Heather and I had been sponsoring in a relatively disconnected way since around 2000. I use the word “disconnected” because although we understood the work of Compassion and believed in its concepts, we had never actually connected with the children in any meaningful way. A trip to see the work of Compassion in 2007 changed all this.

Prior to this trip, I was in a highly pressurized work environment, which was engulfing every hour of my day and much of my nights. Early mornings were sometimes spent trying not to throw up while shaving.

Many of you guys will have been there: big income, big demands, no room to back off, always up to take on the next contract. If I got in an hour earlier each day, I thought I could cope.

We were fortunate to visit Kenya on an Advocate’s trip for ten days … ten days that changed our lives.

Read the rest of this post by Compassion UK Advocate Martyn Legg on the Compassion UK blog.

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

With today’s economy and political debate going haywire, it’s more important than ever to buttress our commitment to the children we sponsor. It’s as vital as connecting other, unsponsored children with sponsors.

When God puts a child on our hearts, it is easy to answer His call … at least initially. However, it can be difficult to remain invested in the commitment over time. And current economic circumstances aren’t making this any easier.

Sponsors at my church have been experiencing financial hardships with gas prices, unemployment, and the overall cost of living. We’re just squeezing by, paying what is necessary, but mostly going about things without passion.

I’m not sure if you’re experiencing this same tension, but I suspect that with finances being tighter, some of us are investing less time or financial support in Compassion’s ministry to children in poverty. We’re having to reassess the decisions we’ve made about our time, talent and treasures.

I held a Compassion Sunday at my church, but given the tough financial times my pastor and I felt it would be best to not participate in next year’s Compassion Sunday campaign. We wanted to give full attention to the needs among our congregation.

Taking our church’s situation into account, my pastor suggested that I continue to encourage existing sponsors within our church and community. That way, when we do give another presentation, we will have more families who can testify to what a wonderful organization Compassion is and encourage others to sponsor children.

So after meeting with my pastor and my advocate coach, we began to implement activities to help keep sponsors engaged and keep Compassion’s ministry present at our church.

I also came up with some strategies to welcome new sponsors and acted as their contact person should they have any general questions about the ministry. Here are some of the ideas we have started or are in the process getting off the ground:

• Welcome Kit for New Sponsors

  I purchased pocket folders in bulk. They were inexpensive and served as a nice addition to the child packets sponsors receive upon beginning their sponsorship.Inside each folder, I included quick facts about poverty, information about Compassion’s financial integrity and its holistic child development model, and a few other pamphlets affirming the new sponsor’s decision to get involved.

  

  One new sponsor told me she was impressed to see how Compassion is committed to serving Christ and serving His children. She mentioned that she keeps the letters from her sponsored child in the welcome-kit folder I had given her. 

• Compassion Board

  I purchased a world map from Barnes & Noble to create a Compassion board in our church gathering area. I then called Compassion with the names and numbers of the children who are sponsored from our church. Compassion sent us pictures of the children and we posted them on the map near each child’s location.

  

  The Compassion Board encouraged others to be in prayer for the children. We also placed a brochure display in the gathering area should someone wish to start a sponsorship.

• Compassion Sponsors’ Letter-writing Potluck

  Any time you can involve food, you can get people to come and fellowship! The idea is to get sponsors together once a quarter for a letter-writing potluck.

  In addition to bringing their favorite dishes to share, participants also “potluck” letter-writing supplies. For example, one person brings envelopes and another brings a variety of stationery.

  Others bring small items we can include with our letters, such as stickers, paper frames to put pictures in (construction paper cut into the shape of a frame with contact paper around it), paper dolls, small children’s magazines, etc.

  The potluck creates a place for everyone to give updates about their children and to encourage one another as we continue our relationships with our sponsored children through Compassion.

• Bible Studies/Book Groups About Compassion 

  I was doing a Compassion-related Bible study on my own when a friend asked about it. As I described Compassion’s commitment to releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, she mentioned that she wasn’t in a place where she could financially support a child sponsorship, but that she would like to do so in the future.

