Your curiosity about out country staff is exciting, and again we have 10 questions that will inform and inspire you to help fight for children in poverty.

We asked Roberto Medrano of Compassion El Salvador, to answer some of your questions.

1. I just found out that one of my sponsored children has been sponsored four times in the past six years. I was wondering what type of effect this has on children. Do they get to the point where they are not even excited to be sponsored anymore? Is this a common occurrence? (Cindy)

To be completely honest, yes. Some of the children have received the sad news several times that their sponsors canceled. If that has happened several times, the children think something is wrong with them.

It is amazing the influence a sponsor can have on the child. For example, I remember a 25-year-old Compassion graduate. She is a Christian who is married and has two babies. She also serves as a center worker. Even though she is an adult and loves Compassion’s ministry, she always cries because in the 15 years of sponsorship her sponsor did not write one single letter. She wrote her sponsor dozens of letters, but she never received any response.

2. What are the great things about El Salvador that you want us to know about? Tell us about a particular strength or something special about the people of your country. (Lisa Miles)

El Salvador is the smallest country in the Americas, but our people have a great heart. In Central America they call us the smiling country, and I think that is a special thing about our people. We have faced earthquakes, hurricanes, civil war, and poverty, but in any problem if you ask a Salvadoran, “How are you doing?” he or she will say with an honest and warm smile, “It’s all good!” Our people are very positive and enthusiastic, and they have warrior hearts that can overcome any disaster or negative situation.

(more…)

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me …
Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
—Shel Silverstein

The following are actual warning labels on products for children:

• Not intended for highway driving. — On a tricycle
• Do not use as ear plugs. — On a package of silly putty
• Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly. — On a child-sized Superman costume

Clearly, the average manufacturer does not underestimate the ability of a child to think and act outside the box — or a child’s belief that all things are possible.

It is this belief — the willingness of children to open their hearts and minds to all of the possibilities that God has put before them — that continually draws me toward ministry to young people. This combination of joie de vivre and simple faith is what I hope to celebrate and encourage everyday of my life here on Earth.

Did you know that the average child smiles 400 times a day? The average adult only 15. What is it that we lose on our way to adulthood? In our efforts to achieve success, to be taken seriously, to be “mature” — what is it that we give up along the way?

Try this experiment: (more…)

One of the great Bible stories we love to talk about at Compassion is when Jesus brought a child into the midst of a conversation He was having with the disciples (Matthew 18). Jesus pretty much stopped a very serious discussion and turned His focus to a child. And, in doing so, He brought that child to the attention of the entire crowd.

I wonder, what impact it would have had if a child had been “in the midst” of different events in history?

What if a child had been in the room during the penning of the Declaration of Independence?

Do you think our founding fathers would have addressed the importance of children by adding a line stating they were seeking independence “for the future of our children?”

Look at John Trumbull’s famous painting of the signing of the Declaration:

Now imagine how that image changes if a child is added to the scene.

How many wars would never have started if a child had been in the war planning room.

Imagine a child asking, “But why? Why do you want to hurt those mommies and daddies?” … or better yet, “Are you going to hurt the children too?”

(Over the past ten years, more children have died as the result of warsthan soldiers.)

What other moments in history might have changed, if a child had been “in the midst?”

Compassion International Tanzania (CIT) registered* its 50,000 child two months ago on Februray 16.

This historic registration ushered in a new era for us. It was a moment to put down our tools, celebrate the Lord’s favor, and thank Him for what he has done and for His faithfulness. It was a milestone for the Tanzanian ministry, an achievement worth celebrating.

Now let’s see how we reached the 50,000 child mark and also learn about how our child registration process works.

The milestone occurred in Tabora, more than 650 kilometers from Arusha, where the head office of CIT is located. But the search actually began months earlier.

Finding Church Partners

Before going into a new area, CIT conducts country mapping to determine the level of poverty in one area as compared to another. Country mapping is necessary so we can determine where the greatest ministry need is.

After country mapping, we conduct a baseline survey to determine if the areas identified with a high degree of poverty have Christian churches whose mission matches ours.

This is critical because we work through the local church — it is the local church that actually implements the program and cares for the children. If there is no church, our ministry model won’t work, regardless of the degree of poverty that exists there.

We ask questions, such as:

• Does the church have classrooms to accommodate the children?
• Do they have people who can teach and work with children or who can learn to assist children?
• Are there peopleand children who can help the program continue?

This baseline survey helps us decide which areas and churches are a good fit. Of course, in all the stages we keep praying and asking God to lead us in the right path and to bring people who will be willing to sponsor children and release the resources needed.

After the baseline survey, we gather all the potential church partners for vision casting. In this gathering we share the importance of ministry to children and call on the church to awaken to the call of Jesus Christ to fulfill the Greatest Commandment.

After this, we choose the potential church partners and invite them to a partnership meeting. At this one-day meeting, it is time to pray together and for us to give relevant partnership documents to the new church partners.

If the partners agree on the conditions, they sign a partnership agreement with us. These partnership agreements give room to church partners to start preparing environments to begin the ministry. They start recruiting project workers and create a child ministry committee formed from church members.

