It’s almost April 13 — the official date for Compassion Sunday (CS) — the largest sponsorship effort of the Advocates Network during the entire year. Our on-call workers are still feverishly working through stacks of material orders that are inches thick, and we’re fielding calls from sponsors wanting to place a last minute order or asking when their materials will arrive. There is a buzz around here. One of excitement and anticipation of what God plans to do through our sponsors, advocates and church partners on April 13.

This is my first Compassion Sunday. I mean, it’s my first Compassion Sunday to coordinate. I’ve heard about Compassion Sunday since I first started working for Compassion over four years ago. But this year, it’s my job to help make it happen.

What I wasn’t expecting when I started this job last June was that my first project was Compassion Sunday (CS). I’m thinking to myself, “but that’s not until next year!” I had a lot to learn.

86 work orders, which are work requests that needed to be submitted to get the CS materials designed, dozens of meetings, and hours of analyzing and preparing later, it was finally go-time. The letter asking people to host an event at their church was sent in early January. Our physical inventory of CS supplies had arrived, our tracking database was updated and we had more resources available for download on the web than ever before. I thought we had reached the time to sit back, relax, and…wait…wait for the flood gates to open and the orders to come, along with the inevitable craziness that comes with them.

But a few weeks ago, we were all buzzing along with business as usual. It was time to submit over 1,000 pending material orders in our order system for the fulfillment team to begin processing, and this is when I realized we would soon run out of buttons calling others to “Join Me” in the fight against poverty.

I contacted procurement to ask for an early reorder on the buttons. They placed the order for 7,500 more buttons, and we sat back to wait (and pray) that they arrived before we ran out.

I’m expecting the buttons to arrive in just a few days, and then I learn that we have under 300 buttons in inventory and will run out that day — three days before the buttons are supposed to arrive. I pick up the phone again and call procurement.

“Is there anything we can do to rush the order to arrive sooner than Monday?” I ask.

“It’s doubtful, but I will call and ask,” comes the reply.

While I am waiting, I get an email from an on-call worker that we have over 7,500 buttons in inventory. WHAT?!

It turns out the buttons had shipped early and had arrived while I was planning for an outage and strategizing for Plan B. What an amazing God we serve! He knew our need before we even uttered it, went before us and took care of our needs. God loves us and he loves what we do here at Compassion — and He always takes care of us in our time of need.

Amanda Ceren is a project specialist for the Advocates Network. She helps fight poverty by providing advocates with materials to connect a child in need with a loving sponsor.

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Want to know how our unique malaria intervention programs save children’s lives?

Then join us for our free one-hour webcast on World Malaria Day, Friday, April 25. The webcast will begin at 10 a.m. MT (noon ET), and you must register to participate.

To register:

• Visit compassion.webex.com to register
• Or call (800) 336-7539 ext. 6673 to register for phone-only participation

Once you’re registered you will receive e-mail instructions to log on and participate in the webcast.

• Hear Compassion’s Dr. Scott Todd, Special Operations Director, and Emily Kagiri, Child Survival Ministry Director, discuss our malaria prevention and treatment strategies.
• Ask our executive team questions, including Mark Hanlon, Senior Vice President of Sponsor and Donor Development.
• Listen as Compassion artist Rebecca St. James talks about her passion for stopping malaria in Africa.

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I’m a fan of American Idol. I’m an especially big fan this week.

Wednesday marks the second year that the Fox reality show takes a break from their regular programming to do something virtually unheard of on television these days — focus on something other than making money.

Idol Gives Back is an effort to raise awareness and funds for children in need around the world. Last year the event raised $76 million. This year they’re shooting for $100 million.

Whether or not Fox brings in the millions this week that they normally make on the show, the event probably does enough for their public image to make the monetary sacrifice well worth it.

Whatever their motivation, though, it’s refreshing to see the spotlight shining on those who truly need it but rarely get it — children in poverty.

Among the recipients are organizations like the Global Fund, Malaria No More, Children’s Health Fund, Children’s Defense Fund and Make It Right, Brad Pitt’s campaign to help New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina.

There will be celebrities. There will be music. There will be tears. Millions of viewers will undoubtedly be moved to donate. Some will likely be profoundly impacted by the stories they hear and the images they see. Hopefully many hearts will be softened towards the plight of children in poverty and people will do more than just give once … they will begin to get involved.

I’m just excited that for a couple hours this week, children in poverty will have a real voice. That’s really what Compassion is all about.

