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.

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

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.

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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

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

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!

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

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.

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

Hello. My name is Gail Perry Johnston. I’m an author, art director and speaker … and a wife and mother of two.

I started sponsoring children when I was 14. Now close to 50, that’s a lot of years of making a difference in kids’ lives with relatively little effort, thanks to Compassion and a few other well-run organizations.

Why aren’t all people of adequate means sponsoring children?

Fear of the unknown? Fear of commitment? Ignorance of the fact that they can, in fact, spare the change?

Maybe it’s simply that they still haven’t heard of it yet.

My main career is graphic design, but I’ve also become a bit of a writer. My faith has largely been developed through the simple pleasure of curling up with a good book — thank you C.S. Lewis, Paul Little, Jim Burns — and I would like to give back in the way that I have been impacted, or at least try.

With the subject matters I tackle, I hope to ignite interest in the most important things in life (which are not “things” at all, of course).

Two years ago, I compiled a collection of stories about service. It’s called The Social Cause Diet: Find A Service That Feeds The Soul.

Three of the 45 stories are from avid Compassion fans and spokespeople:

• Shaun Groves
• Justin McRoberts
• Shannon Lowe

I am so grateful for their contributions (and their awesomeness), and anticipate increased awareness of child sponsorship through them.

Presently, I’m working on Volume Two of The Social Cause Diet. If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you have a story to share! Please consider writing it down and submitting it through www.socialcausediet.com.

As with the first volume, my goal is to communicate that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” while showcasing a wide variety of services. The more stories, the better, and the greater chance readers will find ways in which they would like to serve.

I should mention why the word “diet” is in the title of my book. (Let’s pretend I wasn’t influenced by the fact that diet books tend to sell very well.)

First of all, when we help others, we nourish our souls, so this book suggests a diet for the soul.

I consider the soul to be our real self; the part that can get better and better (with proper feeding), even as its housing wears thin.

Secondly, there is a significant amount of evidence that indicates that people who volunteer regularly tend to be healthier than those who do not volunteer. The studies are amazing.

A steady diet of helping others seems to be as important to our physical well-being as proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Lastly, my personal testimony includes an ugly history of dieting in the usual way — or maybe I should say, dysfunctional way.

I was a compulsive dieter who eventually became bulimic without even knowing the term.

The turning point in my life came when my college roommate got in my face and said, “Gail, the world is bigger than your pack of crackers.”

It was at that moment that I realized how self-absorbed I had become with my dieting, and I didn’t want to stay that way.

While I was not immediately cured of my disorder, the all-important will to get better was there, and my journey to health began.

What I really believe is that our country’s fascination with dieting is all wrong. The more we diet, the more problems we seem to have with obesity and eating disorders.

Maybe it’s because the typical diet makes the dieter the focal point, endorsing the ideology that “it’s all about me.” But true well-being — philosophers, theologians, sociologists, and even politicians all agree — is achieved when we feel connected to something beyond ourselves.

So that’s why I propose going on the Social Cause Diet; that is, developing a lifestyle that incorporates serving others in some way. It may not be easy, but the benefits are well worth it.

And unlike the usual diet that leaves you hungry, this one will fill you up.

Submit your story at www.socialcausediet.com.

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

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” – Acts 2:44-45 (NIV)

In today’s world, that’s out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, society preaches the opposite: More is better! People seem to acquire more “things” that they seem to hold onto with a firm grip. Of course, I understand necessities or essentials – for example, people need transportation to get to work – but WHAT IF you and I sold our *nonessentials* in order to provide for those who truly have need?

Here’s what worked for me: Go into your closet, around your house, your basement (I know, it might be intimidating!) Imagine God with you – imagine God cleaning those places out with you. What would He throw in the “to be sold so others may eat” pile?

In my pile were (just to name a couple):

Handbags:

Me: “But God, I really like those bags. This cute little black one, yeah I use it when I go out to dinner with my husband.”

God: “Britt, when was the last time you went out to dinner with you husband?”

Me (shuffles feet): “Um … does PB&J in our backyard when the kiddos go to sleep count?

God: “Britt, you really don’t use that bag, do you?”

Me: “I guess not.”

A fancy dress that I wore back in 2005:

Me: “But God, this was a dress that I wore to a very special ball. It saw important people! I looked so good in this dress! What if I go somewhere fancy again and need this dress?!”

God: “Britt, have you worn this dress since? And don’t start on who you think important people are – remember, I have no favorites. Oh, by the way, give me a break – the dress couldn’t possibly see anyone because it’s not living – whereas I have children all over the world who could benefit from you selling this dress.”

Me (bites lip): “Well, when you put it like that …”

Can you think of some things that you are holding onto? Why are you holding onto them? Are they really that important?

This will be hard. The enemy will try and deceive you. Here’s what he tried whispering in my ear:

“Ah, but what sort of difference would one, two or even a hundred people make? This is a waste of time. Besides, you deserve to hold onto these things. Someone else will take care of those kids.”

But fight back!

Remember that your faith tells you that we serve an amazingly loving God who will work through us – can you imagine the possibilities if you take that first step?

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

Do Not Show Partiality to the Poor

If you hang around here a lot, you’re probably familiar with verses like these:

“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” – Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)

Or one of my personal favorites:

“‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy… Is not that what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 22:16 (NIV)

There are so many verses that demand we deal kindly with those in need around us. But here’s another little nugget from the Bible:

“Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” – Leviticus 19:15, NIV (emphasis added)

Do not show partiality to the poor? The first thing that my mind jumps to is, “God, is this really a big problem? People being too nice to the poor?”

Read the entire post

What is Evangelism?

Have you ever wondered how Compassion, an openly evangelical organization, is able to work in Muslim or Hindu countries where evangelism is illegal? I have.

The other day I had an opportunity to spend an hour with a couple of our field staff, Mathew from India and Kevin from Bangladesh, and I asked them this question:

How can Compassion work in India or Bangladesh or Indonesia?

Here is what they said …

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