Yesterday, I spent four hours with the boy I sponsor. It was our second time together, and I enjoyed seeing him again, seeing how he has grown and hearing him speak a few words of English. Three years ago he didn’t know any English.

I was delighted to meet the director of his child development center and to finally see photos of his mother, father and younger sister. I also saw pictures of the house they built with one of the family gifts I sent.

I enjoyed telling Lerionga that I’m going to be a father soon and recounting in greater detail the things I’ve shared in my letters. But all of our conversation lasted about 10 minutes, and then there was silence.

I am extremely uncomfortable with silence when I think it’s not supposed to be there.

In advance of my time with Lerionga, I imagined this meeting would be different from our first one. I imagined that conversation would be easier, that there wouldn’t be silence. I imagined it would be an “unbelievable encounter” like this. But it wasn’t.

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How do you say goodbye to a sponsored child who has died? Have you ever had to do that, or to say goodbye to another child in your life?

As with many things, there’s often the thought, “Oh, that won’t happen to me. That sort of stuff only happens to other people.” Then the world shook in Haiti and changed our perspective.

But children don’t just die or get injured in earthquakes. They die from malaria and AIDS. They die from diarrhea and other preventable causes. They die in childbirth and in accidents. And when they die it’s, well, it’s like this:

I can’t explain how one comes to love a child who they hardly know. But I can say that I felt like Akouvi was part of my family. I loved her. And so often in her letters, she told me that she loved me too.

I don’t think I understood the depth of my love for her until February 23. That’s the day that I found out Akouvi had died. That’s the day I felt like something had cracked open inside of me, filling me with red-hot grief. Sadness that burned so fiercely that even my tears could not extinguish it.

Read the entire post.

I found myself very distracted the day we heard of his death. I wondered how his family is coping. I wondered what kind of ceremony they would have in Tanzania to remember such a precious child. I wondered if his family realized that his sponsor family was at a loss over what to do.

Read the entire post.

Pastor Sam, the director of Immanuel Child Development Center in India, shares his feelings of gratefulness to sponsors – gratefulness for the vital role they play in the holistic development of children in poverty.

Here are his thoughts about a sponsor’s involvement in a child’s life.

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It was the middle of the night, but something was bothering me so I stayed up. Now I’m sitting here in tears. CNN just announced that the search and rescue efforts in Haiti are over.

I guess when I started sponsoring and ended up at OurCompassion, it was no accident. I know most other organizations don’t have something like this. A place where we can go and really share our feelings about what is going on in the world. A place for those of us who can see beyond our own neighborhood. Knowing there are people in the world other than those who live in Haiti who will be changed in some way by what happened there.

Some of us have made attempts to post things about Haiti, or about Compassion in general on Facebook. Most of the world doesn’t respond. Most don’t even bother to say, “Wow! It’s great ‘you’ feel that way.”

Truthfully, though, a few months ago, would I have cared? I don’t know. (more…)

This week, I’m visiting Thailand for some global marketing meetings. I sit at a table with 35 other Compassion staff members from around the world. Our hearts are heavy. Haiti permeates the room. We constantly wait and pray together for news from our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

I sit in the meetings barely able to focus. I’m overwhelmed by this all-encompassing ache that envelops me. I’m experiencing what so many of you are experiencing: My heart is in Haiti.

I cannot find words to express my anguish and sorrow. I imagine if I could name the ache, it would help alleviate some of the pain I am feeling. But the words won’t come. And so, here in Thailand, I wait.

Waiting alone can cause despair. But waiting together offers hope. (more…)

I know so many of us are riveted to the news, to our emails, to Facebook, or wherever else we can scrap together some information about the Haiti earthquake. Many of us are wishing there was something more we could do to help, some way to respond to the unimaginable things we are seeing.

There is one vital action that is always open to us: Prayer.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

If you’re trying to find someway to respond, consider calling together a prayer group. Spend the night praying for Haiti and make one of the most traditional Haitian dishes, Soup Joumou, which they use to celebrate the new year.

Things to Pray:

• For the safety and rescue of David Hames and for peace and encouragement for his family
• For those still trapped in the rubble
• For those working to rescue people
• That roads would be passable to get in water, food, medicine, and other aid
• For our staff, church partners, and children
• That reliable communication channels can be established
• For efficient and strategic responses to the crisis
• For God’s will to be done
• For God to get all the glory

Ask your friends to each bring $5 or $10 to help pay for the soup and give the rest of the money to relief or rebuilding efforts. You can cook the soup together and use it as a time to build relationships, share prayer requests, and support one another.

Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup) (more…)

• Get the latest updates on the Haiti earthquake and it’s affect on Compassion and the children we serve.

UPDATED: Jan. 29, 2010 – List of child development centers affected by the Haiti earthquake

Here is a Google Earth image showing the approximate location for the earthquake’s epicenter in relation to our child development centers.

The image is just intended to give perspective not definitively identify where all the centers are located. However, there is a discussion thread in Facebook about the location of some centers.

The fact that many development centers are so close to one another means that some centers can’t be seen. And obviously the size of the image makes it difficult to read the numbers that are visible. We published a larger image in Twitpic and in Facebook.

The blue icons represent child development centers, and the red icons represent child survival programs. Most red icons hide behind the blue ones, but for some reason a few show through.

The orange circles represent earthquake activity in the last week (or so).

Here is an additional Google Earth image that highlights a 750 square mile section of Haiti relative to the earthquake so you can more clearly see which child development centers are closest to the epicenter. (more…)