  

  I told her she could pray for children in poverty and that God’s hand would be upon the Compassion ministry. She asked if she could borrow the study after me. We also plan to do one together.

I know that God has pressed it upon the hearts of others to explore ways to keep the Church involved and to encourage existing sponsors while looking for new ones. It would be great to get fresh ideas to use. What are some ideas you can share with us?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maria Le has been a sponsor for two years and a member of our Advocates Network for one. She lives in Minnesota, where she teaches first grade.

If you’re interested in writing a guest blog post, we are happy to consider publishing it. Read our guest blog post guidelines.

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

We sketch out our beliefs through the words we say, the tones we use, the expressions on our faces, and the way we live our lives.

In a phrase, we are living advocates. But what are we really advocating?

St. Francis of Assisi famously said,

“Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.”

Francis was not arguing against the use of human vocabulary. He just recognized its limitations — and the fact that actions very quickly drown out the sound of one’s voice.

As a child advocate and member of Compassion’s Advocates Network, I have been trained in the words to say. What Compassion can’t teach me in words, though, is what it means to live out this principle.

You see, I’ve learned about the impact of poverty. I know the numbers of how many children die every day of preventable causes.

I have been taught about the impact of one child being released from poverty and given the opportunity to break the cycle of hopelessness in which he or she previously dwelt.

Not only do I have the head knowledge, but I have had my heart broken by the impact of poverty on a child’s life, and I feel passionate about getting others involved in child advocacy and sponsorship.

Genuinely living as an advocate for children, though, is something that I have to walk out — and work out — one day at a time.

It does not matter how many blog posts I write, how many conversations I have about the desperate nature of extreme poverty, or how many presentations I give to churches.

What matters — what really matters — is how I live each and every day. If my everyday life is not a shining example of the care and nurture and love and respect due a child, all my words will fall on deaf ears.

But …

If my life and my words add up, that is a powerful testimony.

Since you read this blog, you probably sponsor a child. That means you are also a child advocate. You became one the moment you acted on the belief that your sponsored child, a young person you had never met, has a purpose and a future and you chose to invest in that purpose.

How are the rest of your everyday actions saying what simple words can hardly do justice:

“Children are worth it. They are worth our resources, but they are worth so much more than that. They are worth our time and energy.”

As you consider this question (and I hope you’ll share your thoughts in the comments sections), check out Compassion’s Advocates Network.

I have personally found it to be an invaluable resource and support system for learning to live out my answer to the question above, and I would be remiss if I didn’t share this beloved network with you.

Consider joining us if you haven’t already.

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

Several years ago when I started sponsoring a child through Compassion, I thought I was doing a good thing. I made a small but noticeable donation to a nonprofit doing great work. Some little kid in India had a better life, I felt good for caring for the poor, the kid probably felt better because he had more food to eat, I was being oh-so-Jesus-like, and all was well with the world.
 
Then, I went. I went to where “the kid” lived. And I discovered something.
 
I discovered that this child sponsorship thing isn’t a game to make rich (or middle-class) people and poor people feel better about themselves.

I walked the prostitute-filled streets of Mexico City. I walked among the sick and dying lying hopeless outside the Buddhist temples in Kolkata. I walked between the standing puddles of water left over from floods that had brought down a string of houses in the Dominican Republic like a row of dominoes.

I saw poverty and the reach of its ugly hand. The beautiful young Latina girls who would sell themselves away for almost nothing because they needed money and, let’s face it, what were they really worth anyway? No one was going to rescue them.

The orphans of lepers and cripples in India, begging for food and being smacked upside the head by a passerby for being “bothersome.” Where would they go? They are no one, nameless to the world. 

And the Dominican Republic … what is the DR if not a place for drug lords and dealers to get rich off the poor and addicted? 
 
This is the world I live in, though I often choose to block out the images and pretend they don’t exist.
 
This is the world Compassion lives in. And they refuse to close their eyes.  
 
Compassion releases children from poverty in Jesus’ name. They do not simply release children from the economic plight of poverty. They provide them with the hope that can only come from Jesus, the hope that says,

“You matter. You are precious. You are made in God’s image. You have a purpose. We refuse to let you believe that you are no one, that you don’t matter.”

