Our ministry has the opportunity to grow, to reach more souls — to shape our world. To do this, we need a strategy, which is where Chuck Boudreau comes in.

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Everyone wants to be trusted for their character and their competence. We all know it. But in our relationships with each other, we often say or do things that can easily undermine trust.

Sometimes mistrust is due to miscommunication or misunderstanding. Sometimes it is due to our past experiences. Other times it is due to lack of consideration toward the other person.

And sometimes the very way we conduct our work may affect the culture of trust that we want to promote.

I remember how, as the Haiti Country Director, I used to get so many questions from pastors and church staff regarding our audit and reporting processes. They would often imply that the reason we audited them was because we did not trust them.

I struggled a lot with these remarks, and was never sure how to respond. Have you ever received similar comments? I would love to hear how you answered them.

I’m also aware that, in the developing world, some people question the necessity for performance reviews in the work environment. They wonder whether the reviews are conducted because we do not trust them to accomplish what they say they will do.

So let me ask you these questions:

• Is there room for audits and performance reviews in an environment of trust?
• Is it possible to use these processes to reinforce trust? If so, how?

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Who doesn’t like a good holiday celebration? I know I do.

I often get questions in the contact center regarding different holidays.

• Does my child celebrate such and such a holiday?
• What are some holidays that are special to my child?
• To be sensitive to my child’s culture and customs, are there things I shouldn’t talk about?
• Should I only mention the tradition behind the celebration or can I also talk about the specific festivities?

The U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving is a good example. We are celebrating hospitality, God’s goodness, and how the kindness of strangers helped save a whole community.

It’s a great holiday and time with family, but how do we recognize it? Most of us over-eat, sit around watching football, and battle with strangers for parking spots and places in lines to buy stuff — which is hardly hospitable. And these customs would be difficult for a child in poverty to understand.

What about other holidays? Do you take your children trick-or-treating at Halloween? Do you hide eggs and eat Peeps at Easter?

Do you buy fireworks and light them up on Independence Day? These holidays are part of our culture and the way we celebrate is hard to avoid talking about.

So what do we tell our sponsored kids, Brett?

Be sensitive to their culture and customs.

For example, yoga is predominantly a form of exercise here in the U.S., and many Americans now practice it without any spiritual implications. However, yoga is still very much a Hindu practice in Asia, and thus it would have a negative implication to people who know about yoga’s Hindu roots.

Halloween is a time to take our kids out and get free candy from generous neighbors, but in Latin American countries the spiritual association is prominent. It’s associated with the Day of the Dead and is often celebrated with altars built to dead relatives – something the evangelical Christian community stays away from.

Then should I not tell my sponsored child about holiday celebrations?

Talk about the time you spend with your family. You can share your life with the children you sponsor. Be honest and open, but be sensitive.

You can also rely on our great staff members working in each of our country offices to be sure all communication delivered to the children is culturally acceptable and appropriate.

Finally, if you are unsure if something you are going to send or something you are going to write should be included, ask us.

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Writing letters is something I’m not accustomed to doing. In fact, it is not usual in Nicaragua. At school we study how to write letters but we never practice it. So when some of my friends leave the country, it’s hard for them to send me letters and it takes me a while to write back when I do receive one.

If that is my experience, I can’t imagine how difficult it is for our development center staff, tutors and children to get in the habit of writing letters to the children’s sponsors three times a year, and to make sure they answer according to the last letter received.

Flor, a Compassion sponsor donor services supervisor, explains,

“Nicaraguans are not used to receiving letters and we don’t send any, either. Especially children who live in areas where they only go to elementary school, or their parents didn’t go to school. They don’t know the importance of written communication, and in many cases, not even of verbal communication.”

As the number of registered children has increased, so has the concern over the content of child letters.

“As an office, we train child development center staff and have a follow-up card where translators take note of the sponsor’s questions in the letter. This card is attached to the letter so the development center staff can have control of the questions and answer them in the appropriate time.”

Translators and development center staff are periodically evaluated to check the quality of translation and letter content from children. These practices help improve the quality of the letters.

Débora is a secretary at one child development center and has already helped improve letter writing by passing on the training she received about reviewing the letters that had been received from sponsors. Débora shares,

“Our evaluations were low in sponsors’ questions being answered and in prayer requests, but I passed on the training to the teachers and our evaluations are now 19.9 out of 20.”

Juan, a secretary at another child development center, also shared,

“Once a month I remind tutors about the steps of writing letters. Tutors are also reminded to write the letter in the child’s notebook first, then in the letter format. This process is to help reduce mistakes in the letter.”

