It’s here! The official Compassion International browser toolbar.

And this matters to you because the toolbar will help you stay connected with your sponsored child and our ministry much more easily.

Our exceptionally groovy browser toolbar offers you quick access from your Web browser to:

• write a letter or give a gift to your child
• our blog
• all of our social media sites (e.g., OurCompassion, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and our Web banners and widgets
• our RSS feeds, including all crisis updates, news releases and Wess’ daily radio program, Speak Up With Compassion
• our online store and ways to get involved
• compassion.com and your “My Account” information

Plus, the toolbar has a search function, powered by Yahoo, which raises money for Compassion every time you use it.

So, here you go. Download the toolbar now.

More specifically, do you sponsor a child in one of these three child development centers in El Salvador?

• ES526, Bethel Student Center
• ES808, Cachorros de León Student Center
• ES782, Comisión de Amor Student Center

If you do sponsor a child in one of those three centers, let us know. These are the centers that the CompassionBloggers will visit next week, and we have someone going who is willing to TRY to get a photo of your child for you.

We can’t guarantee success, but we will do our best.

Please don’t leave your child’s name or number in your comment. Just let us know you have a child at one of the centers and someone will contact you via e-mail to get the information. Or you can send us your information via our contact form.

From Nov. 9 to 13, four bloggers will witness firsthand how we minister to the poor of El Salvador. Visit CompassionBloggers.com daily to travel with them through their stories, pictures and videos.

Use this code to post the banner on your blog.

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=102535"><img border="0" src="http://blog.compassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ElSalvadorBanner-220x350.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="350" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8884" />

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: (more…)

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.

• $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.

America’s Giving Challenge – How You Can Support Compassion International (more…)

Our friends at Kerusso, creators of this incredibly fine-looking Live for Him apparel*, have offered up some T-shirts for this little thing we’re doing.

Beginning later today and continuing through Friday, October 2, we will periodically update our Facebook fan page status with questions about this here blog.

If you answer the question correctly and are the randomly selected winner, you will be the envy of all your friends and the new owner of nice Live for Him T-shirt.

You choose size and color — either the deeply stellar black body enhancer above or one of the vividly bold red variety.

We will announce the winner for each question before we post the next question.

Have fun!

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!

Let’s find out.

Beginning today and continuing through this Friday (Sept. 25), we will send out tweets about specific children in need of sponsors.

And we’d like you to retweet them for us.

When you do, you’ll be eligible to win your choice of some free Live for Him* apparel:

• T-shirts
• caps
• rings
• wristbands

Every retweet counts as an entry, and winners will be randomly selected.

Once that child is sponsored, we’ll tweet information about another child, and we’ll follow that process for the duration of the week.

UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. – When you click on the child link in a tweet and you don’t see the specific child’s biography, it means that somone is considering the sponsorship. If the sponsorship isn’t finalized within 50 minutes, the child will be visible again.