Yes, they meet the physical needs. That’s imperative. But meeting physical needs in a life devoid of hope isn’t enough. Meeting physical needs by extending the hope of a life in Jesus, though — that produces transformation.
 
And so I discovered just that. Transformation. For while I saw what appeared to be endless lines of prostitutes along the colorful streets of Mexico City, I also saw young girls and boys who entered the doors of a Compassion child development center in a local church, received nutritious meals, health screenings and checkups, tutoring and life-skills classes, and were personally loved and cared for by families within the church.

In India I saw young children in school uniforms who sang songs and created beautiful works of art, who were no longer captivated by the lie that told them that just because they came off the streets, they were trash.

In the DR I saw hope and life in the eyes of young teenagers who were refusing to deal drugs or join gangs because they had another reason to live. That reason just happened to have a name. They called him Jesus.
 
I discovered that child sponsorship isn’t about making me feel better. It’s about transforming lives — in every sense of the word, releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. And I became, in a word, humbled. Even a little humiliated. 

For $38 a month (which has at times been pocket change and at times been a sacrifice), I get to provide the bridge needed for a child to cross over from the streets to the Compassion child development center, from the land of hopelessness to a place of love, hope and joy.

As a sponsor, I’m not a part of making someone just feel better. I’m a part of a transformation.
 
When I returned home, I quickly realized that so many of my own friends and family members were right where I had been. They didn’t know the reality of so many kids in our world today, the hopelessness that binds itself around the hearts of children because the kids are caught in the grip of poverty. 

My friends and family didn’t know because they hadn’t seen it. Or, maybe they knew about it, but they didn’t know what could be done to really make a difference.

I was a little overwhelmed — how could I communicate all that was on my heart?
 
My journey of discoveries led me to Compassion’s Advocates Network. The Advocates Network is a team of volunteers who commit to speak up in their spheres of influence on behalf of children in poverty.

These child advocates create and share resources, provide coaching and training and spiritual retreats. They pray for each other and know each other by name. They get that advocacy on behalf of children is hard – and desperately important. So they encourage each other to press on.
 
Has your heart been broken by the reality in which your sponsored child lives? Do you want to do more on behalf of your child?

Become a part of our movement to see hundreds of thousands more children released from the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. Become a child advocate. I’d love to have you join me.

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

Compassion Sunday is an annual event that provides sponsors and donors across the United States a chance to speak to their churches on behalf of children in poverty. The purpose is to draw the attention of the Church to the needs of the world’s poorest children.

Each year, dedicated volunteers present Compassion in churches across the country, and tens of thousands of children are sponsored through their efforts.

This year Compassion Sunday is April 18, but if you ever want to host a Compassion Sunday at your church you can choose any date that works best for you and your church.

When Compassion Sunday rolled around last year, Lisa and Eric Kjeldgaard were brand-new Advocates and they were eager to share Compassion with their church body.

We’ll let Lisa pick it up from here.

We were pleasantly surprised when our elders gave us an entire 45-minute Sunday school time to speak about Compassion.

We started to plan. We viewed all the video clips at our disposal. We read the many recommended ideas and modified an interactive activity we hoped would help the children realize the plight of children needing sponsors. We copied coloring pages and we strategized what I would talk about and what Eric would talk about. And we prayed.

We have a small church — at that time less than 180 people, with 100 of them children — but we were hopeful that two or three families might become sponsors.

Compassion Sunday came and our children were eager to help. We set up our table with Child Packets and a large display showing a little African girl with the biggest eyes I’ve ever seen.

We displayed our binders of letters from our sponsored kids, and we were all ready when our church family started to arrive. I was nervous.

Eric introduced what we were doing and we showed our first video clip.

Then it was my turn to speak. I started to share my heart for the work Compassion is doing, and then it happened.

I cried.

