Missing Out

I am missing out on so much.

Every day, I am bombarded with thousands of images of what I don’t have. If only I looked like this famous person or wore those shoes or had that latest tech gizmo, I would be worthwhile. In our culture of consumerism, I am what I own.

I would love to say that I rise above this mindset, but a recent trip to a large suburban mall reminded me that too often, I buy in to it.

My best friend and I perused store after store and watched other shoppers pick up items without even a glance at the price tag. We left the mall frustrated. Angry, even. I was infuriated … not because people were spending hundreds of dollars on shoes and clothes they’d forget about after summer’s end, but because I couldn’t afford those things.

This mindset is not only hitting our wallets, but taking us away from the heart of Jesus himself. (more…)

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What is Poverty?

What is poverty? Our President, Wess Stafford, defines poverty and describes our solution for releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Watch What is Poverty? and subscribe to Compassion YouTube for more stories.


UPDATED: Nov. 18, 2011 – We also have a photo essay from the Compassion Bloggers trip to Ecuador which asks the same question; What is poverty?

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man leading another by the hand

Courageous Leadership

Our ministry takes place in some of the toughest, grittiest places on the planet, but we face these hard realities with an adventuresome spirit.

In the midst of this chaotic world, we do not waiver and we do not blink, as we pursue our single-minded strategy of “Christian holistic development of children in poverty through sponsorship.” We will never raise a white flag in surrender to the evil raging against us.

In the face of extreme poverty, courageous leadership requires determination and faith. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s moving forward despite the fear.

“Courage is fear that has said it’s prayers.” – Karl Barth

Listen to a member of our leadership team talk about the importance of courageous leadership.

man reaching out to lead another man

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Our 1 Millionth Child

It is my great privilege to introduce you to Fellow Blewussi Kpodo, our 1 millionth sponsored child! Fellow is 8 years old and lives in Togo with his father, two older sisters and one younger brother. And he now has a very bright future! 🙂

And who better to stand alongside this precious little one than the world’s strongest woman? Fellow’s sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, a long-time Compassion supporter and Olympic gold medalist weight lifter from Korea.

smiling boyfemale weight lifter

So, the strongest woman in the world is now sponsoring one of the most vulnerable children in the world!

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A Young Activist

The problems of the Filipino youth are real – delinquency, early pregnancy, drug addiction, prostitution and gangs. In the crammed squatter community of Escopa in metropolitan Manila, these social ills are a way of life.

Kenh is one of the young people living in Escopa, and today he has a chance to help solve these problems. Kehn, 16, was recently elected as one of his neighborhood’s youth officers, and already he has initiated the distribution of free bags, pencils and papers to little children, using local government funds.

“I believe that education is the key to helping the youth and straightening their lives,” he says. “If only they will stay in school, then they will be drawn away from youthful evils.”

Kenh’s involvement with the local Youth Council is political in nature, but poverty is not just political rhetoric for Kenh. It is reality. (more…)

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One Million Children Sponsored

I am overwhelmed with gratitude as I write this. Today, as we do every day, we have the privilege of acting as a bridge between caring sponsors and children in need.

However, this particular day we have a sponsorship that is very special in that it represents a milestone for our ministry. Compassion is currently serving 1 million sponsored children! One million!!

I wish we could all be together today to celebrate this joyous moment. What a day it is!

Thank you sponsors! Thank you for your love of children. Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s call on your lives.

I love you, and I love serving the Lord with you through this amazing ministry!


Updated at 4:30 p.m. MDT

“Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)

Watch One Million Children and subscribe to Compassion YouTube for more stories.

Tune into Fox and Friends tomorrow (May 21) at 6:50 a.m. EDT to “meet” our 1 millionth child and his sponsor.

The newly sponsored child lives with his father outside Togo’s capital city of LomĂ©. Togo, a country whose population is seriously affected by the devastation of AIDS, is the most recent country to join the growing list of nations where Compassion works.

The child’s sponsor is from South Korea, the country in which Compassion began its mission 57 years earlier. The sponsor is most recently noted for a gold medal she won at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

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Child Sponsorship Releases Generations From Poverty

People often ask me what my favorite part of my job is. For me, the answer is easy: the people I get to meet and know around the world. There are people working for Compassion with such heart and passion and such incredible stories of their own. Henry Guarin is one of those people.

Henry’s fun and funny, he sings in a rock band, he has a passion for his job. And he used to be a sponsored child.

Here’s a little more about Henry, in his own words.


It’s 7:15 a.m. in Bogotá, Colombia, it’s cold, as usual, and I am waiting for the school bus to pick up Juan Felipe, my 5-year-old son.

As we stand at the door of the apartment building we live in we are talking about his favorite TV shows, dinner, games with his friends at school, and other things, just like every day.

The school bus finally arrives, so I give him a big hug and a big kiss and I tell him,

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him; and he delivers them.”

I come back to my apartment and Xiomara, my wife, is finishing feeding our little son Lucas. He is only 5 months old and he is happily kicking in his cradle, and he smiles at me as he sees me coming in.

Xiomara and I sit and start talking about how different things were for us when we were children. (more…)

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Young man and lady outside.

Write to a Child

What is a child correspondent and why is letter writing so important that correspondents are necessary? Isn’t financial support enough?

