Children in poverty … through the eyes of Eric Chapman, one of our friends in Flickr.

If you have difficulty viewing the slide show here, you can also check it out in Eric’s photostream.

Upload your photos to our Flickr group. Show us how you see children in poverty.

We have an account at Flickr, a photostream they call it, where we upload our photos … but we don’t get out of the office that often ’cause we be Webbies, so we don’t get a lot of photos to upload.

We’re working on that.

We also have this suh-WEET! Flickr group where anyone can upload photos – even YOU!

Especially you.

Right now, we only have 23 members in the group and 121 photos. But what we do have is … well, why don’t you tell us what you think? And while you’re at it, add something to the stream.

drewfrancis1 took this photo. Click on it and you can see his whole photostream.

And our own Brandy Campbell took this photo when she was in Ethiopia earlier this year.

You remember Eric (aka chappyphoto), right? It’s his photo in the blog’s banner.

All of that is to say this, which if we were following sound web writing pwinciples we would’ve said at the beginning of this bwog post …

It’s time to change our banner. And we want the next photo up there to be yours.

So upload your photos to our Flickr group now ’cause we wanna see what u got.

See what our friend Eric “chappyphoto” Chapman has done. He created a Servant Life video from his trip to the Philippines. Actually, he did the sound and music. The rest was done under the keen direction of Taylor Robinson at Student Life.

Now, you can read about it and watch about it … uh … yeah. Watch about it.

See the photo? The one at the top of the page. It was done by one of you.

Eric Chapman (aka chappyphoto) took it. He’s a friend we met by way of our Flickr group.

We liked his photos so much we asked if we could use one in our blog header. Then we asked if he wanted to write a post for us. We do that sometimes.

But enough of that. It’s time to focus your attention on what Eric says when he’s not behind a camera.

I’ll start by saying this: It’s very hard to explain impact a Compassion trip can have on a person.

For most of my life, the only thing I knew about poverty was the Sally Struthers commercials. You know, those spots from the ’80s with all the slow-motion shots of children crying. I have been given the opportunity to go with a video production crew to various countries to film the work of Compassion. In some way, I expected to see this Sally Struthers image. I was totally wrong.

I’m a sound engineer for Student Life. We produce large camps, conferences and a variety of additional resources for churches. About the time I started working there, Student Life had just partnered with Compassion. Since then we’ve always had a Compassion presentation at our events, and work to educate our attendees about what sponsoring a child means.

Last year we were sent to Uganda to interview students from Compassion’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). Our hope was that some of the students would travel with our camp teams throughout the summer and lead the Compassion presentation from stage. What better way to show the work of Compassion than to put living proof of that work on stage?

Before this trip I had already been on one Compassion video shoot, but it was a 48-hour whirlwind trip to Guatemala. It was a fast turnaround, and we were only able to see a few children. Our video focused on one child’s experience meeting her sponsor. I could see the impact Compassion was having on a single child, but what would the finished product look like? All I knew going into the Uganda trip was that LDP students had grown up through the Compassion child sponsorship program, graduated, and were then sponsored through college. These students were the cream of the crop.

We arrived in Kampala and tried to get some rest. The next morning we had our first LDP student interview. His name was James.

This was initially a typical setup for our team. We had done hundreds of interviews. What I did not know was that my life and perspective of Compassion would be changed forever by the testimony of this man.

James was more educated, well spoken and passionate about his relationship with God than I could say I have ever been. He described his childhood –- one that was riddled with loss of parents and siblings, leaving him alone to live with an aunt. He spoke of being malnourished and without hope. Then he said all that changed when he joined Compassion.

I could have probably predicted most of his interview to this point. We had asked most of the questions, and it was the picture of so many nonprofit companies and others who serve those less fortunate than most Americans. He was a child in poverty who was given a chance. It was his answer to our last question that stopped us all cold. (more…)