Now, crying isn’t anything new to me. And unfortunately, crying in front of a lot of people isn’t new either. Somehow giving birth to eight children unleashed a flood of emotions in my body and I can rarely speak about something or someone I feel deeply for without tearing up.

But this was different.

I felt my heart breaking as I thought about the wealth we Americans have and the wretched poverty so many children are faced with.

I kept staring at all of the clean, well-fed, well-dressed children before me and my heart was crying, “Why? Why Lord? Why do these children have more than they need while so many others don’t have even enough?”

It was all I could do to pull myself together and finish the presentation.

My tears embarrassed me. I didn’t want my friends to think I was trying to guilt them into sponsoring. I didn’t want to detract from our purpose in showing the exciting work Compassion is doing. But God used my tears.

As I pulled myself together, I realized I wasn’t the only one in the church crying.

God blessed our efforts that day. Between that Sunday and the following one, nine children found sponsors. Nine! Including a beautiful girl from Kenya that our own 13-year-old daughter felt called to sponsor.

And a sweet friend, who I hadn’t known was already a Compassion sponsor, came to me struggling through her own tears, convicted that they hadn’t made communicating with their sponsored child a priority.

When I look back at our first Compassion Sunday, I’m thrilled with what the Lord did. Sure, our numbers don’t compare with many of the efforts of larger churches, but our fruit that day was threefold what we prayed for, and I know without a doubt that nine little lives were changed forever because I was willing to stand in front of my church family and cry.

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

Compassion Sunday is an annual event that provides sponsors and donors across the United States a chance to speak to their churches on behalf of children in poverty. The purpose is to draw the attention of the Church to the needs of the world’s poorest children.

Each year, dedicated volunteers present Compassion in churches across the country, and tens of thousands of children are sponsored through their efforts.

This year Compassion Sunday is April 18, but if you ever want to host a Compassion Sunday at your church you can choose any date that works best for you … and your church, as Debbi did.

My name is Debbi Akers. I have been an Advocate with Compassion in north Alabama for nearly 1 1/2 years.

As soon as I completed my Advocate training, my first thought was to host a Compassion Sunday at my church. I was on fire, passionate, and thought that was the obvious next step. I was wrong.

Even though the administration at my church was very welcoming of my passion and the ministry of Compassion, their calendar was already set in motion for the holidays and then for the beginning of the year.

Of course, once the first of the year rolled around, Compassion Sunday got pushed back on the church calendar again and again.

If you have ever been told “no” or “maybe next year,” please do not be discouraged. Time that you commit to God for His glory and for His kingdom is never wasted.

As I waited for a later date for Compassion Sunday, the passion God had given me for the least of these and for His ministry through Compassion could not be squelched. I felt that if I did not “speak up for those who could not speak up for themselves,” the rocks would start crying out for those who were suffering! So, I spoke.

I spoke to Sunday school classes, women’s groups, combined classes — anyone in my church who would give me a opportunity.

While doing all this speaking, I was blessed to have about 30 families sponsor me to go on an Advocates tour to Guatemala. After that life-changing trip, I spoke even more.

The beauty of having so many people support me financially on the tour was that they felt they “owned” me when I returned, and I had a duty to speak to their classes and groups and share about my trip!

God’s time was not wasted. He used what I initially perceived as rejection as a time of planting. Seeds were planted throughout my church, and my heart learned to trust Jesus like I probably had not done in a long time. I started to remember what it felt like to rely on Him again as He prepared the fields for harvest.

During that time of planting seeds, I made a chart. It was a simple chart where I kept the name, contact information, child name and reference number for each new sponsorship associated with my efforts. This has proven to be one of the most effective things I have done as an Advocate. As new sponsors came along, I simply add to this chart.

By the time I actually held my Compassion Sunday (Nov. 29, 2009), the list had grown to close to 70 sponsors — one child at a time!

In planning Compassion Sunday, I remembered something Wess Stafford once said about the reason many people do not get involved with charity organizations. He said they do not know where to begin and they do not know who to trust.

Well, having a Compassion Sunday shows people where to begin, but I needed to focus on showing my congregation that Compassion was an organization they could trust.