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Alexander Needs Heart Surgery

Have you ever heard of Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)? Apparently, it’s a congenital heart defect.

diagram of a heartIf you have a defect in your interatrial septum, the tissue that divides the right side of your heart from the left side, your blood can get confused. And if that happens, you end up with blood that goes where it shouldn’t. That’s bad.

In a normal heart, the left ventricle has to produce enough pressure to pump blood throughout the entire body, but the right ventricle has to produce only enough pressure to pump blood to the lungs.

In the case of a large defect, this pressure difference means that blood from the left atrium can flood and enlarge the right side of the heart and, if left untreated, can result in heart failure.

That’s ASD in a nutshell. And this is why I tell you.

smiling boyAlexander is an 8-year-old Kenyan boy who has ASD. He is in the third grade and is the youngest child in a family of five. Because his heart has been pumping deoxygenated blood to his growing body for his entire life, Alexander is smaller than most children his age.

In August 2008, during an evaluation at the child development center, a pediatrician noticed that Alexander has a heart murmur. Follow-up tests in Nairobi identified the birth defect and recommended a cardiac catheterization procedure and open heart surgery.

But Alexander’s parents are peasant farmers, and his mother sells fruit at the market to earn extra income. They survive on $13.70 per month.

$13.70 a month is barely adequate to meet the family’s basic needs, let alone pay for open heart surgery.

At this point, heart failure is a real possibility for Alexander. However, studies have shown that patients with a surgically repaired ASD have an excellent prognosis, particularly when the operation is done before the age of 25.

But Alexander’s family can’t afford the operation. It costs $8,303.

Alexander has been waiting to receive the surgery for several months now, since early December, but he can’t wait any longer. His condition has recently worsened – which made me think of something Amanda suggested back in February.

“I am just kicking around a few ideas here. What if Compassion had a “Spotlight of the Week” – or “Spotlight of the Month?” It could be either a child (medical need?), family, or small community need. It could even be in the area of the global financial crisis, disaster relief, Child Survival Program, or some other facet of Compassion. For example, one week you could highlight the (global food crisis) need of a community in Uganda to have goats or seeds for crops (or both). After the donations have been given, you could easily follow up with a story in the blog to share the results of the giving.”

So, Alexander has a need. And our objective is to give him a normal heart. Can we do this for him?

Make a donation to help pay for Alexander’s surgery. (Update: May 21, 2009 – You did it! And more. You contributed around $10,000. I expect to have the exact amount tomorrow.)

Thank you for loving this child.


As I receive updates on how Alexander is doing, I will share them with you. I can’t promise you updates with any degree of regularity though. I can just promise that there will be a follow-up.

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I Write My Sponsored Child

Write child It’s been a month and a half since we last “halfed” it. Do you remember what to do? 🙂

I write my sponsored child because . . .

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She Is Hungry

She didn’t eat yesterday.

The little girl told me that as we sat with her and her mother under a mango tree. The fruit was not ripe yet, and still sat high and green and out of her reach.

Just behind the house, a few rows of corn grew. But they didn’t belong to her family. She could see them every day. But they were out of her reach.

I feel like every week I write about children who “went to bed hungry.” And they did. But right then, I sat before a little girl who literally went to bed less than 24 hours ago with nothing to eat.

I tried to imagine the tiny bit of hunger I’ve felt in my life, magnified. That small ache after missing a meal turned into deep pain after missing one, two, three meals. The slight ache when I take my lunch late turned into a pounding, relentless headache when late turns into never.

I couldn’t imagine it. But this little girl doesn’t have to imagine it. She lives it.

She is hungry when she walks past the market, her pockets empty.

She is hungry when her neighbors light up their braziers at night while her family’s remains cold.

She is hungry while fresh fruits and vegetables are in her sight, but not on her table.

As we left that night, we hauled a bag of rice out of the back of our van. Her mother bowed her head, thanking us over and over. And I knew that when this little girl visited the child development center, she would receive a meal. And that the center workers would watch her carefully, and at the first sign of malnutrition, she would be treated.

Those things are not out of her reach.


Merci

She walked slowly out of her classroom, her face turned towards the ground. Her shoulders hunched up around her ears, the ragged sleeves of her dress nearly reaching her elbows.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked the group around me. They stopped the girl, and French phrases passed much too quickly for me to keep up. Finally, someone translated for me.

“She can’t pay her school fees, so they’re sending her home.”

That’s when I noticed the headmaster, moving from class to class, a list in his hands. Those were the children who hadn’t paid their fees. He was calling them to the front of their class and asking for the school’s money. And if they didn’t have it, they were sent home.

Read the rest of the entry at I’m Just Sayin’

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A Young Missionary

Patricia lives in one of the crowded slum communities of Santa Mesa, Manila and that is known as breeding ground for thieves, criminals and prostitutes.

The winding path to her home is so narrow that only one person at a time can pass through. Children play and run along the narrow maze of alleyways, throwing rocks at houses, cursing at people and threatening other children. They are noisy, dirty and disrespectful.

young girl smilingPatricia had enough of them and one day decided to do something about it. She decided to teach them the Bible so that they can change their ways. She gathered these rowdy children aged 5 to 10 years old so that she can teach them about Jesus.

Patricia is only 12 years old.

“I teach them about Jesus … so that they can become better children. At first, it was just a teacher-student game but soon I realized that I could actually teach these children for real.”

For two years now, she has taught the children every Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., with an average of 11 students at a time. (more…)

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