I think I just had my first parental moment.

You know the scene in any coming-of-age movie when a teenage girl is about to go to her first dance and she appears at the top of the stairs and her parent (usually a widowed father) stands there with tears in his eyes and a huge lump in his throat, totally entranced by his daughter’s newly uncovered beauty?

That’s how I feel – entranced by a new level of beauty.

While I was working in our child database I stumbled across a new picture of my sponsored girl – one I haven’t received in the mail yet – and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you my heart skipped a beat. Apparently sometime between three months ago and now, she grew up.

She’s so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.

You see, I started sponsoring Karina when she was 6 years old. She was this sparkling, dimpled-faced little sweetheart who was so bursting with joy that she had to bite her lip to keep it contained.

Over the next seven years, I received several more photos, each one a slightly older version of the same adorable little girl.

A couple years ago I finally traveled to Honduras and met her. Our relationship went very quickly from theoretical to unforgettable. But even though she was now a teenager, Karina was still my sweet little girl.

Then I saw the new photo. And I realized I no longer sponsor a child.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Whew!

This has been a busy year. Our world is in turmoil and much of that turmoil is affecting Compassion’s work.

Here’s a snapshot of the things I’ve reported over the past 11 months:

military rebellion, slum fire, dengue fever outbreak, H1N1 virus outbreak, flooding, strike, civil conflict, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heavy rains, political unrest, hotel bombings, protests and violence, typhoons, meningitis outbreak, polio outbreak, cholera outbreak, famine, landslide, tribal war, ferry sinking, riots.

As an organization entirely dependent on your trust, we have made a commitment to be honest and transparent in everything we do. This means, among other things, that we do our best to let you know as soon as possible when your child is affected by a crisis or disaster.

In a perfect world, here’s how the process would work:

• Within 24 hours of a crisis, our Field Communications Specialist (FCS) submits a crisis report via e-mail. This e-mail comes to an inbox that I check regularly.
• As soon as I receive this e-mail, I determine whether funds will need to be raised to provide relief, and summarize the report and e-mail it to our partner countries (the countries where the sponsors live).
• Meanwhile, the FCS is in contact with the Partnership Facilitators (PF), field-based staff members who are contacting our affected church partners.
• The FCS then submits a follow-up report via e-mail, with further details from the PFs about which centers are affected, how they are affected, and any other relevant details, photos or video.
• As soon as the church partners are able to provide specific information on registered children, the FCS e-mails that information to me. I do a quality check and then forward that information to the partner countries.
• Each partner country then contacts all the sponsors with affected children to let them know the status of their child.

Seems pretty cut and dried, right? And often, the process works exactly as I just described it.

However, as we all know, we do not live in a perfect world. Sometimes a disaster will wreak havoc on the field’s end, thus affecting our communications process.

Let’s take the recent typhoons in the Philippines as an example.

Typhoon Ketsana hit the Philippines on Sept. 26. Almost 17 inches of rain fell in 12 hours, halting any semblance of normal life, flooding everything in sight, killing hundreds and displacing thousands more.

Roads were destroyed, electricity was out and much of the country was underwater, neck-deep in some places.

Eighteen of Compassion’s staff members in the Philippines office (more than half) were personally affected by the flooding (including the FCS responsible for sending the crisis report).

After the typhoons, every single staff person in the Philippines office was involved in the relief efforts and for a time, Compassion’s entire staff put their regular duties on hold in order to help those in desperate need.

During disasters like this, while you are anxious to hear news about your child, keep in mind that many unforeseen and unavoidable things can occur, hindering good communication. Grace, patience, understanding and flexibility are critical.

Here are some things that might affect the communication process after a crisis:

• Getting information from the field to the partner countries isn’t always the No. 1 priority.

  After a disaster, the highest priorities are critical needs such as shelter, clean water and food. Communication sometimes takes a back seat to meeting basic needs in life and death situations.

• It’s not just the sponsored children who are affected. Sometimes the staff members themselves are in need.

  While our staff members are trying to address the immediate needs of our registered children, they also must take care of their own families and homes.