I pulled out my handy, dandy chart of sponsors. If my congregation could see that the leaders and many longtime church members were trusting Compassion, it might make a difference.

I called Compassion and gave them the reference numbers from my chart. Compassion was able to provide me with a digital picture of every sponsored child connected to my church.

I made a simple slide show with those pictures. Each slide had the face of the child and his or her name alongside of the sponsor’s name. Our adult and children’s choirs sang “He Knows My Name” as the slide show was presented. My congregation felt like those children were “their” children.

We were then abundantly blessed to have Miguel Figueroa speak, as a formerly sponsored child and now Leadership Development Program graduate attending Moody Bible Institute.

None of these things could have taken place if the dates I had initially requested had been granted. God’s timing brought about a harvest that surpassed what I had prayed for.

We now have close to 200 sponsors at our church, and the sponsorship table is still up! Each week someone stops by to either ask about sponsoring, pick up some information, ask questions about a current sponsorship, or tell me about a letter received from a child. It is my act of love to sit at that table each week. To Him be all of the glory!

The little chart with sponsor information did not end once the numbers grew. It took on a life of its own. My trip to Guatemala left me with a passion even greater than the one I already had for finding sponsors. It is a passion for getting those sponsors engaged in the lives of the children they sponsor.

With the contact information in hand, I have been able to establish a monthly newsletter for the sponsors in my church. In addition, this past month I offered six different opportunities for members to attend a Compassion 101 class where they could come together and learn how to set up an online account at compassion.com, learn about letter-writing, gifts, trips, blogs and more.

Also, if there is a crisis in a country such as we just experienced in Haiti, I immediately know which sponsors to connect with. Or if there is a blog post that pertains to one of our sponsoring family’s child development centers, I can let them know. Basically, anything that I can do to advocate for the continuing relationship between the sponsor and child is made possible through a simple task of record keeping.

So my fellow Advocates and precious sponsors: Pray. Trust His timing. Pray. Take every opportunity, especially the seemingly insignificant ones, to speak up. Pray. Keep some records if you can. Pray. Enjoy His harvest. And give Him all of the glory.

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

When you put a Mentos mint into a bottle of soda it explodes like a volcano, just like an explosive phenomenon taking place all over the country on behalf of children in poverty. In both cases this explosive phenomenon is about multiplication.

With the Mentos and soda, carbon dioxide bubbles rapidly form on the pitted surface of the mint and explode out of the bottle.

With Compassion Sunday, dedicated volunteers present Compassion in churches across the country, and tens of thousands of children are sponsored through their efforts. The purpose is to draw the attention of the Church to the needs of the world’s poorest children.

As a new child advocate in 1994, I started sharing about child sponsorships in people’s homes. One at a time, children were sponsored. Then it dawned on me that if I shared in a group, I could get more children sponsored at one time.

I shared in a Sunday School class and several children were sponsored in one day. So my next step was to speak during a worship service.

Having done that and having seen so many children sponsored all at one time made me realize that if I shared in another church or two, I could multiply the effects of my efforts even more.

Within five years, I spoke regularly in 12 different churches and would see up to a dozen children sponsored each time I spoke. It was exciting and almost addictive, this process of watching new sponsors sign up with such excitement and gratefulness. In one youth group alone, 19 kids were sponsored at once.

Within another five years, that list of church groups multiplied to an additional 25 churches because God was helping me see all of the opportunities around me.

But the multiplication effect wasn’t limited to my efforts. This is where the explosion comes in. Some of the churches began to place their own Mentos in soda bottles, so to speak.

I made a practice of returning to the same churches every two years, and alternating years (and seasons) for the large group of churches I was visiting. When I called one of the churches, they said, “No, we don’t need you to come this year. We’re going to host our own Compassion Sunday.”

And that’s what they did, gaining 10 new sponsorships. One member of the planning committee even signed up to become a Compassion Child Advocate — one who would also share in other churches besides her own. That church now has one sponsored child for about every eight church members.

