Lawrence, who once was so shy he was considered a “cry baby,” now bursts with confidence at Makerere University Business School in Uganda.

The first day he went to the university, with support from our Leadership Development Program, he could not believe it. He marveled at the expanse of the campus, gaped at the beautiful buildings and thanked God for this opportunity of a lifetime. He was determined to achieve his dreams — among them a passion for leadership.

Lawrence had grown up a very shy boy. In fact, many times he was a victim of false accusations but he never defended himself. He simply cried. He grew up with his parents and three brothers. They struggled through life. His father, a fisherman and sole earner in the home, contracted cancer and painfully passed away when Lawrence was 10.

Life was tough. Lawrence’s mother did not have a job but depended on peasant farming. The family had little food. They skipped breakfast, had a cup of porridge for lunch, and usually ate posho (mingled maize flour) with avocado or greens for supper. On a good day they would eat beans and posho.

This was their routine. The boys grew thinner each day and often fell sick.

“Whenever we fell sick, Mum bathed us with herbs and told us to sleep and cover ourselves till we were warm. She could not afford medication.”

When Lawrence joined the Lugazi Child Development Center, it was a great relief for his family. The first thing he did was seek treatment for a terrible toothache that had bothered him for more than seven months because of lack of medication.

He received lots of love at the child development center and anticipated going back every Saturday.

At the center, children were given milk, eggs, bread and bananas for breakfast. At lunch they received rice and meat or matooke (plantain), beans and peas. Sometimes they enjoyed sodas. It was like he was experiencing a whole new life.

“Our director, staff and volunteers at the center loved me very much. The director treated me like his own child.

When I was in primary grade 2, they taught us about Jesus and the things He did when He was our age. I liked Jesus very much and I gave my life to Him.”

With support and love from our staff, Lawrence discovered his God-given potential and self worth. Little by little he gained confidence in himself and stopped being so shy. He joined the school choir and always stood in front.

Lawrence also learned at an early age to take on leadership positions and to always act with integrity. Later, when he joined the university, he believed he was the leader the students needed. Today he perceives himself as a leader of integrity who adds value to his followers.

In his first year at the university Lawrence became the representative for Baganda Nkobaza Mbogo Student Association. In his second year he was elected as the speaker; now in his third year he is the chairman and leads more than 500 students in the association.

The Baganda Nkobaza Mbogo Student Association is a national association aimed at preserving the culture of the Baganda, a people group living in central Uganda.

It is not an easy thing to balance culture and the teachings of Jesus Christ. And not many people understood how Lawrence could say he was chairman of this association and yet confess Christ as his Lord and Savior.

“I believe that as Christians we should take up all positions. Perhaps if someone who is deeply rooted in the culture was chairman, many evil practices would be encouraged. But I bring change and I can influence fellow students. They see my walk in Christ and I believe I influence them a lot.”

Lawrence is also the chairperson for the Family of Christ Ministry, where he leads 53 students. On top of that, he leads the Leadership Development Program fellowship at his university and is the treasurer of the gents ministry called Men of the Original Image.

He is grateful to all of his sponsors and to his church because, without this support, it would have been hard for him to make it in life. Lawrence is excited at what God is doing and once he is out of university he hopes to start his own businesses in coffee and dairy.

He also aspires to join national politics. His initial target is the seat for Member of Parliament for his home area, Buikwe West, in 2016.

Lawrence is grateful to Compassion and to his church for loving him.

“I have seen Compassion International struggle to see that I reach where I am today. They have given me so much support and so many things. From the time I joined the ministry, I felt like there was an invisible hand holding me up. I was so happy!

I am in the Leadership Development Program and I feel you are really investing in me. You want me to be the best leader, the best future parent, and an honest and compassionate person.

The Leadership Development Program has shaped me well and I am very grateful. Now I feel ready to face the world and contribute to it.”

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

The Wally Show recently returned from our offices in Asia where they witnessed child sponsorship in action.

We met a woman named Ko who was a sponsored child, and she now works for Compassion helping others. This is one time a vicious cycle is a good thing. She still has the picture of her sponsors from 30 years ago on her desk.

