Last month, we took some time to examine the different nuances of giving. We tweeted thoughts and quotes, shared photos and images on Instagram and Facebook and asked you to blog about giving. We also ran some contests and raised some money for children in need through our Christmas gift catalog.

Thank you for your participation, your generosity and your support of our ministry.

Now, without further ado, we’d like to share with you the five sponsors who won gifts for their sponsored children by showing us the joy, the reward, the sacrifice, the time, the variety, the pain, etc. of giving by tagging their giving-related photos on Instagram with #itsaboutgiving.

@alliedawn – A day of life-giving baptisms in Honduras

@_faith_hope_n_love_ – Giving time, attention, affirmation and love

@kames1217 – A heart given to another

@jshorton – Creating a legacy of generosity

@mjp2 – A life given to Christ

Our Pinterest contest winners showed us what giving is by pinning images relevant to their interpretation of the phrase “It’s About Giving.” We repinned our favorite pins to our giving board, and from there, we randomly selected 10 sponsors to win gifts for their sponsored children.

Participants were allowed to win more than once, and three did. Take a look at what giving means to them.

• Joy Lujan (2) – @mamacitalujan
• Katie Wines (2) – @teelynn2482
• Dava White (2) – @davarenee
• Angel B. – @inspiredblogger
• Susan Ward – @defiantjoy
• Michael Stephens – @michael77777777
• Lindsay Atkins – @pinterestlda

We also randomly chose 20 prize winners from blog posts we received from members of the Compassion Bloggers network. The bloggers wrote posts in response to giving-related prompts we emailed to them. The winning blogs are:

• el mundo de mamacita
• Divine in the Daily
• Kupenda 127
• Finding the Inspiring
• She Getz the Shot
• Ordinary Servant
• Because of Shamim
• Simply Helping Him
• The Six Hansons
• Just a Thought
• My Role in His Passion
• Love So Radical
• The Light That Leads Me
• Still Delighted
• 152 Insights to My Soul
• To Show Them Jesus
• Godspotting with Sheila
• The Daily Grind
• Hopscotch
• Sten Ivan

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

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

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

And so it begins…officially. 20 days about giving.

During this time, let’s move beyond just examining our lives for the gifts and blessings we have received. Let’s also look at those moments where we thought about giving, wanted to give or felt prompted to give, but didn’t act.

Let’s talk about the joys and the rewards of giving along with the effort and difficulty involved. Let’s talk about how the next 20 days are going to be different than normal for each of us. And let’s raise $20,000 for children in need this Christmas.

Consider these questions as a way to get started, then commit to participating in one or all of the activities we have going on.

• What does giving look, sound, taste and feel like?
• Is love incomplete without giving?
• What is it about giving that liberates the soul?
• What does it mean to give biblically?
• Why do you think it’s more important to give than to receive?
• Is a gift less of a gift if it’s refused?

In Which You Interpret #itsaboutgiving on Pinterest

• Between now and Dec. 22, create a Pinterest board titled “It’s About Giving” and tag us (@compassion) so we know the board exists.
• On the board you create, repin our contest announcement and then show us what giving is. Pin anything that is relevant to your interpretation of the phrase “It’s About Giving.”
• We will repin our favorite pins of yours and randomly select 10 winners to earn a $50 gift for their sponsored child.*

In Which You Interpret #itsaboutgiving on Instagram

• Between now and Dec. 22, show us the joy, the reward, the sacrifice, the time, the variety, the pain, etc. of giving by tagging your photos on Instagram with #itsaboutgiving.
• Multiple submissions are allowed, but submitting another person’s work is not.
• The top five tagged photos, as judged by a panel of Compassion employees, will earn a $50 gift for the photographer’s sponsored child* and may be featured on compassion.com, blog.compassion.com and in our social media accounts.

In Which You Talk About #itsaboutgiving on Your Blog

• Write blog posts based on the writing prompts sent to the Compassion Bloggers network via email on Dec. 4, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. The assignments will also be posted on compassionbloggers.com
• Submit your blog post URL for the respective assignments before the 11:59 p.m. MST deadline on Dec. 22 by sending an email containing the URL to brianne@compassionbloggers.com.
• Every day, between now and Dec. 22, that we receive at least $1,000 to the Compassion Christmas Gift Catalog via the Compassion Bloggers network we will randomly select one blogger from the network to earn a $50 child gift for his or her sponsored child.* Join the Compassion Bloggers network.

In Which You Share, Share, Share the Tweets, Status Updates and Images We’ll Be Publishing Each Day

Here is some content to get you started.

Let’s paint a complete picture of giving this holiday season and see what we come up with. Let’s see if what we uncover helps connect us more closely to Jesus and helps make giving a part of our everyday lives.

*If a contest winner is not a sponsor, a $50 credit to the Compassion store will be given.

Download the official #itsaboutgiving contest rules at compassion.com/rules.

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

I wasn’t looking for another child to sponsor. But then I saw two things next to her picture on the website: a red heart and a red ribbon.

Josiane, from Rwanda, had been waiting for a sponsor for over six months.

The red ribbon showed that Josiane lived in an AIDS-affected area.

Online, as I added Josiane’s sponsorship to my account, I took the opportunity to pay an additional $8 per month to give to the HIV/AIDS Initiative Fund.

According to UNICEF, 2.3 million children in Africa live with HIV and 14.9 million are orphaned by AIDS.