One of my most special Compassion Sundays involved attending this church and hearing the pastor ask each sponsor to pray for their child, one by one, out loud in the service. As I heard the voices throughout the sanctuary, along with the names of each child affected by this love, I cried with tears of joy.

This has happened all over the world, causing the Advocates Network to expand rapidly. Why? Because the joy of leading others to sponsor children is deeply satisfying and contagious. You are changing not only the life of the child, but also the life of the new sponsor.

I can’t begin to tell you how many people have thanked me for telling them about child sponsorship. When I return to churches, they thank me for coming back, and they bring their friends and family members to the Compassion sign-up table. Multiplication. And more than 500 kids have been sponsored in our region.

I’ll never forget speaking in a tiny church of seven people, and seeing five new sponsorships. Or another little church that has faithfully added new sponsorships each time I visit.

The joy at that church was so contagious that a church in a neighboring community heard about it and asked me to come and present a Compassion Sunday. It was just a tiny one-room church (with no restroom facilities, except perhaps an outhouse in back), and yet five sponsorships came out of that visit.

Do you understand what I mean about explosions? Never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to multiply your efforts!

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

When I came home from that trip, I signed up to be a volunteer child advocate. I made coffee mugs with photos of my sponsored children on them, and I spoke of the kids often.

“Hey Patterson, you know those kids that you’re so fond of? ”

“Yeah, Norm.”

“I think we should sponsor one of those kids as a shift.”

I explained to Norm that a typical child sponsorship is under $40, but then I told him about the Leadership Development Program. I suggested that if we were able to get 12 firefighters together, we could sponsor a Leadership Development Program student and it would cost only $25 per person each month.

Norm made a commitment immediately and started recruiting others. I contacted Compassion the following day, and later that afternoon we had a student to sponsor – Juan David Dominquez Galvez.

At age 5, Juan David had lost his father in a construction accident. His mother was left alone to care for four children. In her desperation, she enrolled Juan David in the Compassion-assisted child development center in their community outside the capital city of Santo Domingo.

Shortly after enrollment, Juan David was sponsored. His new sponsors, the Hopper family in Australia, wrote letters of encouragement often and continued to do so for 13 years.

Thanks to the support of his sponsors, Juan not only graduated high school, but he also earned his school’s Most Excellent Student Award. Then Juan applied for the Leadership Development Program and, after months of academic tests and intensive interviews, was accepted into the program.

Just a couple weeks after Juan David became eligible for the program, I returned to the Dominican Republic with my wife and daughters on another sponsor tour. We knew that on this trip we would not only be able to visit the girls we sponsor, but we would also have the opportunity to meet Juan David and tell him about a group of firefighters who would be his sponsors for the next six years.

On Wednesday evening of the trip, the Compassion staff had prepared a meal for the visiting sponsors. Four Leadership Development Program students were asked to give their testimonies. One of them was Juan David.

It was on this evening that Juan David learned that he had been sponsored, and that his dream of becoming a pediatrician is possible. When he heard the news, he wept. So did 40 Compassion sponsors.

Being part of this amazing student’s life has had great impact on many people. Juan David continues to communicate with the Hopper family in Australia. My family and the Hopper family communicate with each other regularly by e-mail. Juan’s letters to his sponsors and to my family are regular reminders of God’s grace. To my children, he is a living example of faith.

Today, Juan David and his fellow Leadership Development Program students in the Dominican Republic express their gratitude for the opportunity they have been given by sponsoring a little girl in Haiti, named Lovina.

I look forward to the day when I sit beside a group of firefighters from Seattle at Juan David’s graduation ceremony.

Who can you sponsor a student with?

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

You have your own bed, and sleep each night with a full belly. You go to school, and in the afternoon you go to sports practice on a green grassy lawn that is safely guarded from speeding cars and other dangers.

Imagine a world where your toys are bought from Wal-Mart, and you get a new Christmas, Easter and birthday outfit every year.

That’s not very hard to imagine … is it? Most of us grew up in that setting — or one very similar.

The situation that is hard to truly grasp is living in the circumstances the children in our sponsorship program live in.