I asked her if there was anything her sponsor said or did that really made a difference in her life. She told me the fact that someone who did not know her would show her such love and tell her about Jesus inspired her to live the rest of her life serving God. That is a sentiment which is echoed throughout the lives of most of the Compassion kids.

Read the entire post at The Wally Show.

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

For the past year, I’ve been working for Compassion Canada as a marketing writer. (Did you know that Compassion International truly is international? Our sponsors come from the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and South Korea, and God is growing our pool of worldwide sponsors every day!)

Compassion Canada Staff

At first, I wondered what cultural differences I might encounter writing for another country. To prepare for my new role, I watched Canadian Bacon and many reruns of SCTV. So far, the biggest differences are that Canadians walk kilometres to get to their neighbours colourful homes in 0 degree Celsius weather, while Americans walk miles to get to neighbors colorful homes in 0 degree Fahrenheit weather.

But when it comes to sponsorship, I found a couple of ways in which we are different, and several ways that we are the same.

How We’re Different

1. One of the most obvious ways Compassion Canada is different from Compassion USA is size. Although by area Canada is the second largest country in the world, by population Canada is about a tenth the size of the U.S. Accordingly, Compassion Canada employs about 85 people, making it a lean, mean, sponsoring machine.
2. Despite the fact that Canada’s small, we do have some cool services. For example, did you know that as a Canadian sponsor, you can send your sponsored child a paper play set as a gift? You do now! We don’t have the same paper templates the U.S. offers, but you can write your child online and choose to send one photo, 12 different cards (and, yes, one is hockey themed), 3 paper play sets and 6 posters.
3. Because Compassion International’s headquarters are in Colorado Springs, many staff members have an amazing view of the mountains. Because Compassion Canada is based in London, Ontario, they have a lovely view of an industrial park. The marketing team is inspired to creativity each day as they watch feet walk by in the parking lot from their garden view windows.
4. Even though Canada is far more post-Christian than the U.S., we really work to emphasize how the ministry in the field is Christ centred. (Notice I didn’t say centered.) Canada even has a website dedicated to educating sponsors and donors about how Jesus is the true difference in these children’s lives, called The Difference Is Jesus.
5. Although many workers ride their bikes to our headquarters in Colorado, in Canada, they ride moose to work.

Compassion USA Staff

How We’re the Same

1. We are all guided by the same values and principles, and we are supporting the same ministry in the field.
2. We all love (to mock) Justin Bieber. When I was visiting the Canada office, I met a young woman whose family used to babysit the Biebs. Pretty exciting stuff. (And although the Canadians like to claim that they don’t love him as much as they do, in a staff meeting I was in, one of the announcements was that it was Justin Bieber’s birthday. You be the judge.)

If you want to find out more about some of Compassion International’s partners around the world, check them out here.

You can read the UK and Ireland’s blog!

Spreekt u Nederlands? Read the Dutch blog here. Or if you live down under, check out the Australia blog.

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

When we choose to sponsor a child, most of us closely examine the photos of the available children. The children stand very straight in their pictures, as if they are in the military service.  And many have serious looks on their faces.

The children are generally dressed well, but for some reason they don’t all smile for the camera. Does this mean they are unhappy?

I had the privilege of being at several child development centers in Bolivia as they took the child sponsorship photos. Once I witnessed it, it all made a lot more sense.

It also showed me that I, at many times in the past, had read way too much into the child photos — things that weren’t really there.

It was easy to assume that because a child didn’t smile in the photo, it was because of the child’s difficult and sad life.

I’ve subsequently received photos of my sponsored children posing with gifts I had sent and they had big smiles on their faces. So it was easy to assume that my gift had broken through their “sad life” and that, finally, the children were happy.

So I thought I would share what it was really like when it came to taking child photos.

Every child development center has a staff member who handles the letters, takes the photos, and accompanies any sponsor visits.

Basically, they deal with everything relating to the relationship between the sponsor and the sponsor’s child.

In Bolivia they call these staff the “sponsorship responsible.” In Peru they call them “secretary” and in El Salvador “sponsorship coordinator.” Whatever the title, they are all the same position. These staff take the photos and send them to the country office.

