“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
-Isaac Newton

Over the small number of years I have been around, I have come to realize that it’s quite rare for people to have a positive impact on someone’s life, but when they do the impact is immeasurable. More so if that impact is also Godly influenced.

This is what can be said of my sponsors, a married couple, who decided to take a chance on me.

Their decision made it possible for me to know what it feels like to wear your first pair of shoes, to hold your first pencil, to enjoy three meals a day–something unheard of in the slums–a chance to have medical care and not die from malaria like many of the children in the slum do, a chance to go to school and not be part of a gang or a victim of HIV/AIDS, and the greatest gift of all: a chance to hear the word of God, which gave me the chance to have a personal relationship with Christ.

Wikipedia defines a sponsor as a contributor, a financial provider, which in a way is true because of the amount of money the sponsor contributes monthly. But to me the sponsor is more than that; he or she is a bridge between hunger and strength, between thirst and renewal, between fear and knowledge, between desperation and hope.

Through the letters shared between the sponsor and the child, hope is not only stirred, but relationships are built, wounds healed and love blossoms. These and so many other things start a chain reaction not only in the child’s life but also in the lives of those around him or her, and impact is felt to generations. The bonds created can never be broken, and in doing so the world is changed by changing the life of one child at a time. We can learn a lot from the sponsor:

1. It’s in taking a chance, or should I say a risk, on someone that the real change begins, and we allow God not only to change that person but also to change other people’s lives.
2. It’s good to be vulnerable. It’s important to let other people into our lives and into our hearts. It’s important to love.
3. God is not looking at what we don’t have–He is looking at what is in our hands, little or big, and when we surrender it to Him, He uses it to “feed 5,000 people.”

It’s no wonder that I, too, decided to become a sponsor. How ironic that a child who was once sponsored is now sponsoring you might say, but I am a product of just that. I wanted to give that chance to someone else in the same way because my sponsor gave me that chance.

Its no wonder that each night I ask God to send more sponsors into this world, more sponsors like you and me. And if you are not one, then this is your chance to become one. God bless the sponsor.

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“What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?”
-Psalm 8:4, NIV

A few years ago I learned something shocking yet humbling. I learned that I ought not to have joined the Compassion Child Sponsorship Program; that I was the last choice in a process involving 60 other children my age and my name was not even originally on the list.

I learned that it was actually my cousin, who is also called Anthony Njoroge, who ought to have been enrolled in to the program. The only thing that stood in his way was his age; he was seven years old instead of the preferred age of six years old. When my aunt was asked to recommend someone else to take her son’s place she remembered me, and that’s how I came to be enrolled in Compassion.

Now I look back at this and see so many lessons that as a Christian I need to remember but most of the time keep forgetting as I journey through life:

Lesson 1
That love and sacrifice conquers all. Just like God giving his son to die on the cross instead of me, my aunt chose to have her son exempted from the program so that I could enjoy the benefits of the program even with the full knowledge that she, too, was in need, if not more.

Lesson 2
That God indeed thinks of me and He has a plan for me regardless of how far behind I might be in life or how many odds are against me. Surely His plan and purpose for my life will be fulfilled as long as I keep my mind stayed on Him.

Lesson 3
That indeed all things work for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose, and there is nothing that takes place in my life that catches Him by surprise.

I can’t justify or explain any of these circumstances or factors that led to me joining Compassion, but one thing I know is this: it was the best thing that happened in my life.

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The title of this post scares me. I love all of God’s children, but the thought of a room full of teenagers makes me a little nervous. The exception will be this Wednesday night when I travel deep in the heart of Texas for the start of the Hawk Nelson “Green T” Tour. Compassion has partnered with artists for 30 years and in that time almost 200,000 sponsors have been found in the seats of concert venues all over the United States.

My job with Compassion is to build relationships with artists and partner with them when they are out on the road. I love the fact that on my Compassion roster is one of the legends of Christian music and young bands like Hawk Nelson. The common thread between the two is the calling to be an advocate for children throughout the world and a belief that we are called to partner together to release these children from poverty.

One of the great joys of my job is traveling to different parts of the world with these artists so they can see “first hand” the ministry of Compassion. 

In January, I took Daniel from Hawk Nelson to Haiti where he met his Compassion sponsor child, Franchioux. Daniel immediately connected with the boy he only knew through letters and pictures and outfitted him with a “Hawk Nelson is My Friend” t shirt written in Hatian Creole for the occasion. 

This trip encouraged and inspired Daniel to stand up in 36 different cities for the next two months in front of 2,000 screaming teenagers, parents, and youth leaders and tell them about this 8-year-old boy in Haiti that hears about Jesus every week, is doing well in school, has the right nutrition and medical care, and believes that one day he can be an engineer so he can build better roads in his community. Daniel will stand up each night and invite those 2,000 screaming teenagers to take a stand and join him in the fight against poverty. 

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Hello and welcome to Compassion’s blog! As a tent evangelist, the Rev. Everett Swanson was a grass-roots man with a grass-roots ministry. So it was no surprise he started a Christian charity when a pastor handed him a $50 check. Rev. Swanson used that small seed to help create a global ministry to fight child poverty.

Since that time more than 55 years ago, Compassion has remained a ministry of the people. Our sponsors, donors and supporters are family. And while we’re now an international Christian ministry serving nearly 1 million children, we cling to that homey, under-the-tent feeling from the old days spent evangelizing others to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. That’s why we created Compassion’s blog. We didn’t create a blog because it was the cool thing to do, or because someone else did. We created it as a way to keep Compassion’s ministry partners, like you, connected — with us and each other.

So what’s the deal with Compassion’s blog? In this blog you’ll get an inside view of Compassion’s ministry. You’ll hear from:

• people who work here,
• Compassion Child Sponsorship graduates,
• Leadership Development Program students and graduates,
• church staff who work with our children around the globe,
• and many others.

These posts will give you a behind-the-scenes view of Compassion at work and at play and, of course, exclusive looks at our child development ministry around the world. And don’t be afraid to talk to our bloggers. This is our first blog, so we ask for your patience. Our bloggers are committed to interacting with you, and we appreciate your grace in advance as we endeavor to answer your comments, questions and inquiries. Remember, our bloggers would love to engage with you. So speak up! We want to hear from you. Share your comments, thoughts or general musings with us. Tell us what you like about our ministry, how you evangelize others, what we’re doing wrong, and how we can be better. And if you just want to give us a shout out, that’s cool too.

As blogs go there’s no right or wrong. Well, not quite. The usual inappropriate behavior won’t be tolerated. No clue what that means? Well, if you can’t say it in church you can’t post it here!

Our blog will be moderated. But we pledge to allow open and honest feedback here. After all, this blog is a two-way radio — from us to you and from you to us. Oh, and if you just want general information about Compassion or to make a charitable donation, try compassion.com or our Sponsor and Donor Relations Department. You can:

• Contact them online,
• by e-mail,
• or call (800) 336-7676, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT.

Thanks for supporting Compassion’s ministry to children in need. And let us know if you like the blog. Good or bad. Remember, we’re family. We can take it.

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