For the cost of a couple of fancy lattes a month, I’ve chosen to give to the HIV/AIDS Initiative Fund which does the following for Josiane and our other 470,000 + African beneficiaries, and their families:

• Provide complimentary testing for all of our beneficiaries, their siblings, and caregivers. Testing is not a requirement, and if they decline, we respect that decision. However, it is available to all.
• We bring awareness to all of our beneficiaries about HIV/AIDS. According to AVERT.org, only 24 percent of young women and 36 percent of young men in low income countries are knowledgeable about HIV transmission and prevention. Last year alone, we trained more than 2,600 HIV/AIDS peer educators who focus on increasing knowledge about the disease to bring about behavioral change.
• Sadly, some of our beneficiaries and their caregivers are HIV-positive. For these, we provide the following services:
  • Nutritional supplements if needed.
  • We link them with the local government to acquire antiretroviral drugs (ARTs). If their local government does not provide complementary ARTs, we buy them.
  • We provide peer-to-peer counseling for those suffering from the effects of HIV.
  • We have special income-generating training for those caregivers who are HIV-positive.
  • Any additional needs for hospital care. This can include everything down to the bus fare needed to get to the hospital.

During the last fiscal year, in Compassion’s East African countries a total of 11,193 children and siblings and 42,806 caregiver beneficiaries were supported with antiretroviral drugs, house rent, house renovation, home based care, transport coverage and medical care including nutritional support.

Sidney Muisyo, our Africa Regional Vice President had this to say about the HIV/AIDS Initiative:

“Tremendous work is being done through the AIDS Initiative. We’ve found beneficiaries are staying in the program longer and their overall livelihood is improved. Beneficiaries and their caregivers have less opportunistic infection, are more productive, and have an overall better quality of life.”

I love the additional impact I can make in Josiane’s community for about $10 a month. If she or her caregiver contracted HIV, I will be able to help support and come alongside. This World AIDS Day, would you consider doing the same?

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

God has many names and many traits. He is multi-layered. Both understandable and beyond comprehension. He is simple and complex without contradiction, and our reflection and representation of Him is the same.

Take giving, for example. Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” But why is that true?

Many may say that giving is love and leave it at that, content that everything that needs to be said or can be said has been said. But, like a child, we yearn to know more.

• Is love incomplete without giving?
• Is a gift less of a gift if it’s refused?
• What is it about giving that liberates the soul?

Giving is transparent and anonymous. It involves time, transcending money and possessions. But is it always these things?

Giving is other focused and is about connecting and caring. It can be both a habit and an effort. It’s random and deliberate, as well as difficult and painful. It goes beyond sharing to sacrifice and has it’s own unique tastes, smells, emotions and associations, which is what we want your help with.

Let’s paint a complete picture of giving this holiday season and see what we come up with. Let’s see if what we uncover helps connect us more closely to Jesus and helps make giving a part of our everyday lives.

In December, we’ll be using all of our social media channels to begin peeling back some of the many layers surrounding what giving is and isn’t. We’ll have more to share with you on Dec. 3, but for now,

Here Are Two Things You Can Do

1. Join us tonight at 7 p.m. EST for a Twitter party, hosted by @TheSamiCone. Just follow the #itsaboutgiving hashtag to participate and possibly win some awesome prizes from wise•abe.
2. Share with us the tastes, sounds, feelings, colors and associations you have with giving. Leave a comment below or talk to us in Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

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

And the winners of blog month are…THE CHILDREN.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you again.

Your participation and support of blog month helped offer hope and opportunity to thousands of children living in extreme poverty. And on their behalf we are grateful.

But who won the prizes?

We’ll get to that in a few moments. First, we want to make sure you know how to claim your prizes and giveaways.

Claiming Prizes and Giveaways

To claim your prizes and giveaways:

• Send an email to brianne@compassionbloggers.com before Oct. 14, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. MT.
• Make sure your email includes: your full name (as used on your tax return), mailing address, blog name, blog post URL(s) and the prize or giveaway you won/earned.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL CONTEST RULES AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS (PDF)

You can search for your name on the list of recipients receiving free copies of one, some or all of these books: You Are a Writer, Wrecked, Just a Minute and Platform, as a thank you for participating in the blog month assignments.

Assignment One

In which these bloggers referred the most traffic to the sponsor a child page on compassion.com and won gift certificates to the Compassion store.

1. Blogging from the Boonies ($100)
2. Only a Breath ($50)
3. Compassion Family ($25)

Assignment Two

In which you wrote letters to God, that we believe He appreciated very much, and which won these bloggers copies of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

1. She Getz the Shot: The Post Where You Listen in on a Private Convo
2. Three Little Larks: Dear God, It’s Been a While
3. With Elephant Grace: Are You There God? Do You Hear Me?

Assignment Three

In which you spread the word about our “My Sponsored Child” Pinterest contest and didn’t win anything. But these folks did*.

Assignment Four

In which you wrote posts from the perspective of children living in extreme poverty, and these bloggers won a gift for their sponsored children.

1. wynngraceappears: And I Named My Dreams, I Named Them Big ($100)
2. An Ounce of Compassion: Someone Loves Wendy ($50)
3. Faith, Life and Commpassion: Catching the Rain ($25)

And now for the Grand Prize. To the blogger who got the most children sponsored during blog month.

Again, thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the children we serve.

*Winners of the Pinterest contest do not have to send an email to claim their prizes as the contest was governed by its own set of rules.

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