What do you think? Do you agree? Will you be watching?

While Compassion might not be featured on the show, we are working just as hard to fight for children in poverty. Here are a couple specific things you might like to know about:

Malaria: A Plague of the Poor
In recognition of World Malaria Day on April 25, Compassion has produced a new radio special.

AIDS
Compassion’s AIDS Initiative is focused on Africa. Yet HIV and AIDS are also significant threats to children outside of Africa and for that reason Compassion is also conducting HIV/AIDS work in non-African countries.

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The Compassion Advocates Network is made up of an amazing group of sponsors that want to do more than sponsor a child. They want to help get children sponsored.

Advocates give of their time, their talents and their money (e.g. like driving to work at a Compassion booth during a Jeremy Camp concert). They talk to anyone they know, and even don’t know, about sponsoring a child.

And each year we have a lot of sponsors request a planning folder for Compassion Sunday. The planning folder gives you everything you need to plan your event. But a lot of people stop there. They get sidetracked, nervous, or convinced by the Enemy that they should not participate.

Enter our amazing advocates. They again give of their time and their talents to call these sponsors to encourage them. And what do we get?

E-mails like this:

Howdy in Christ, Mark. I just got a return call from a potential Compassion Sunday’er, who I had left a message with earlier during the sponsor, pre-Compassion Sunday calling campaign. She was so-o-o happy that I’d called! She was bubbling and described how she had received the CS Planning Folder and had even sent in a completed Materials Order Form, but was having serious self-doubts about following through. The Enemy was tossing roadblocks in front of her wherever she turned—and flaming darts at her confidence that she could actually do this thing. Then she received my encouraging phone message. When she called back, we talked about presentation possibilities, helpful videos, my experiences with Compassion Sunday events, and ideas for increasing the effectiveness of her CS. (Adding a signup table, bulletin inserts, maintaining the signup table for a few weeks after…) Her excitement is renewed! The Holy Spirit left me feeling I’d soaked in a hot-tub of heavenly joy. THIS is why we’re making these calls, right Mark?
- Jeff Carpenter, Volunteer Area Coordinator

Amanda Ceren is a project specialist for the Advocates Network. She helps fight poverty by providing advocates with materials to connect a child in need with a loving sponsor.

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Vicki Small is a member of our Advocates Network. Her volunteer efforts have helped find sponsors for 180 children in poverty, and her 2008 Compassion Sunday event will be held on Mother’s Day at Pantano Christian Church in Tucson. She is a frequent commenter on the Compassion blog, and she writes her own as well, Passions for the Soul. She wrote this post for us.

For about 35 years, once I first heard of such a possibility, I wanted to sponsor a child. But for most of that time, I simply could not afford even $10 per month. About mid-2001, watching a commercial on TV for another organization, I realized I could finally afford to do something. But through which organization? Who could I really count on to use the money for the child’s benefit? Could I trust any of them, and how would I know? Having no answers, I did nothing.

I spent all of 2002 praying for God to show me what area of ministry He wanted me in. Almost every Sunday, I heard, “Find your passion and use it!” “Hmm…where can I get a ‘passion’?” I couldn’t have found a passion in me with a flashlight or a search warrant. So I prayed, and I waited.

Two weeks before Christmas, I walked out of church on a cold, gray day in a mood to match. I walked down three or four steps into the fellowship area and began to pass a row of ministry tables. Above and behind the first one was a banner saying something about Compassion. I kept walking, but my inner skeptic wanted to know: “What are we being ‘compassionate’ about, today?”

I turned, looked down at a sea of packets, each with a photo of a child; the world stopped, along with all sound and movement around me. I knew what these packets represented. I stood there, saying half under my breath, “I can do this! I can do this!” About the fourth time, a Voice inside said, “Yes, you can do this. This is it!” A warmth started at the top of my head and flowed over me and through me, right down to my feet. I took home two packets, unsure about one child.

That afternoon, I went to Compassion’s website to look at more children. I didn’t realize how many photos they kept on there, and I quickly felt overwhelmed. “God, I can’t sponsor them all!” soon changed to “God, we’ve got to find sponsors for these kids!” About the fourth time (what is it with four times?!), I heard, “Yes, we do!” Then I realized the “This is it” meant more for me than “merely” sponsoring. And I do not mean to minimize the importance of sponsoring!