In the country office, someone receives the photos and makes sure that they are in accordance to Compassion’s standards. For example, the child’s eyes must be open and the child’s hands and ears must be visible, in addition to other requirements.

The person in charge of taking child photos at each child development center has a challenging task. Imagine accompanying 30 children to a location and making sure they behave, don’t get into accidents or squabbles as they await their turns, and pose willingly for their photos.

The child photo should not have inappropriate things in the background. For instance, a street dog can’t be in the background (and they are all over the place). A placard displaying the child’s Compassion number is placed on the ground in front of the child. This way the staff member is able to organize the photos easily.

The video below is of Delicia. She is the “sponsorship responsible” for Bolivia’s Pucara Grande Student Center.

At this photography session, she had to photograph about a dozen children. In the video, Delicia is photographing a little boy named José, and José was quite the character. He did not have the patience to stand still while Delicia took his picture.

Delicia is one of the most patient women I’ve ever met. She dearly loves these children!

Watch the video and see how she patiently handles José. Notice how José’s mother gets involved to make sure her son stands up straight. Then notice how this serious little boy does a little dance at the end of the session!

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

The other day as I checked Facebook in the early morning, I read this article and was aghast. I shot it off to my team in indignation. My boss quickly wrote back, “Isn’t this a joke site?”

How embarrassing.

But this article is funny because it’s true.

Like the woman who wants to trade her tired out, boring Roberto for a cuter, more exotic Thai girl, how many of us have somewhat self-serving attitudes when it comes to sponsorship?

I have to admit that when my husband and I chose our first sponsored child, we picked a child from India because:

(a) my husband likes Ravi Zacharias
(b) Indians are so good looking

Hey, you gotta choose somehow!

I have a co-worker (who shall remain unnamed) who says that the first time he sponsored a child, he picked up the child pack, read the bio and said,

“He’s perfect! Do you have him in blonde?”

He was quoting “The Simpsons,” but still.

Research on why people give to charitable causes is never very flattering to the donors. According to the study this article cites, when we give, we’re often not motivated by philanthropy or logic, but by our feelings. Namely, our desire to feel good about ourselves.

I’d like to think that over the years, I’ve evolved as a sponsor, that my giving has gone from self-focused to others-focused. But I still have to watch my motivations.

This year when giving Christmas gifts through a charitable catalog, I had to seriously ask myself what’s the purpose of sending the emails that say “Amber has given a gift in your name”— to pet my own ego or to raise awareness of the needs out there? A part of me knew it was a little of both.

One big problem with being motivated by our own feelings when helping others is the long-term effect it has on our giving. Like the woman who wanted to trade in her sponsored child, when we’re motivated by our own needs and feelings, we won’t be committed in the long-term.

We will be more concerned with what we want than what the child needs. We will become more focused on what we’re getting out of our sponsorship experience than on how it is helping the child.

How do you deal with this in your own life?

We are all human and can fall prey to our less-than-noble motivations so quickly and easily. How do you ensure that your giving and sponsorship are in response to the Holy Spirit’s nudging and not your own ego?

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

Picture something with me. In your mind’s eye, in front of you is a house on fire and a person shouting from the top floor of the house that he’s trapped and can’t get out.

Scary and intense, yes? Stay with me.

Now to your right you see a firefighter with all of his gear, ready to run into the inferno. He has extensive training, and this is the moment he was made for. The person in danger knows the firefighter can see him and hear him, and he continues to shout for help.

Then the firefighter does something unexpected. He stands outside the door of the house and yells.

“Come on out here where there is no fire! I can see you. Just try your best! I’m not sure I want to go in there. It looks dangerous, and I don’t know how it will turn out in the end. What if you don’t appreciate it? What if I get hurt?”

Despite all his knowledge, training and skills, the firefighter has questions that need answers before he will consider helping the person in danger. Stunning!

I have never known a firefighter who would not run into the building. They are willing to risk all they have to save the lives of people in danger who can’t save themselves.

Does that sound like the Father God we know?