The church has to find those able and qualified to work in the project as project coordinator, project accountant, project social worker, and project health worker.

Once all the project workers are chosen, they attend the “One-Month Child Ministry Foundation Course” that all project workers go through.

In this course, the newly recruited project workers are trained on how to implement the ministry and how to minister to each child individually.

They also learn what is expected of them and different ways and procedures of reporting and giving feedback to us. They get to know the organizational structure of CIT, the departments involved, and how each department works.

Screening and Registration

All this leads up to child screening and registration. (more…)

Meet Jeffry. He lives in Nicaragua . . . uh, wait a minute. We’ve explained that already.

From left to right: Mark Hanlon, Compassion’s senior vice president of sponsor and donor development, Jeffry and Jeffry’s grandparents

Meet Jeffry. He lives in Nicaragua. He is our one millionth registered child.

A registered child is different than a sponsored child in that the registered child doesn’t have a sponsor . . . yet. Once the registered child gets a sponsor, that child is a sponsored child. Makes sense, right?

The registered children are the ones whose pictures you see on the page at compassion.com and in the child packets at concerts and other events, such as Compassion Sunday.

The registered children are the children who are waiting to be chosen by a sponsor and who the Unsponsored Children’s Fund assists until that sponsor comes along.

The Unsponsored Children’s Fund bridges the gap between registration and sponsorship. It allows the registered child to have all the same benefits as the sponsored child.

We don’t have one million children waiting for sponsors. Jeffry is the one millionth child concurrently registered. More than 850,000 of those children already have sponsors. And since Compassion began in 1952, nearly two million children have been part of our programs.

That’s a little context for this post that Mark Hanlon, Compassion’s senior vice president of sponsor and donor development, submitted from Nicaragua yesterday.

It was like so many other Compassion child home visits I’d done before (and in my 28 years at Compassion, I’ve done a few!), but this one seemed to hold a bit of extra anticipation and excitement for me.

I happened to be in Nicaragua two weeks after we had registered our millionth child for the very first time. It turns out that this millionth child is a little 3-year-old boy in Nicaragua.

The office staff there was so excited, and they set up a home visit for me to meet little Jeffry.

It was kind of strange because Jeffry had no idea what a historic milestone he is in the history of Compassion.

In fact, when I got there with several of the Compassion Nicaragua staff and some of the center staff, he was totally overwhelmed. Too much attention by too many grown-ups all at once – and he did what many normal little 3-year olds do – he covered up his eyes with his hands (a la “see no evil”) and pretended we weren’t there!

When his grandmother (who is his caregiver since his mother now lives in the U.S. and couldn’t take him with her) tried to get him to take his hands away from his face, he ran away crying.

That was OK. We shifted our focus to the grandmother and asked her questions about the impact of having Jeffry registered in the program at the church.

She talked about the hope and a future she had for Jeffry to get through high-school and maybe even go to university.

She expressed concern over his health and the health of her husband who has diabetes.

She talked about the challenges of supporting a household of 17 adults and children in her dirt floor, cinder block structure in the heart of economically challenged Managua.

Her husband (the diabetic) and her three sons work hard as day laborers – when there is work – and they have terrible difficulty in making ends meet. She wanted better for her little grandson, Jeffry.

Then it struck me that this visit indeed was like most other visits I’d done. Parents (and grandparents) worldwide want the same thing for their children – a better future than what they have.

It didn’t matter one bit to Jeffry or his grandmother that he is Compassion’s millionth child. What did matter is that they now have some hope.

And now, I really was excited to be there! Not because I got to meet the millionth child in his home, but because I got to see something that Compassion gets to be a part of with the local church every day. Releasing a motherless child, living in extreme poverty, living with 16 other people, from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Now that’s something to get excited about!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that it’s getting easier to set priorities in my life. Some of the things I used to deem important just don’t mean that much to me anymore. And some things that I never valued are priceless to me now. I guess that’s part of maturing.

20 years ago I didn’t know much about global poverty…and therefore I didn’t care about being part of the solution. It wasn’t a priority to me. Today, having witnessed firsthand the suffering of children in developing countries…having heard their tummies growl…and having seen the lack of hope in their sullen eyes, I do care. It’s a priority to me now.

So when I read an online article in the Denver Post from a college student trying to explain why he would rather spend $1,000 on his dog than $51 to feed a starving child on the other side of the world, I took it personally. It was an attack on one of my priorities, after all.  But then I’m reminded that I was in the same place when I was his age.

We’ve still got a long way to go, don’t we? There’s plenty of work to be done, teaching the world that caring for the poor is not an option–it’s an obligation. It’s a mandate from God himself.  

And one hurdle is convincing our neighbors, family and friends that they don’t have to choose between caring for their loved ones…and caring for those on the other side of the world. Those two are not mutually exclusive. We are called to do both.

So my message to the college student–and for those of you who are also struggling with where to set your priorities: do both. You can give hope to a child in poverty and take care of your dog–or your family–at the same time. You don’t have to choose between the two.  You can make both a priority.  Indeed, we are called to do just that.