We’ve seen the pictures; some of us have had the chance to see poverty firsthand. The reality the children in our sponsorship program live in is mostly the opposite of ours.

While some children are blessed with both parents still living, many live with other family members or older siblings. They eat one meal a day *maybe*, and play with toys that they find in the trash dumps outside their wood-walled, tin-roofed, one-room shanty.

So imagine how it brightens a child’s day when he or she goes to the child development center and receives a letter from you — the sponsor.

Now imagine a child who doesn’t have a sponsor. When all the children receive letters at the center, one never comes for this child.

This child, Carlos from Colombia, was registered into the sponsorship program in April, 2008, and has never — I repeat NEVER – had a sponsor.

What questions do you think run through his head when he attends the center during letter-writing and receiving time? What would run through your mind?

“Wait!” You say. “Doesn’t the sponsorship program still provide Carlos everything he needs? He is registered, after all.”

Let me see if I can explain.

Remember Valentine’s Day in grade school?

You set out your decorated box to receive notes from your classmates. After exchange time is over, you check your box.

You stick your hand inside with anticipation. You grope around for a moment before the realization hits — no one gave you a Valentine message. Not one person.

The rest of the class got one from each class member. Your feelings are very hurt. You continue your school day, and receive all of the benefits from the education your teachers provide. You also receive a nutritious meal during lunch time and exercise during PE.

When you get in the car to go home, your mom knows something is wrong, but not even her hug can console you. A hug won’t ease the ache in your heart caused by not receiving a Valentine from any of your classmates. Understand?

Regrettably, there are more than 18,000 children in our sponsorship program just like Carlos — children who have been waiting for 12 months or longer for a sponsor. This number has skyrocketed 500 percent since June 2008, when it was just over 3,600.

Should this cause us to be disheartened? I don’t think so.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” — 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV)

I think this is a time for us to search out our purpose in this cause and press forward as God leads us. This is a time to rally — to advocate for these children. What will you do?

Here are some ways to help:

• Order a Christmas with Compassion kit and find a sponsor for a child on the unsponsored children’s list.
• Become a child advocate. Volunteer your time to work concerts, events, and speak at local churches about children in poverty.
• Hold a Compassion Sunday event at your church and help find some kiddo sponsors in your church. Learn more about hosting an event.
• Sponsor a child who has been waiting six months or longer for a sponsor.

Most of all, please pray.

Pray that God would raise up sponsors for these children. Pray that the children in our program will receive hope and love from the church staff, friends and family — despite their circumstances.

If you’d like to sponsor Carlos, please call us toll free at (888) 503-4586.

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

1. The primary effect of Jesus’ healings was to include social outcasts into community.

   Jesus’ healings restored outcasts to community by removing the obstacle that made them outcasts. By eating with outcasts, Jesus welcomed and accepted them just as they were.

   With the temple incident He critiqued a system/structure that excluded outcasts on the basis of their race.

2. Jesus touched those whom He healed. He was willing to get dirty and even become unclean by touching them.
• Lepers (Mark 1:40–45)
• Bleeding / Hemorrhaging Woman (Mark 5:24b-34)
• Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
• Physically Disabled (Mark 2:1-12; 3:1-6; 7:32-37; 10:46-52)

As Compassion Child Advocates we are critical in the work of restoring social outcasts — children in poverty — to community. While I can’t say that I’ve ever healed anybody in Jesus’ name (I’ve tried), I do believe that Jesus is bringing healing through our advocacy — a healing that gives children a voice and that begins to take the poverty out of them.

What I’m especially convicted by is Rindge’s second observation about Jesus’ physical touch. Jesus got dirty, even unclean, according to Jewish law, by doing so.

I confess that a lot of my advocacy hasn’t gone that far.

Wess Stafford, our President and CEO, regularly shares that his mission is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

I love this statement. What’s also true is that the comfortable may afflict you right back. They did Jesus when they denounced Him for reaching out to social outcasts. And if my advocacy doesn’t result in me being marginalized myself, it’s lacking.

As you “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” are you encountering resistance?

If you are, it’s probably because you look a lot like Jesus.

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