Warning: This post may be bit uncomfortable…

Before I sponsored my first child back in college, I had a lot of questions:

• Where is all my money going?
• Will this child actually know about me?
• Is she really the one writing these letters?
• Does she really need my money?

Wow! Those questions are somewhat embarrassing to write out, but I want to be honest with you. And honestly, the answers to those questions were about to dictate my opportunity to glorify God and bring hope to a precious little girl.

Since that time and over the years I have learned that I often ask the wrong questions, which can be a problem when I am looking for an answer.

Ever notice how Jesus would often answer a question with a different question? That is one of the reasons why I am so wondrously captivated with Him … His initiative to give us new understanding. He knows the answer but He also knows the question we need to be asking.

Our questions can be very critical to how we are living our lives and what we are putting our hope in.

I’m curious, what questions do you find yourself asking? Be honest, I won’t judge.

If you need a little nudge, I just so happen to have one.

This is Eric Timm. Listen to what he has to say.

Did you get that? Instead of continuing to ask, “Why is there poverty?” he is now asking, “Where are God’s people?”

This clip, which I saw awhile back, has challenged me to keep my mind focused on the things above when everything in me starts producing a list of questions.

Here is what I believe I should have been asking when it came to sponsorship (or my spending in general):

• Am I glorifying God with how I use my finances?
• Will I be faithful to encourage and support this precious child?
• Am I obeying God in how He has asked me to use His money?
• Do I really need all the stuff I think I need and spend my money on? And if I don’t, who does?

How is that for a dose of perspective? I think it is challenging but in a refreshing kind of way!

OK, here’s your cue. Remember those questions I wanted to know you were asking? Well, through this lens, what questions are you asking now?

He is the most remarkable storyteller there is. More than that, the brilliant author. He speaks and there is light. From His voice comes life.

His workmanship becomes ingrained within our being. He weaves stories into our lives. Stories of triumph, of sorrow, of sheer joy. Stories of hope.

Reading your stories of hope captivated me as well as resurrected a story of hope I have seen in my life, in a place before Compassion.

When He gave me this story, my life became enriched. My heart now scarred with such sacred radiance:

(more…)

Poverty is multi-faceted. It is much more intricate than just a lack of money.

And like many other aspects of poverty, HIV and AIDS have the ability to take a frightening toll on children.

Today is World AIDS Day, and I’m taking it as an opportunity to let you know how committed we are to fighting the disease.

It begins with our AIDS Initiative program, which is working on a grassroots level through the local church to take on the AIDS pandemic, one child at a time.

Ok, pause.

AIDS Initiative, pandemic, poverty . . . I don’t like throwing around these words. It is easy to just roll over the keyboard and punch out the words. But can you imagine? I mean really, can you even imagine what it is like to be infected with HIV or affected by AIDS?

To better understand the effect HIV and AIDS have on people, particularly people in the developing world, and to get a better glimpse into what the Lord is doing through Compassion, I think we need to unpack a few details. I hope your mind is engaged and your heart is prepared because I am about to give you just that.

Now, as I was saying, our AIDS Initiative works to aid one child at a time. For example, this child:

(more…)

“You’re a little mover and a shaker. You’re going to change the world.”

Ok, I am not sure why I am tearing up as I write that sentence, but I am. It’s just me, I’m emotional.

I heard that phrase from my mom for over 23 years. I heard it on my first day of school, my first presentation, my first test, mission trip, job, my first “what am I doing with my life” crisis . . . anytime anything robbed my hope and joy my parents were there with that phrase.

So now I am a bit older (but just a bit) and I have these little phrases I repeat over and over in my head. They help me through my job, they remind me of my worth, they remind me of His love.

Words can transcend time and history. They can resound within our heart for years. That’s what words do: they impact a person . . . a child.

So in celebration of words, and the message given to us in the Word, below are two famous quotes.

I want to know what resonates with you. Which one inspires you most and why?

Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

Princess Diana, Princess of Wales
“You can’t comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable.”

Which one makes you want to become a mover and a shaker?

Today probably seems like a normal mid-week day. A lot like the other workdays, school days . . . everything happening too quickly kind of days. But today is also World Food Day as recognized by UNICEF. And today more than 300 million children will go to bed hungry.

Under the burden of the global food crisis, the hungry are more hungry, poverty is more overwhelming. The need for food is more desperate, and the word falling from every hungry mouth, I imagine, is, “Please.”

This is no small please; this is a worldwide please for over $16 million, submitted by our country offices asking for support to feed the children.

Are you overwhelmed? Can you feel defeat slipping in ready to steal your passion to do something? It’s okay, I do too. I feel it too, so much so that I have labored over this issue for quite sometime now, thinking “I am 24 years old, paying my own bills, trying to figure out what this adult stuff is all about. Let me see, *calculating*. . . What? This is what I have leftover to give? That simply will not do. Not in the light of $16 million dollars.”

But I’m not alone. We’re not alone. I can hear a mighty army commanded by the Lord and appointed to bring forth justice, passionate about feeding the hungry, comforting the oppressed. And so there is Please. Compassion’s site dedicated solely to the Global Food Initiative. Members of the army include Rebecca St. James, Bebo Norman, KJ-52….me, you.

Can you hear it now? The marching of the faithful being driven by the heartbeat of the Lord.

Remember when we gathered in prayer and fasting concerning the global food crisis? I remember. I was still pretty new to Compassion, not yet a fulltime employee and I recall feeling so empowered by this organization to do something. Even if I didn’t have money, I had prayer. I have a voice that surpasses all this world claims as important and goes directly into the high courts of the all-powerful God.

Well here is another opportunity:

1. Watch the videos on our site.
2. Get your markers, the watercolors, the crayons, even the finger-paint.
3. Write the word “please” on your hand.
4. Take a picture
5. Upload it to our Flickr site

Also, in case you were wondering, I am a social network fanatic! Facebook, Myspace, Blogspot, Flickr . . . love it! (But don’t judge me). And I love that I can use these channels to let my friends know what I care about. Grab a widget from our site concerning the global food initiative and add it to your social network. Let your friends and family see what you are passionate about.

Let’s join together and watch what the Lord has in store. Let’s become part of an army that can’t lose.

We won’t quit. We’re committed. Strengthened by the love of the Lord and motivated by something hunger and the lies of poverty can’t surpass. And maybe, just maybe, we will start to hear a lot less “pleases.” Maybe we will begin to hear a choir compiled of His little ones exclaiming “Thank you.”

That’s what I want to hear.