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The first time I heard of Compassion International . . .
July 26, 2008
Saturday’s Half
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…last summer at a student Life Camp in Alabama
Over 3 years ago when Bart Campolo spoke at my college. Afterward I went over to the table and picked up a packet, just to take a closer look. I then noticed we had the same birthday and knew right then that I was supposed to sponsor her.
…was when I went to Revolve. They had a video and testimonials and Jordan and I decided we really needed to sponsor a child. I’m so glad we did!
4 years ago I had picked up a brochure off a counter in an antique store one weekend when my husband and I were out and about. It was 6 months and a lot of praying before we found Hikma, age 13 from Etiopia.
With in a year we were sponsoring a total of 3. The last 2 (6 and 19) left the program the end of July.
We are still sponsoring Hikma, this past month our sponsorship was transfered to two children that had been waiting for almost a year. Two weeks later we have a fourth spronsored child.
The first time I heard of Compassion International, I KNEW I had to do it. I sponsored a little girl named Jennifer. Jennifer is the name of my sister who passed away suddenly at the age of 31 in 1986.
Compassion was brought back to my attention at a Michael W. Smith concert. I had recently been to India to see the country before the wedding of a friend and I left there forever changed. My heart was desperate to find some way to make a difference there but handing out money randomly is more dangerous than helpful. I found two children in different parts of India who’d been waiting for some time and chose a boy and a girl. It has been a relief to feel that I can do even a little something to make a difference in a country I have grown to love so much. Not to mention that changing one child’s life changes every child for generations after.
I learned about Compassion by accident. I was attempting to sponsor a child through another program. It was something I had wanted to do since I was child, having grown up watching the Sally Struthers commercials. The other site was not working and in my frustration I simply conducted a search for “sponsor children”. For once, I was determined to follow through on my good intensions right then! Compassion and my sponsor children have taught me so much about love, life and faith. All things work for the good, even other organizations bad web sites.
My junior high school Music teacher (Mrs Artman) shared with her class a letter she received from a child she and her family sponsored. That seed was sown in 1970. When I got my first full time job in 1979, I decided to sponsor a child through Compassion…I don’t remember “how I was led” to Compassion…but I do remember the first child I sponsored, Maxiana (ed. last name removed for privacy reasons) from Haiti. I still have her picture and letters. I (and my husband) have continued to sponsor children ever since.
I was 15 or 16 years old and reading Brio magazine(a Focus on the Family magazine)with an ad for Compassion International featuring Michael W Smith. 🙂
I was so impacted. I said “I’m going to help them one day.”
My family had just begun going to a different church my freshman year of high school. The high school Sunday school class sponsored a child with the offering money collected and had a picture on the bulletin board and letters from our child. Due to this experience, I began sponsoring my own child while in high school as well.
I had been praying for several months about sponsoring a child, but didn’t know which company I could trust, and was asking God for guidance. I was out for lunch with a missionary Dr. from Haiti on furlough, and asked her what happened to poor people when the hurricane destroyed their homes? How did they get by? She said, “Well, of course the children who were in Compassion didn’t miss a single meal!” This is how God answered my prayer, because she knew all about Compassion’s ministry — and spoke very highly of it — several of the formerly sponsored children were now nurses in her hospital on Haiti’s island of LaGonave. I immediately sponsored a boy in this area. He has finished school now, and I’m sponsoring his little brother. This was 20 years ago, and I’m still amazed at the way God directed me to Compassion. She also happened to be a close friend of Wess Stafford’s, from the years he’d spent in Haiti. Wonder of wonders.
. . . was when I opened a brand new Rebecca St. James cassette tape and a small flier dropped out, asking if I’d join Rebecca and Compassion in sponsoring a child.
Who Will Save the Children?
(*Amen to the Randy Stonehill comment)
Cry for all the innocent ones — born into a world that lost its heart.
For those who never learned to dream — because their hope is crushed before they can start.
And we shake our fists in the air — and say, if God is love how can this be fair?
Chorus
But we are His hands, we are His voice — we are the ones who must make the choice.
And if it isn’t now, tell me when — if it isn’t you then tell me who will save the children.
Who will save the children?
We count our blessings one by one — yet we have forgotten how to give.
It seems we don’t want to face — all the hungry and homeless who struggle to live.
But Heaven is watching tonight — tugging at our hearts to do what’s right.
Chorus
But we are His hands, we are His voice — we are the ones who must make the choice.
And if it isn’t now, tell me when — if it isn’t you then tell me who will save the children.
Save the children.
Bridge
As we observe them through our TV screens — they seem so distant and unreal.
But they bleed like we bleed — and they feel what we feel.
Oh – save the children
Save the children…
Save the children…
Now we decide that nothing can change — and throw up our hands in numb despair.
We lose a piece of our soul — by teaching ourselves just how not to care.
But Christ would have gone to the cross – just to save one child from being lost
Chorus
But we are His hands, we are His voice — we are the ones who must make the choice.
And it must be now; there’s no time to waste
And it must be you; no one can take your place
Can’t you see only we can save the children
Save the children. Please save the children.
Randy Stonehill…enough said.
I too first heard of Compassion International from Shannon’s blog (Rocks in my Dryer) when she joined the Uganda blogging trip. It has been a WONDERFUL experience.
When ladies from my Sunday School class brought up sponsoring a child through Compassion. We have been sponsors for a few years now.
… was the time I went to Micheal W. Smith’s concert in Seoul, Korea.