Another reason why children don’t always answer questions from your letters may be that the development center staff is new. This is not frequent, but it takes time for a new center worker to learn the process and to make a habit of writing with the children.

In cases like this, development center secretaries play an important role in training their new staff.

And sometimes, but not often, your question may not be culturally appropriate, such as a question about politics. Or your question may not be understood by a child or development center worker. Flor explains,

“Please understand that our culture is different from yours. Don’t get discouraged. Keep writing letters, sending your support, praying for your child and sending questions. You can ask your child to please answer your questions. Let children know that their answers are very important for you and for your relationship with them.”

Thank you for your understanding and patience. We are all in the process of learning to write letters and to improve our communication.

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Burkina Faso is a small country in West Africa. At 274,200 sq. km, it is about the size of the state of Colorado.

With a population of about 16.3 million people, Burkina has a Sahelian climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons. Burkina Faso is an ethnically integrated, secular state. Officially, there are 63 ethnic groups in the country.

Burkina Faso is also a country of culture, and because of the diversity of ethnic groups, many cultural practices are observed. One of the most important and widespread customs in Burkina Faso is Rakiire (cross-ethnic joking).

According to Alain Joseph, research director at the Societies Sciences Institute of Ouagadougou, two types of Rakiire should be considered. The first type of Rakiire is the family joking relationship.

This kind of Rakiire exists within the same family between grandson and grandmother, granddaughter and grandfather, husband and junior sister-in-law, and nephews/nieces and aunts.

The second type of Rakiire is the cross-ethnic joking relationship. In this case, two or more ethnic groups decide freely to make an agreement that includes a nonaggression pact and mutual support.

But what is Rakiire?

Rakiire consists of two people within the same big family or two different ethnic groups telling jokes that are often very sour and border on insolence. For instance, a grandson will say to his grandmother,

“Are you still alive, Grandmother? When are you dying?”

The grandmother will answer:

“Naughty boy, I will survive you.”

In the case of Rakiire between two ethnic groups, two people who meet can talk to each other as follows:

First person:

“Hello, how is your good-for-nothing father doing?”

Second person:

“Hi! My father is well. How about your wreck of father?”

These hard words are not meant to harm or despise, but to express membership of community.

Rakiire is a thousand-year-old custom. No one can say when exactly it started; however, cross-ethnic joking is considered a dynamic, evolutionary practice.

Rakiire within a big family evolves as marital relations are formed and children are brought into the world. Rakiire insults never lead to a brawl.

When a person starts “insulting” the parents of someone else, he can only insult the father. The mother is not insulted because generally she is from another ethnic group. The purpose of these joke “insults” is to allow people to have fun and remember the pact of nonaggression and assistance that exists between their ethnic groups.

In his book Alliances and Cross-ethnic Joking in Burkina Faso, Alain Joseph speaks about the role Rakiire plays with those who practice it. Both children and adults learn how to have a culture of tolerance and accept others just as they are. Thus, various social groups learn how to live together.

Rakiire makes it possible to remember that the person in front of you is not your enemy, but someone with whom you can maintain a nonaggressive relationship, whatever the situation.

In case of conflict, it is possible to actually use Rakiire to defuse the conflict. In fact, Rakiire can be connected with the freedom of speech. One is free to voice what he thinks without being worried. Author Joseph explains,

“One plays the symbolic war so as not to wage real war.”

Rakiire is practiced most often in rural environments. In the modern society of Burkina Faso, Rakiire is known only in a very superficial way. It is very often seen like folklore, a means to let off steam and get away with it. Few people in big cities fully practice Rakiire.

The ignorance of Rakiire in the cities means that when an unspecified crisis is declared, it is necessary to resort to other methods to address the crisis. Those who believe in Rakiire can rely on the values of tolerance and the nonaggressiveness of Rakiire to avoid revenge or reprisals and maintain social cohesion.

Some Rakiire relationships were born after bloody conflicts as a way of saying “never again.”

Rakiire is also found among Christians. Just as in society as a whole, it is seen as the cement of fraternity and friendship between people. Obviously, Christians in the church do not allow themselves to be as virulent when exchanging opinions. They are more kind and exchange only decent, but funny jokes.

For example, a Gourmantché person (Gourmantché people live in the eastern part of the country) who arrives at a church for the first time and introduces himself will quickly will become friends with a Yadsés person (from the northern part of the country) in the church.

There is even an organization in the country called Association Burkinabe pour la Promotion de la Parenté à Plaisanterie, which means Association for the Promotion of Cross-Ethnic Joking in Burkina. This association has organized three cross-ethnic joking days in Ouagadougou, where many activities related to traditions and ethnic customs are demonstrated.

