director for Compassion Haiti

Perspectives for the 10 years to come

Guilbaud intends to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Compassion in 2018 with some major accomplishments:

• increasing our development programs from 227 to 300
• facilitating the growth of our Leadership Development Program from 80 students to 200
• bringing total staff to 100
• 100 percent of our children will be vaccinated
• 50 percent of our child development programs will have access to potable water

Setting: Sitting in the arms of the big Jesus statue in the Compassion foyer. Eyes closed. I’m so tired.

Last week was quite the whirlwind. But oh the productivity! Let me just tell you, we’re moving forward! As you may remember, after delivering the business proposal at the end of my internship, I was asked to write up a business case. For all intents and purposes, the business case is simply a shorter, more-to-the-point version of the proposal that will be delivered to the higher-ups for approval and funding.

I can hardly believe it, but I think it’s going to happen. My idea may be funded. Thanks to your prayers. Special thanks and recognition go out to a gentleman by the name of Curtis Fletcher. I met him last week when Chris set up a 90 minute meeting with him to get his insight and opinion on the business case.

When I walked into the conference room he was already there, nearly ten minutes early, reading/highlighting/taking notes on the draft of the case that I had e-mailed him.

He is every bit of 6 feet, 4 inches, probably taller. He has the build of professional football player: broad, thick, and intimidating. When I walked in, he peered over his glasses with big blue eyes and said “Hello.”

Shockingly, his voice was soft and kind, and a smile broke the concentrated look on his face. Suddenly I felt a little less small.

The meeting went very well. He works closely with those to whom I am writing, and his vantage point helped to enlighten my approach. Finally, I had some clarity on what to say and how to say it.

The biggest answer to prayer came when, at the end of the meeting, Mr. Fletcher offered to help redraft it. “My door is open. Whatever you need, I’ll help you.”

I wish you could have been there because I have a feeling my face said it all. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. I don’t remember what I said, but I remember what I felt. Sweet relief.

With a clarified direction, and the assistance of someone who knows what he is doing, I had a surge of excitement and inspiration. Back to the drawing board I went the next morning and into his office shortly thereafter.

Sure enough, his door was open and his welcome was warm. After some impromptu meetings and even more e-mails, the draft is complete and will be on its way to . . . I-don’t-know-who, tomorrow.

Needless to say, last week was the encouragement that I needed. Call me crazy, but sometimes my faith dwindles when there seems to be a stagnant or presumably idle period of time when, despite work, there is no progress. Can anyone relate? Anyone? Bueller?

(more…)

Hello friends! Glad you’re here.

I haven’t met all of ya yet, but I do knows a lot of ya. If you’re new to our blog, please leave a comment, I’d consider it a privilege to make your acquaintance.

So that you feel welcome, let me introduce you to a few of the folks who are here regularly.

That character over there. That’s Compassion Dave. The lady cleaning up after the sheep is Compassion Juli. They’re not related…except in their love for Christ.

A couple other cool people here are My Friend Amy, our “blog friend”, and Abbie H.

Abbie writes all in his design, and she makes handcrafted dolls she calls “Compassion Friends.”

The cool thing about what Abbie is doing is that she’s donating all of the money from the sale of each doll (minus materials) to the Global Food Crisis Fund. Each doll costs $36. You should consider buying one.

But if you prefer to win a doll, rather than purchase one, take a look at what My Friend Amy is doing.

Hope you don’t mind the plug for Abbie. It’s just something that friends do for one another. She likes us. We like her. It’s all good.

If you want to buy a doll, send Abbie an email at ahamblin@kc.rr.com.