As a singer/songwriter/worship leader who has had the honor of serving as an artist with Compassion for the past 14 years, my attitude and desire to help children in need has become more passionate than I ever thought it would be.

When I began writing for my CD RESCUE, I became challenged and moved by the word itself.

Rescue by definition means “to free or deliver from confinement, violence, danger or evil.”

The obvious part for a believer is that’s what God did for us in Jesus Christ. He knew He couldn’t just say, “Come on over here where there is no sin. Try your best!” He knew the answer was to send His son Jesus into our world, our burning building, and rescue us from the “danger, violence and evil” of our sin.

Praise be to our Abba Father God for this!

Sponsoring a child in Jesus’ name is more than just a good deed and nice thing. These children are in burning buildings called poverty.

They truly cannot get themselves out of the danger. They are children. Yes, just children who are crying out for rescue to anyone who can hear, because they can’t do it alone.

I wrote the song “Come To The Rescue” with my friends Bob Stromberg and Paul Marino. I honestly found myself with a heart pain that was saying “enough is enough” when I brought the idea to Bob and Paul. Helping a child in poverty, who may be hurting, orphaned, or even abused isn’t merely a thing to be considered or thought about.

Poverty is the fire and we are the firefighters.

God has given us the Kingdom, and when we run into the burning house, we bring a hope and love like no other, because of Jesus Christ in us, through us and with us. We need not be afraid because the Holy Spirit is not afraid.

Please come to the rescue, my friends. Help others see the “firefighter” God has called each of us to be!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peder Eide is a traveling singer/songwriter, worship leader, speaker, husband, and daddy to five. He’s partnered with Compassion for 15 years.

Proceeds from any sale of Peder’s new CD RESCUE made from his website are being donated to our Highly Vulnerable Children Fund. Purchase a copy of RESCUE now.

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

A question typically asked by sponsors who are miles apart from their sponsored children is,

“What happens to sponsored children after they leave the program?”

Many sponsors have not personally seen or visited their sponsored children, and because of this may doubt if our program works at all.

Jonathan, a former sponsored child who is now taking care of more than 200 sponsored children as a child development center director, says,

“I have asked myself this same question.”

Our center directors are perhaps the best people to tell sponsors about the effectiveness of Compassion’s ministry. They are at the forefront of our partnership with the local church, and our center directors mingle with the children every day.

Center directors talk with doctors and dentists about the children’s health, check with school teachers to know how the children are doing in class, and meet with church leaders to be held accountable for the children’s spiritual growth.

When Jonathan tells sponsors how effective child sponsorship is, he presents his own life as an example.

“I grew up inside the church, literally.”

Jonathan is the son of a pastor and he knows what it’s like to have nothing. He also was not the nicest little kid.

“My hobby as a young boy was to bite other children. I made so many of my neighbors cry when we were little, and gave my cousins and grandmother a difficult time. Nobody would have thought that I would be in ministry today, and I owe the change in my life to my being a sponsored child.”

Although he grew up in Sunday school, Jonathan says he met the Lord when he was a teenager.

“It was at a Compassion youth camp that I attended. This is why I really am thankful for being a sponsored child, because if not, I may not have been saved.

“It’s difficult having grown up in the church because you can’t really say exactly when you have come to faith at all.”

Now 29 years old, Jonathan has been the center director at the Malabon Child Development Center for 8 years. He has seen sponsored children come and go.

“I am particularly blessed with [the] graduates because I can see that they continue to serve the Lord after having left the program.”

Among these graduates is Eliza, now 27 years old.

While growing up in the student center, Eliza says, she loved attending camps, going on educational field trips and eating.

At the age of 14, Eliza volunteered as an assistant teacher and began teaching younger sponsored children.

In college, Eliza became a student leader at Navotas Polytechnic College and was youth leader at church. She is grateful because the Complementary Interventions program paid half of her tuition fees.

Her parents, who raised seven children, could not have sent her to college. Her mother worked in a factory cleaning cans while her father was a driver for the same factory. In 2002, Eliza’s father died from too much alcohol.

Eliza graduated with a degree in education and was on the road to becoming a high school teacher. Today, however, she is a call center agent for one of the leading call center companies in the Philippines, and she is still serving the Lord as a Bible study leader.