• Communication tools are not available.

  The infrastructure in developing countries is much less stable than in the developed world. For instance, telephone and electricity were out throughout Manila, remaining out for weeks in some places. Communicating with the church partners was difficult, and in some cases, impossible.

• Different cultures put different importance on time.

  Many countries where we work are not time-oriented the way we are in the United States. Time requirements do not have the same importance as they do here.

Despite this, you can be confident in our commitment to share accurate information with you as quickly as possible after a crisis. It’s just that sometimes this may take longer than we’d like.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The topic of letter-writing always sparks lively discussions. It even seems to spontaneously come up in posts on other topics.

So seeing as we genuinely value your input (and OK … I admit … in an attempt to stimulate a discussion), I hereby pose the following question to you:

Would you rather receive more general letters from your sponsored child more often or more detailed letters on a less frequent basis?

Discuss.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

It’s a scary, beautiful road when we leave the comfort of the familiar to forge a new path.

For two years, I worked as an assistant for the International Program Group Communications team. I had an incredible boss who encouraged me to pursue my passions. I flourished under his leadership as I learned more about my skills and developed relationships around the ministry.

So two months ago, when offered a new position as the International Partner Development Web and Marketing Specialist, I knew what I had to do. This was an opportunity to steward my gifting and passions for writing, marketing, and cultivating relationships of impact.

But that meant leaving the people I’d grown so close to. My co-workers had become a second family to me!

Learning a new role can be lonely. Sure, I love my new bosses and the new people I’m meeting, but I miss my old team. Leaving familiar paths to venture onto new ones feels vulnerable and sometimes scary.

A new friend of mine, Colleen,* knows these feelings well.

I met Colleen through OurCompassion, which I now work to help develop. She’s a sponsor and correspondent from Australia, and she recently blogged on OurCompassion about her struggle with cancer:

“I went to the hospital yesterday, and due to infections and extremely low blood pressure and blood count, I was unable to receive my treatment. My doctors have said that I am unable to receive any more chemo as my body is not responding to it … I still do not know what is going to happen, the cancer is still there in my kidneys and liver … I am scared, scared that the cancer will get worse between now and then, scared that the doctors could say there is no more they can do for me. Please, can you all keep praying for me?”

Colleen’s honesty overwhelms me. She’s vulnerable in the midst of something scarier than I know. She’s willing to share her struggles and ask for support. And oh my! The outpouring of love from the global OurCompassion community … it brings me to tears.

I realize that when I log in to OurCompassion, I’m doing more than just visiting some Web site; I become part of a compassionate community that prays for members like Colleen as she goes through treatments. A community to share stories of love for our sponsored kids, love for the Lord, and love for each other — even if we have never met.

Colleen reminds me that we are all entering uncharted waters — whether new jobs or no jobs, debilitating illnesses, moves, or personal tragedy or triumph. We need to lean into those God has placed around us — whether they be across the aisle or across the ocean!

I’m forging new paths at Compassion. I look forward to new friendships and working with the incredible people involved with OurCompassion.

Are you in yet?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

When you watch the Catalyst 2009 do you feel it was manipulative? Is it all right to ask people to give, or act, in the middle of experiencing an emotional moment?

Nathan Creitz, author of ChurchEthos: “a blog that encourages thinking Christianly about the habits and customs of the Church and about our reputation with the unchurched,” says:

This video is worth watching for two reasons:

1. To see God’s love at work through His people and to see the powerful story of Jimmy and Mark.
2. To see how NOT to use such a moment to advance an agenda.

What do you think? Do you agree?

Let us know after you read Nathan’s entire blog post at ChurchEthos to get the context for his opinion.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Dan Trumble, a managerial accountant in Finance Business Partner Support, tells a story of one man’s salvation brought about in a way that only God can orchestrate.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

UPDATED Oct. 16

Make a donation to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause.

The 2009 America’s Giving Challenge has begun, and through the Giving Challenge, the Case Foundation will give away a total of $170,000 in daily and overall prizes to non-profits over the next month.