So, as is true of so many advocates, if not all, I came into this ministry with a clear calling. There have been times when I have needed to remember that, when church doors refused to open, when people walked by the tables with hardly a glance, and I wanted to use a 2×4 on their heads to get their attention. (Thank God, I’ve grown past that!) But let me mention some of the things that continually reaffirm the rightness of Compassion in my life, and as a real ministry in this world. (more…)

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Every three seconds a child under age 5 dies from poverty-related causes that Compassion’s ministry is skilled at preventing. By hosting a Compassion Sunday event at your church, you expand your personal ministry and help transform the lives of impoverished children worldwide, without spending a cent. It just takes your voice.

Compassion Sunday is a nationwide annual campaign to raise awareness about the needs of children in poverty. It’s a day for you to speak to your church about poverty and how your church can rescue children in need. It’s not about you “convincing” anyone to sponsor a child. It’s just you sharing your heart, sharing God’s heart for children in need, and letting the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Last year, your willingness to host Compassion Sunday at churches nationwide resulted in more than 21,000 new sponsorships. Now, it’s time to speak up again – to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8, NIV).

To get started, order your planning folder today. It will give you ideas, help you get organized and will walk you through each step of the planning process. Plus, we have employees who’ll be here to answer any questions you have. Not me though, I’m on the web team.

This year, Compassion Sunday is April 13, but you’re free to choose any day that works best for you and your church. Thanks for partnering with us and for opening your heart to serving children in poverty.

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I have a confession: I love reality TV shows. It’s true. Although I’m enough of a realist to realize that as viewers, we see a heavily edited version of actual reality, I still like watching the shows because they tell people’s personal stories. They tell stories about people that actually exist. I love people’s stories.

Communications at Compassion is largely about telling people’s stories. And it’s something I think we do well. However, some stories are most powerfully related by the people who actually experienced them. Something is lost in the translation of a personal story to a secondhand story … when it is no longer “my” experience, but ”someone else’s.” 

While we’ve known about the power of personal testimony for a while, we have only recently begun to delve into an area called social media. This is an exciting new venture for Compassion. There are so many new ways for people to share their stories, and we’re just beginning to explore all the possibilities. Through our social media efforts we want to give people a way to tell their own stories, in their own words, totally free of our “translation.”

We have created a section of compassion.com called Share Your Heart. We wanted a creative forum where users could share their personal experiences with poverty, whether it was something they read or heard, a movie they had seen, a personal trip they took or a trip with Compassion or with another organization. We just wanted to get people talking.

Some of the stories people have shared are inspiring. Some are funny. Some are evidence of God’s perfect timing. Some are challenging. There are also photos that tell stories of their own, in ways that words never could. Go check them out. No doubt you’ll be encouraged.

Do you have a story of your own to share? How has God changed your heart towards children in poverty? Who or what has he used to change you? What one picture from your trip captured the entire experience? Share it with us. Don’t be shy.

You never know whose life will be changed by reading your story.

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“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
-Isaac Newton

Over the small number of years I have been around, I have come to realize that it’s quite rare for people to have a positive impact on someone’s life, but when they do the impact is immeasurable. More so if that impact is also Godly influenced.

This is what can be said of my sponsors, a married couple, who decided to take a chance on me.

Their decision made it possible for me to know what it feels like to wear your first pair of shoes, to hold your first pencil, to enjoy three meals a day–something unheard of in the slums–a chance to have medical care and not die from malaria like many of the children in the slum do, a chance to go to school and not be part of a gang or a victim of HIV/AIDS, and the greatest gift of all: a chance to hear the word of God, which gave me the chance to have a personal relationship with Christ.

Wikipedia defines a sponsor as a contributor, a financial provider, which in a way is true because of the amount of money the sponsor contributes monthly. But to me the sponsor is more than that; he or she is a bridge between hunger and strength, between thirst and renewal, between fear and knowledge, between desperation and hope.

Through the letters shared between the sponsor and the child, hope is not only stirred, but relationships are built, wounds healed and love blossoms. These and so many other things start a chain reaction not only in the child’s life but also in the lives of those around him or her, and impact is felt to generations. The bonds created can never be broken, and in doing so the world is changed by changing the life of one child at a time. We can learn a lot from the sponsor:

1. It’s in taking a chance, or should I say a risk, on someone that the real change begins, and we allow God not only to change that person but also to change other people’s lives.
2. It’s good to be vulnerable. It’s important to let other people into our lives and into our hearts. It’s important to love.
3. God is not looking at what we don’t have–He is looking at what is in our hands, little or big, and when we surrender it to Him, He uses it to “feed 5,000 people.”