Judy, Jonathan’s cousin, is a teller service assistant for the Bank of the Philippine Islands. She learned how to play the guitar at the child development center and she now plays guitar and keyboards at church.

Jonathan remembers another former sponsored child, Bezalyn, who grew up in very difficult circumstances. Jonathan describes her as someone who was sent to college by plastic water bottles.

Bezalyn’s mother worked at the city’s cockfighting arena and gathered discarded mineral water bottles after each event.

Today, Bezalyn is a nurse and has worked at the South Star Drugstore as assistant pharmacy assistant and cashier. She is now awaiting the results of her licensure exam for nurses. She was also the volunteer nurse at the center for a few years.

Bezalyn is thankful for her sponsor.

“I have grown in spirit. The main goal of the center is to bring children closer to God. I also grew physically because I learned about hygiene, self care and healthy habits.”

Jonathan’s eyes were beaming as he talked about Bezalyn, Judy  and Eliza and how he has seen them grow in the Lord.

But about 23-year-old Mark (not his real name), the center director is mum.

Mark has to keep his identity a secret because he is on a special assignment for the country’s national defense.

But Mark decided to be interviewed because he could not keep from expressing his gratitude for Compassion’s ministry:

“I would like to thank my sponsors for their help. I was used to a hard life, which is why I really appreciate their help.

“I grew up in a broken family and my sponsors became my family. The center is my family. I am also thankful that I have graduated from college and I now have a good job.”

Mark used his first salary to buy his mother an automatic sewing machine worth P8,000 (US $182) because his mother always loved to sew but never owned a machine.

Mark attends a different church now, but he still visits Jonathan and his former student center.

Jonathan is thankful for his experience with the program and for the opportunity to now serve as center director.

“I can now see the fruit of producing Christian adults. It’s difficult to measure fame, wealth and power, but to me, genuine success is how you accomplish God’s plan in your life. I may not have a high-paying job, but you see children being released from poverty and to me that is very fulfilling.”

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

As early as 5 a.m., Martin Antwi is already working on his vegetable farm. He works until the harsh mid-day sun does not allow him to work any longer.

Later in the afternoon, Martin returns to his land to weed, plow and water all the plants until dusk. He works hard on his farm and is rewarded with a good harvest.

But despite his hard work and a good harvest, Martin had been unable to provide adequately for his family. With nearly every harvest he would lose all of his profit to the market money lenders from whom he buys his seeds and equipment.

Because vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, and lettuce mature within approximately two months, poor farmers make arrangements with market women who buy and sell the crops. The farmers prepare their land and, at planting time, they go to the market to look for prospective buyers to lend them money to buy seeds and other necessities.

Once the crops are harvested, they are taken to the market woman who lended money to the farmer. She determines how much to pay for it. She retrieves her loan plus interest from the amount she offers to pay the farmer. After all this is done, the farmer is left with virtually no money to take home.

“We work so hard but at the end of the day it is someone who loans you the money who gets everything and we go back home with nothing.”

That has been the cycle of life for this 45-year-old father of four. Martin and his family live in Pokuase, about an hour’s drive south of Accra off the main road.

The 12,000 people who live here are mostly vegetable farmers and keepers of free-range livestock, which accounts for the numerous domestic animals such as goats, chickens and dogs that roam the streets.

The residents are also petty traders who sell in stalls located throughout the community. It is possible to find almost anything one might need in these stalls. Some of the people have recently taken to cracking stones to earn a living.

Martin could not provide properly for his family. Three of his children were not in school. Even the oldest child who was enrolled in school was out of class most of the time because Martin was unable to pay the fees.

But two of Martin’s four children, Emmanuel and Sandra, are registered at the Compassion-assisted Church of Pentecost Child Development Center. It is very important for every child in the program to also attend school, so Emmanuel and Sandra were enrolled in school at the same time.

Emmanuel is a very serious 13-year-old who rarely smiles. He and his younger sister, Sandra, are in grade two at school — a situation he does not like.