I got small picture of a beauuuuuuuuuuuutiful little boy living in Haiti. And he had capatured my mind. Yes, that’s how I met Compassion and it became almost everything to me.
Now I’m working in Compassion Korea as an Vision Trip Specialist and the little boy, my son Jokensly’s Mom who is a teacher and Dad are workinig in Compassion Haiti and their project, too!
We became truly a Compassion family. How awesome God fulfils and leads our life. Now I’m living in happiness expecting and thrilled to see His marvelous plans for us through Compassion.
“The first time I heard of Compassion International…”
Was at Creation Fest (east) in 1998 with my wife and twin boys (age 11). They had each accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (without the other knowing it) and to commemorate the event, my wife and I got them each their own child to sponsor. Prior to Creation Fest, we had never heard of Compassion International.
Today they are 20 years old and are still sponsoring the same two children.
I was introduced to Compassion when Tony Campolo was the weekly guest speaker at the Howard University Chapel in Washington,DC. He stressed that Christians need to get involved in the community locally or internationally but do something. I admit that I wasn’t doing too much except warming a bench at church although I was a volunteer tutor for 3 years but taking a break from it. He had Compassion booths set up and asked the congregation to check them out after service. This was 4 years ago and now I’m sponsoring 3 kids from Brazil.
The first time, I heard of Compassion I think is when my pastor did a special offering for the Tsunami victims. I was trying to get some more money raised for it. He mentioned how that he knew that the money would indeed go towards the victims of the Tsunami. I asked him how he knew and what organizations that he were going to help. He mentioned three organizations and the first was Compassion. That was 3 1/2 years ago. I was reading the email and realized how much had changed in the last 3 1/2 years and I just wrote him a letter thanking him for introducing me.
Kees
…when my friend, Cynde, told me about her sponsored children and the kinds of benefits they were getting through the programs.
I am now sponsoring 3 children through Compassion (Ana from Peru, Aneesha from India, and Meredith from Dom. Rep.) They are all now 16 years old (you can probably guess that I sponsored them all at about the same time). I’ve been a Compassion sponsor for about 6 years. I’ve also been able to inspire a friend to sponsor 3 children.
As a side note, my friend, Cynde, once got to meet a young woman from the Dominican Republic (I believe it was) who had been a Compassion-sponsored child and was now a successful business woman. She told Cynde that Compassion had been such a blessing for her family. When I hear stories like that, it says a lot about the long-range benefits of Compassion’s programs.
…I was at a marriage conference “I Still Do” October, 2000, it was my husband and I’s 1st year anniversary, we were living near Houston, Tx. I heard them mention something from stage about it, and to be honest, I don’t even remember what they said, I just saw that they had children from Africa and I always told my hubby that I wanted to adopt a little boy from Africa.
Of course, we were not ready for kids of our own at the time, so I thought “what a perfect way to have a ‘son’!” So, I hunted down the table, and studied the pics over and over, and, Ta-Da! There was Majyambere, looking so cute, about 5 or 6 years old, a little boy from Rwanda, and wearing girl shoes! My heart melted, and well, the rest is history!
…was when my grandpa told me stories of taking pictures of all of Korean Compassion kids.
…was when Shannon(Rocks in my Dryer) and Sophie (Boomama) blogged from Ethiopia on the Compassion bloggers trip earlier this year. Another online friend had a link to their sites and I was immediately pulled in by their descriptions and by the work they described that Compassion was doing. Within 2 weeks we had signed up to sponsor a child. That blogging trip made all the difference for us!
–I asked the question, “What do I need to do and how often do I need to write?”
Because of my lack of knowledge about Compassion and what it does for these kids, I took my sponsorship lightly. It took a very long time to open my eyes to the reality of their hunger and to realize what it truly means to be a sponsor. A spark ignited in my heart and now I couldn’t imagine not having our 3 in our lives. I no longer ask the question, What do I have to do?”. But instead, “What CAN I do!”
This has inspired me to put on a Compassion Reignite Party at our church congregation! I am so unbelievably excited! All sponsors will be invited and anyone looking to save a child. We will be dining on our children’s favorite foods and other foods from their country. We will be writing our children. We will be sharing pictures and stories. We will be raising awareness of the food crisis and other needs. We will be praying for each of them, and in the end-God gets all the glory!!!!
The first time I heard of Compasssion International was through a insert in one of Michael W. Smith’s cd’s. He was sponsoring Gavi then (she has since graduated the Compassion program and is now married)and I knew Compassion was something I wanted to be a part of. It has been one of the best decisions of my life sponsoring children in need.
…I was 18 years old, living in Virginia, and I was at a Christian concert at a church. I’ve forgotten who the performer was, but whatever he said that night about Compassion really stuck with me. I knew that child sponsorship was something I wanted to do.
My church was financially assisting a seminary student. He sent us a letter describing his fixed expenses. In the letter, he indicated “support of my compassion child.” I wondered what on earth a compassion child was. Was this a new euphemism for an out of wedlock birth? After all, I’m on the high end of middle age, so it doesn’t surprise me too much to realize that I’m out of the loop. 🙂 So I plugged “compassion child” into a search engine and learned all about Compassion children. What a laugh I had! Then, I sponsored my first child. What a great experience!
…I was looking at a “sea” of child packets, and I ultimately sponsored my first two children.
… was when the Robbie Seay Band played at my church one Sunday morning, and had a display. It took me about a month to finally sponsor my first child.