It’s no wonder that I, too, decided to become a sponsor. How ironic that a child who was once sponsored is now sponsoring you might say, but I am a product of just that. I wanted to give that chance to someone else in the same way because my sponsor gave me that chance.

Its no wonder that each night I ask God to send more sponsors into this world, more sponsors like you and me. And if you are not one, then this is your chance to become one. God bless the sponsor.

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Compassion President Dr. Wess Stafford often says that ”latitude and longitude can determine whether you’re wealthy or poor in this world.” It’s true. I was born here…so I have access to things that others only dream about.

That lesson hit me hard this week when my 11-month-old son, Morgan, got sick.  His doctor tells us that it’s a gastrointestinal virus that’s going around. The worst part of it is diarrhea. Poor little guy, he’s just so uncomfortable. So, we’ve been giving him plenty of fluids, trying to get him to take naps (though he’s been extremely restless) and just loving on him…cuddling.

Then I remembered a statistic in our Health Quick Facts section of Compassion’s website: 

There are 1.5 million diarrhea-related deaths of children under the age of five in this world, every year.

1,500,000 children dying of what my little boy has right now.

My son is fortunate. We can afford to take him to the doctor. We have access to clean water and formulas that can help replenish the nutrients his body needs. And I am thankful to God for that. But I pray for those families who don’t have the same. I pray for those who, because of latitude and longitude, have no access to clean water and formula…or can’t afford to visit the doctor.

It’s not really fair, is it? We were born here, so we thrive. They were born there, so they struggle to survive. But poverty has never played fair. And God told us what the great equalizer is: YOU and ME. He called for those of us who have to share with those who do not.

Today, I ask you to pray for children in poverty. I ask you to cross the lines of longitude and latitude and give to those who suffer due to something as silly as geography. Maybe it’s through sponsoring a child. Or maybe it’s giving to one of Compassion’s funds designed to help those in need.

Whatever it is, find a way for your hope to cross the globe.

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I was born into privilege. No, I don’t mean the kind of privilege of living with butlers, maids, fancy cars and mansions. I was born into privilege because my family was able to move to the United States when I was a 5-year-old child, and because of that move I was given the privilege of a life that I would not have had in India.  

When our family gets together there is always a story or two told of our childhood in India. When my older brothers talk about our childhood home in Kerala with the lush green plam trees and the rice paddies, their stories seem like make-believe. The smells of the open markets filled with fishmongers and the sounds of the honking cars and buses. In our minds, we often go back to the reality of our dirt-floor home without running water or electricity. Kerosene lamps lit the way down the rocky hill to our home at night after prayer meetings and church services  The place where we learned to catch minnows in the creek with our threadbare towels or the well where our mummy drew water for the day. 

Strange to remember that life and realize that God allowed it to be the place where I spent my early developmental years. It is also an eye-opening experience to think, “there but for the Grace of God, go I.” What a statement when I think of where I am today and where I could have been, had it not been for God’s great provision in my family’s life. When I think of poverty or what its effects are, it has a personal look and feel because I’ve experienced it as the fabric of my life. My family did not have much, but what we did have were parents who believed in God and sacrificed for a better future for us. I know that today I am at Compassion International as an advocate for children because God orchestrated my childhood to be a starting place for me to recognize need and to empathize with children who do not have the same privilege I was born into. 

I was born into privilege, and if you are reading this on your desktop at work or a personal computer at home, then more than likely you were born into privilege also. No, not the “Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous” kind of privilege, but the kind of privilege that we take for granted because we don’t think twice when we turn the knob on a faucet for water or flip a switch for light. Our children are privileged with the requirement and opportunity for an education. We lay claim to the kind of privilege that allows us to walk into clean supermarkets to purchase beautifully packaged foods. We Americans, as a whole, own approximately 40 percent of the world’s wealth but we make up only 2.5 percent of the world’s population. We, my friends are privileged…and with this privilege comes…yes, you’ve guessed it, responsibility. So, as you are looking at these words of mine I have a closing thought. What will you and I do with the responsibility of the privilege we were born into?

Krissy Thomas is the U.S. Advocacy Radio Manager for Compassion and oversees the ministry of educating the radio audience about our ministry.

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