“Because Sandra is in the same class with me she does not respect me as her older brother. She talks to me as if I am her age mate but I am 4 years older than her. Sometimes I want to hit her but my parents would not like it so I don’t. But I get angry.”

But Emmanuel enjoys and appreciates the child development center, where he and Sandra receive nutritrious supplemental food, medical checkups, tutoring and social nurture, school books and school fees, and Bible teaching. And there, Emmanual was also placed in the Highly Vulnerable Children’s program.

The center’s health social worker tells us,

“When we registered Sandra and Emmanuel, they were very sickly looking. We knew that they needed special care. So when the Highly Vulnerable Children program was introduced they were the first two names on the list.

“But the two of them could not benefit because the number was restricted to only six children. Emmanuel was chosen over Sandra because his condition was worse.”

Compassion’s Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC) program provides services or assistance for children in especially critical situations — conditions which may threaten their lives or prevent them from growing and developing in the way God wants them to.

HVC provided Emmanuel with nutritional supplements and nutritional food items such as beans, eggs and milk. The program also offered income-generation training for Emmanuel’s father, Martin, to help him provide for his family’s other needs. Once Martin received the training, HVC gave him a small-business grant of GHc100.00 (equivalent to about $61) which he invested into his vegetable farming.

Now Martin no longer needs the market women money lenders; he is able to keep his profit and better provide for his family.

Martin shares,

“I am now enjoying my work. Since the ministry gave us that hundred Ghana cedis, which was a far bigger amount than I was getting from the money lenders, I have control over how much I want to sell my farm produce for.”

No longer do Martin’s children need to be pulled from school for lack of fee money. With the help of Compassion’s child development and HVC programs, Martin’s four children are all now attending school.

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

Growing up, my husband and I were never exactly the first ones picked to be on the kickball team. We weren’t second or third either.

We’d languish in the line of kids with knobbly knees as it grew sparser and sparser and our humiliation grew deeper and deeper. We always knew we would be one of the leftover kids — it was a given — kicking at the dirt, pretending not to notice while the cool kids tried to decide between which of the less athletically endowed kids would mess up their game the least.

But you just hoped you wouldn’t have to bare the infamy of being the last one standing in that line alone. Often my husband, shortest kid in his grade that he was, was the very last picked.

As much as I hated that kickball line, I know that God used it to shape us into whom He wanted us to be. For both my husband and me, being the last picked made us compassionate for the underdog and empathetic toward those who don’t seem to get all the breaks.

On a recent sponsor trip to El Salvador, Jocelyn Erhardt, a sponsor with Compassion Cananda, shared another story of how God used the last one picked to show His mercy.

Rabbi is our sponsored child who is registered into Compassion’s program in El Salvador. Previously, Rabbi and the other kids who were registered with him had waited eagerly to find out who their sponsors would be.

Each child who got a sponsor would be so excited and proudly show their pictures and letters to the other kids. Rabbi kept waiting for that to be him. And he kept waiting and waiting as the line of kids who needed to be sponsored dwindled.

Rabbi asked his mom over and over, “Why isn’t anyone sponsoring me?”

Like many other kids before him, perhaps he wondered if there was something wrong with him since no one seemed to want him.

But his mom, Blanco, had faith and continually assured Rabbi, “God has someone extra special to sponsor you, and we need to wait for God’s perfect timing.”

In the meantime, Blanco privately prayed for her little son, that he would get a sponsor and that his sponsor would be a pastor.

After all that waiting, Rabbi was the very last child picked, the last one waiting in that line wondering why no one would pick him.

But although Rabbi was the last picked, his sponsor made the choice to come and visit him — the only child in his center who had ever had his sponsor come to visit! And, guess what?

His sponsor – my husband, Jason – is a pastor of 20 years, just as Rabbi’s mom had prayed for.

On our visit to El Salvador, Blanco poured out through tears how God had used our sponsorship to teach her and Rabbi about His profound faithfulness and how much He cares for them — a profound lesson to learn as a boy growing up amid poverty.

Just another way that God, even through the little adversities of life, continues to show His mercies that are new every morning to us and through us.

Now is your time to sponsor a child who has been waiting for a sponsor for six months or longer.

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