One hundred and thirty eight Compassion advocates from the United States and countless other advocates from around the world will be gathering in the Dominican Republic from October 5 to October 11 for the first-ever Global Advocates Tour…And we want to do our best to bring the experience to you!

Beginning slightly before our departure and continuing through the trip itself, we will do our best to bring you updates, tales, and highlights, in picture and in word, of this momentous world-wide Compassion event.

Our intention is to:

• Upload photos to Compassion’s Flickr group, which you can see in the sidebar under Your Flickr Photos (Kees will be doing this.)
• TWEET! - send regular text updates of what’s going on - so follow us on Twitter (That’ll be Kees too.)
• Share stories and commentaries on our blogs - Jesus and Compassion, Sheep Droppings and the “official unofficial” blog of the conference.
• Get YOU close to the action
• Provoke you (in a good way) to jealousy

We will be visiting many child development centers on this trip (too many to list here) and many of us, myself included (Oh! This is Compassion Dave.) will have opportunities to visit with the children we sponsor. It is our hope to transmit as much of the excitement and joy as we are able, so please tag along and be inspired!

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My name is Boer, James Boer. But you can call me Kees, which is pronounced “case.” My middle name is Jacobus, which translates to James. See, I’m Dutch, which means I grew up in the Netherlands, but doesn’t necessarily explain why I’m a Compassion Advocate, but I am … Dutch and a Compassion Advocate.

As I mentioned, I grew up in the Netherlands, and once in a great while we would have people visit our home from the United States. It was always such an exciting time. I used to love listening to them so I could imitate their English.

When I went to high school, I started learning English myself and was finally able to communicate with our guests. At the end of the visits, I’d be sure to get an address, and I would write letters and then wait and wait and pray that they would send a letter back

Some of them did, and I was always so excited. I wouldn’t receive more than a couple a year but getting one made my whole month. I’d read and reread the letters until I almost had them memorized. And I still have those letters after all of these years.

A few years ago I interviewed Wess Stafford. He shared a story about a huge flood in one of the countries Compassion works in. The local staff was evacuating the children, but one child kept trying to get back into her home. Finally, the worker let the child go. A couple minutes later, the child came back with a little pouch. In it were all the letters her sponsor had written her.

This is a sample of what my sponsored children write to me. Although the words are different, they often have the same message. (more…)

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The Compassion Advocates Network is made up of an amazing group of sponsors that want to do more than sponsor a child. They want to help get children sponsored.

Advocates give of their time, their talents and their money (e.g. like driving to work at a Compassion booth during a Jeremy Camp concert). They talk to anyone they know, and even don’t know, about sponsoring a child.

And each year we have a lot of sponsors request a planning folder for Compassion Sunday. The planning folder gives you everything you need to plan your event. But a lot of people stop there. They get sidetracked, nervous, or convinced by the Enemy that they should not participate.

Enter our amazing advocates. They again give of their time and their talents to call these sponsors to encourage them. And what do we get?

E-mails like this:

Howdy in Christ, Mark. I just got a return call from a potential Compassion Sunday’er, who I had left a message with earlier during the sponsor, pre-Compassion Sunday calling campaign. She was so-o-o happy that I’d called! She was bubbling and described how she had received the CS Planning Folder and had even sent in a completed Materials Order Form, but was having serious self-doubts about following through. The Enemy was tossing roadblocks in front of her wherever she turned—and flaming darts at her confidence that she could actually do this thing. Then she received my encouraging phone message. When she called back, we talked about presentation possibilities, helpful videos, my experiences with Compassion Sunday events, and ideas for increasing the effectiveness of her CS. (Adding a signup table, bulletin inserts, maintaining the signup table for a few weeks after…) Her excitement is renewed! The Holy Spirit left me feeling I’d soaked in a hot-tub of heavenly joy. THIS is why we’re making these calls, right Mark?
- Jeff Carpenter, Volunteer Area Coordinator

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