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I’ve been so focused on the preparations for the 2009 Compassion Sunday campaign that I had NEXT YEAR’S goal in my head when I was reading a recent child sponsorship progress report. It dawned on me just this week that we actually SURPASSED the 2008 Goal of impacting the lives of 22,000 children through Compassion Sunday activities in calendar year 2008.

We are 3,000 sponsorships ahead of where we were at this point in the 2007 campaign! I know that this has been a monumental effort on your part. Your prayers have been heard and answered, and your faithfulness, as sponsors, continues to change lives around the world as well as right here at Compassion! You inspire us! It is such a privilege to serve you!

I firmly believe that the 2009 Compassion Sunday campaign holds great hope for substantial growth in order to confront the challenges of our current global economic climate. I look forward to coming together with you in 2009, to make a greater impact for children in poverty than we have ever done before.

With gratitude and continuing hope,

Greg Birgy
National Advocates Network Director

Be forewarned. What follows is pure rah-rah. It showed up in employee inboxes … from MARKETING. It’s just a small glimpse into the response Compassion Sunday 2008 has received so far.

We’re at over 9,700 children sponsored. Our goal is 22,000. It’s not too late to host your own event.

“Austin Bluffs Evangelical Free Church had a successful Compassion Sunday response. We had seven sponsorship commitments! That is a huge number for our church, which traditionally has two to three sponsorships on Compassion Sunday …. We had at least one current sponsor/family that wanted to sponsor another child. Others took brochures and information as they consider the opportunity to sponsor a child.”

- Pepe Alicea, Compassion Advocate and Lay Elder at Austin Bluffs Evangelical Free Church

“Richard Douglas of Christ Community Church in South Carolina called and requested 50 more child packets. He had 50, and people were running up to the table to sponsor the kids. He said the packets were gone in three minutes, and he had a list of people waiting for more! Once the extra packets arrived, another 29 children were sponsored”
- Valeen Tschamler,Advocates Network & Marketing Assistant

“Hilltop Assembly of God has 147 members, and I guessed the audience size was about 180-190 including children. They began the worship with the children bringing flags of all the 17 countries where their congregation has sponsored children (they sponsor 60 of them) and setting them in front of the church on displays they had made. Then the children sang their own worship chorus in Spanish

One girl, Emery (11 years old) was brought forward to tell how God had laid it on her heart to make jewelry and sell it at a consignment shop to give to Compassion, and then I was presented with a $20,000 check by the 11 new Advocates in their church to fund a Child Survival Program (CSP) in Ethiopia.

At the end of the service the children came in with balloons that had the names of all the sponsored children on them and the whole congregation went outside and had a “releasing children from poverty” ceremony! (Yes, they were biodegradable balloons).

After the service all of the chairs were moved from the sanctuary and we enjoyed an international buffet!

Oh yeah … another 24 children were sponsored, and they now have 12 advocates! The little church now sponsors over 80 children and a CSP paid in full!

They’re already planning fund-raising events for next year and have over $13,000 raised so far. Did I mention that they began all of this last December 2007? With God all things are possible!”

- Mark Pellingra, Relationships Manager Northeast Region

“Get this — I just got off the phone with brand-new advocate Beth Hathcock in the Dallas area. I guess during her interview she mentioned wanting to do Compassion Sunday at her church (small — about 70 people) and Mark Pellingra said that she would get a box of materials. He intended for her to fill out the materials order form, but she got her initial training kit with the one child packet and thought that is what we sent for a church of 70. So she used her one child packet, showed a couple video clips off the DVD she had gotten, got her one child sponsored and used a sign up sheet for the 10 other people who wanted to sponsor. Not bad for someone brand new, self-proclaimed as “not a public speaker” and no materials.”
- Doug West, Southeast Regional Advocates Manager

“Thanks for sending 10 more packets. I had one lady who kept looking at them for a long time, then scooped up five to sponsor. I was flabbergasted….”
- Mike Jennings, sponsor

Will you help us say thank you to Tammy Chalfant, who organized the first ever Compassion Sunday event at Farmland Friends Church (FFC)?

Please tell Tammy and her pastor, Kris Sorensen, how much you appreciate their work.

And Shaun Groves too. He spoke at the event, and he’s a TIRELESS advocate for children in poverty.

Then, take a hop over to SearchKindly.org and help us win $1,000!

SearchKindly is a non-profit organization that donates 100% of its ad revenue to charity. This month Compassion is competing against four other charities for the donation. And right now, we’re in SECOND place with $500 on the table. But the amount goes up every time someone visits the website.

Please visit, and please vote. The contest ends “sometime” on Sunday, April 27.

• Help us win!
• Vote every 8 hours.
• And help us set a record for how much SearchKindly donates.

“The Lord used Compassion in our church when we began to look beyond ourselves and to see how we could be less of a ‘holy huddle’ and more of a Jesus impact on the world around us. We challenged ourselves to see if we could become more involved internationally with being just a small part of the solution to world poverty. Compassion came to our aid and showed us the way to be Jesus to the developing world. As a result of this service, we were able to reach beyond ourselves and build actual relationships with children living in poverty through Compassion. Forty-six families in our church have become involved sponsoring children and have been so blessed because of the interactive nature of this ministry — they love to hear from the children and love investing money and time in a relationship.”

- Don Taylor, Pastor – Ni River Community Church, Spotsylvania, Virginia