America’s Giving Challenge offers Compassion a great opportunity to demonstrate the worthiness of using social media in pursuit of our mission, and it offers you a chance to make a significant difference on behalf of that mission:

In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

America’s Giving Challenge – How Does It Work?

• The Giving Challenge runs from Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. ET to Nov. 6, 2009 at 3 p.m. ET.
• Each day the Case Foundation will award a prize to the cause that has the most individual donors* on that day, not the most money raised.
• $1,000 each day to the cause with the most unique donations that day.
• $500 each day to the cause with the second most unique donations that day.
• At the end of the Giving Challenge, the Case Foundation will award prizes to the causes that have the most individual donors throughout the entire Giving Challenge.
• $50,000 to the cause with the highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• $25,000 to the cause with the second highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• $10,000 each to the next five causes with the highest number of unique daily donations over the 30 days.
• Donations must be made to a cause using the Causes application on Facebook, but anyone can donate – even someone without a Facebook account.
• The minimum donation is $10.

America’s Giving Challenge – How You Can Support Compassion International

1. Make a donation to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause.
• Donating $10 once a day over five days has a greater impact in the contest than donating $50 on one day.
2. Tell your family and friends about America’s Giving Challenge, and ask them to donate to Compassion International through our Facebook Cause; the URL is http://www.causes.com/compassion.
   • Use all the technology and communication methods you have at your disposal (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, text, phone, e-mail, word of mouth, etc.)
3. Add the Compassion and America’s Giving Challenge application to your Facebook profile.

Because success is measured by the total number of individual donors, the key is to motivate as many people as possible to donate once, have them get as many people as possible to donate once, and then have those people get as many people as possible to continue the cycle.

We anticipate the competition during America’s Giving Challenge to be extremely tough, so getting out of the gates quickly will also be important. Mobilize early before other organizations have a chance to get up to speed.

As we get more information, ideas and tools that could assist you, we’ll definitely share it all with you.

Thank you for supporting our mission to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name and for supporting our mission during America’s Giving Challenge. Any prizes we win will be used for the benefit of our Child Survival Program.

Please use this post as your forum for questions and to let others know what you’re doing (e.g., what’s working and what’s not). We’ll post updates here as well.

*Multiple donations to the our Cause by the same person in the same day won’t be counted in the total number of unique donors, but contributions by the same person on different days will be counted. A day runs from 3 p.m. ET to 3 p.m ET.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Sometime back, a commenter on another blog post asked questions about sending gifts to our sponsored children:

• Do they make a difference?
• Should we wait until we hear about a need?
• Do the children appreciate our gifts?

One of my earliest lessons in the importance of our gifts came from Tausi (Tanzania). I began sponsoring her soon after her stated birth date (which later proved to be wrong, but…) and immediately sent a gift of $25.

A few months later, I received a thank-you letter for both her birthday and Christmas gifts. These are the gifts she listed: a dress, sugar, rice, soap, body oil, and her school uniform (required in many countries for enrollment).

Have you ever seen items like sugar, rice or soap on a kid’s wish list? I would never have known to specify that such items be bought!

And would I ever tell a child to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste for her birthday? Not likely! Yet, those also appeared in a list, one time.

Most of the birthday and Christmas gifts I have sent to Tausi have been spent on clothes, shoes, food and the like. But one time, in addition to a skirt and a blouse, she also bought a carpet for the family’s sitting room.

Later, I heard of the program Compassion had once run to buy goats for Compassion-assisted families (in Haiti, I believe). Not realizing that program had ended, I called Compassion to ask how I could buy goats for Tausi and Denisse (in the Dominican Republic).

I learned that the program had been a special undertaking for a limited time, and the lady I spoke with also advised me to allow the family, in consultation with the church partner staff, to decide what they most needed to do with a family gift.

Wise advice.

She added that the family might need a bed, for example, more than a goat. See how that was impressed on my mind, later:

I began sponsoring Uwizera in the spring of 2006. As her birthday would come around a couple of months later, I promptly arranged for a gift.