The organization aims at promoting Rakiire in cities so that it can bring peace between individuals and among ethnic groups.

While Rakiire cannot be used to resolve all crises in society, it has its place in the culture of Burkina Faso.

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Children at our centers in Honduras are given the opportunity to celebrate their culture and display their unique talents each year at a fair that 20 centers have come together to host.

For three years in a row, this innovative activity has been held in the historical city of Comayagua, which was once the capital of the country after Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1820.

At the central plaza, one can appreciate the cathedral, which was inaugurated Dec. 8, 1711, and the City Hall, surrounded by beautiful gardens. The plaza is where the residents gather to celebrate the local holidays and concerts of marimbas, among other activities.

It is precisely in this location where the 20 centers prepare with anticipation. The fair includes things such as folk dancing, crafts, textures, paintings, pottery and different kinds of foods. Many girls make necklaces, which always sell well at the fair. Entire families will be involved in creating the crafts to sell.

Honduras holds proudly a special kind of dance and music called punta, which is a circle dance: One couple dances in the middle of the circle and the other participants sing and clap their hands. The children are able to participate in this piece of Honduran culture, learning and rehearsing the traditional dances to perform at the fair.

Of course, another big part of the fair is food. The Honduran cuisine has a heavy emphasis on corn, peppers, tomatoes and beans. Coconuts are used more widely in this area than in neighboring countries, and numerous fish dishes reflect the country’s long Caribbean coast. Popular dishes include conch soup, flour tortillas with beans and roast beef, and a panoply of tropical fruits for dessert. Talented cooks prepare traditional dishes to be served at the fair.

On the day of the fair, the work starts early with the placing of marquees. The children help by putting up chairs and tables and helping the center staff set up all the products. The food stands and the skilled cooks get ready when the show is about to start.

Soon people from the community start to walk around the place. The crowd cheers the children as they show their folk dancing skills. Backstage, children rehearse their special presentations, and some of them pray with their leaders for the new souls who will open their heart to the good message of love of Jesus.

One priority of the celebration is to present the gospel through the living testimony of children who are registered in different centers. One by one, groups from every center head up to the stage for a special cultural and evangelistic presentation, including messianic dances, mimes, choreography, and songs to exalt the name of Christ.

The churches and centers look forward to this time each year when all gather for one purpose. Not only do the children get a chance to show their unique talents, but they also share how the Word of God has changed their lives, and how our ministry is working with the local church to bring transformation to this troubled society.

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Here are some numbers for you to chew on today.

The Barna Group did a survey asking “born-again” Christians and other Americans what they had done in the past 12 months to help those in poverty. Among the results were:

• 75 percent of born-again Christians gave material resources, not including money, directly to the poor.
• 74 percent of other Americans gave material resources, not including money, directly to the poor.
• 50 percent of born-again Christians donated time to personally serve needy people who live in the community.
• 45 percent of other Americans did the same.

Hmmm … That’s not a big difference. Regarding the statistics, David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group said,

Given the extensive comments in the Bible regarding the importance of taking care of the poor, we expected to see a larger distinction between the responses of born-again Christians and non-Christians.

This isn’t a beauty pageant — we’re not competing with those around us for “Best Do-Gooder.” But one would expect the followers of Jesus — the most compassionate man who ever walked this earth — to be a bit more radical in their compassionate deeds, a bit more out of the ordinary.

I think America is a pretty compassionate country, thanks in part to its Judeo-Christian roots. So I have to ask myself: Is my compassion just a result of my do-gooder culture? Or is my compassion a radical outpouring of following Jesus, knowing him, and becoming like him?

What matters isn’t how I measure up to the average American around me, but whether I’m seeking Christ and following his example, “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7).

What do you think? Are you culturally compassionate? Is your compassion an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life as you follow Jesus?

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So with our remote location and not many lunch options, one of the exciting features of our new building was the New Delhi Café. Our own little onsite restaurant. It’s not quite up to Google level, but it offers a menu of hot breakfast and lunch dishes available daily for the 550+ staff who work in this building. It’s great!

But here’s where we got Google beat. Our executives do the cooking!

Okay … not all the time. But once a month a “celebrity” chef cooks us lunch — it’s the “Guest Chef” program.

I bet Larry Page and Sergey Brin have yet to don the apron and tall white hat and serve up lunch to their employees.

Little tip: If you’re hoping to land a position here at Compassion, you might want to brush up on your culinary skills.

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