A few months later, I received her thank-you letter, which included this information:

“I thank you for the gift you sent me of 13,775 [Rwandan] francs. I gave a church offering of 1,375 francs. I used the remaining money to buy shoes for 300 francs, a bed for 8,000 francs. We used the rest [4,100 francs] to buy food.”

Did you get the part where she tithed on her birthday money?

I’m sure there are some Christians in our country who have always tithed on every money gift they received, but no one had ever suggested that I should. I didn’t know it was “titheable income”!

Uwizera taught me the meaning of being a “cheerful giver” and giving back to the Lord.

Other gifts to Uwizera have been used for clothes for her, for a school uniform, for a parcel of land — small, I think, that they use for a garden. They planted beans there last November.

They have also bought a goat, a hen (maybe two), and a rooster, all at various times. And she always tithes on the gifts.

I am focusing, here, on only two of my girls because I seldom receive any specific information about gifts from my other two. They usually say, “Thank you so much for your gifts.”

I have been able, one time each, to send gifts with friends for Tausi and Uwizera. I sent the gifts for Tausi a few years ago and received a letter and a photo in return.

In the photo, she was holding the gifts in front of her and had the shyest look on her face. She thanked me, adding, “I know you did this because you love my life.” Ah, good. She understood!

The gifts for Uwizera made their way last February. I had a lot to send, with some specialty gifts for sewing, so one zip-lock bag was carried by each of three gracious friends.

After listing most of the items and thanking me, she told me that her whole family (eight or nine strong) had been so thankful that they stopped what they had been doing to spend 30 minutes praying for us.

Have I ever been that grateful?

Compassion does not require that sponsors send money gifts to their children, and the amounts we are permitted to send for birthdays and Christmas are not large amounts. If you can afford to provide those gifts, you should do so a couple of months, or more, prior to the child’s birthday.

If you are able and want to send larger gifts at other times, Compassion allows family gifts of $25 to $300. The staff at the child development center will work with your child’s family and then buy the items the family needs.

Reading my girls’ thanks and knowing how they have used the money humbles me, every time. My little amounts ($25 for birthdays, $18 for Christmas) mean so much more to them than they do to me!

I hope I have made clear that:

• yes, our sponsored children are grateful.
• no, I would never know what they needed, ahead of time.
• yes, our gifts make a difference.

Don’t wait, assuming your child will tell you what they need. Give out of your abundance, and wait to hear how God multiplies your loaves and fishes.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Last week we asked if you’d be interested in receiving a Compassion magazine for kids ages 8 to 12. Many of you said, “Absolutely!”

Because of your responses, we’re moving forward and mailing our first issue this January.

And now, we’re inviting your kids to submit the following materials for a chance to be published in the magazine.

We’d like your kids to:

• Write about something special they did for their sponsored child.
• Tell about a letter they received from their sponsored child. Or share pictures.
• Describe what they have learned from their sponsored child. For example, what kinds of homes do the children live in? What do they eat? What games do they play? What are they learning in school?
• Write a poem or draw a picture related to poverty and tell us what it means to them.
• Tell about creative ways to write to their sponsored child.
• If they have a recipe or craft from a country where Compassion works, send it our way.
• If they’ve visited their sponsored child, we’d love to hear the stories and see the pictures.

You can e-mail your materials to compassionkids@us.ci.org or mail them to:

Compassion International
Attn: Magazine Editor
12290 Voyager Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

We’re excited to bring you this new magazine and excited to see the great material your kids will submit!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

We’re developing a kids’ magazine designed to educate 8-to-12-year-olds and develop their hearts of Compassion.

This free publication will teach kids about poverty and other cultures, and encourage them to engage with children in need.

They will enjoy photos showing what a day is like for kids in other cultures, tips for writing to their families’ sponsored children, recipes, games from other countries, and more.

They will also have opportunities to contribute to the magazine by submitting their own pictures and stories.

If this sounds like something for you and your kids, please let us know. Send an email to compassionkids@us.ci.org with your contact information.

We need to hear from you soon, because we hope to launch our first issue in January!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates