We recently gave you the opportunity ask our president, Wess, any questions you like. We’re publishing his answers one day at a time. If you want to catch up, here’s the background skinny.

• How does it feel to be making such a large salary? Do you feel like it would benefit more children in poverty if you were to take a cut in pay so that more of those funds could go toward ministering to children? (Kayla)

This is a fair question because this is a non-profit organization and this type of information is on public record. Anyone who wants to find out what the leaders of Compassion make can review our 990 form.

There are some decisions that I don’t make around here, and all the decisions about what I’m paid fall to Compassion’s Board of Directors. Our Board believes that Compassion must exercise prudent business judgment in balancing the stewardship of the ministry’s financial resources, the needs of the employees, and the payment of salaries sufficient to attract and retain the well-qualified employees who are required to effectively carry out our ministry. It is important to Compassion’s Board of Directors that we represent both excellence and stewardship.

Part of our salary structure also dictates that all Compassion staff are paid relative to that of the top position in the organization, which happens to be mine. So, if I were to be paid less, it means that every person below me in the organization would also be paid less. I have staff reporting to me who are responsible for managing a budget of nearly $400 million. It requires a high level of management competency to effectively supervise all that has been entrusted to this ministry.

I wish we lived in a world where Christians could fully focus on what we feel the Lord has called us to do without also having to worry about paying a mortgage, putting children through college, caring for aging parents, planning for retirement, etc. But, this is a reality that American non-profits (probably including many of our churches and some government officials) have struggled with for a long time.

What my wife and I have determined – and what I think everybody has to determine for themselves is – what is enough? Anything beyond enough can trap you. I live a very modest life, with a modest house and a modest car. Once Donna and I figured out what was enough for us, we agreed to just give the rest away. In fact, we give quite a lot of it right back to Compassion—we sponsor lots of kids and support every other mission effort that goes out of this place.

The truth is I would work for Compassion for absolutely nothing if it were possible.

In his book The New Friars, Scott A. Bessenecker tells a story of living in and serving a garbage community in Cairo with his family and some college students. After a month, “what at first was repulsive — rotting garbage piled everywhere, animals feeding off the trash, mothers climbing rubbish mountains with their babies playing next to them in the refuse” became normal. Inwardly, he questioned if that was okay. He wondered if they were “bringing Western standards of housing and cleanliness to people who have developed their own culturally defined norms for quality of life and are just fine with how things are.”

The Lord answered him in a dream.

I dreamed about the dung truck. You could always smell the dung truck before seeing it. It was the kind of smell that is more like a taste at the back of your throat; pasty and bitter…. Temperatures of over 100 degrees released the dung’s pungent odor with a vengeance, making this task even more intense than can be appreciated by someone reading this in comfort.

In my dream I was walking past the dung truck. To my horror, I saw my children, Hannah, Philip and Laura, sitting on top of the mountain of dung heaped on the bed of the truck. What struck me most about them was that they appeared perfectly content although every inch of their bodies was covered by animal waste. Then I felt the Lord speaking to me. He seemed to be saying, “As their father, are you satisfied? Even if they are satisfied, are you satisfied?”

I’m still sifting the impact of that dream, but the immediate implication is that a person’s contentment with a situation of poverty does not make it okay. My passion for my kids is a shadowy reflection of God’s heart, which yearns for his children to have more than the dung that surrounds them; not riches, but a life in which their needs are met in a way that doesn’t mask their need for him.

I don’t think it’s possible to be authentic without being transparent.

By consciously withholding something or avoiding a subject because I fear a reaction – anger, rejection, judgment, etc., I’m not being authentic. I’m being manipulative.

Choosing what to share and what not to share is lying by omission, and it’s not being transparent or authentic.

What does this have to do with children in poverty and Compassion International?

• You’re reading Compassion’s blog about child poverty.
• A blog is media — social media.
• Media is manipulative.
• We want to get more children sponsored. More! More! More!
• The blog helps us do that.
• We’re afraid to say anything that will muck that up.

I’ve had conversations with employees who have said that “the blog is just a big commercial for Compassion.” And “the blog is too rah-rah, like it’s written by a bunch of cheerleaders.” Or GASP! Marketers.

I agree that our first two months have been filled with lots of feel good posts, and I know we can’t be everything to everyone, and I don’t think we have a problem yet; however, if you perceive the blog to be a one-dimensional commercial about how great Compassion is, as opposed to an authentic and sincere communication with you and for you, rather than at you and for us, then I’m wrong and we have a PROBLEM.

Am I wrong?

And what’s your perspective, meaning how involved with Compassion are you? Are you drinking the same Kool-Aid as us employees? Are you Super Advocate or Super Sponsor … or are you just passing through?

How do we share anything positive with you without sounding like a bunch of cheerleaders?

Am I over-thinking this stuff?

If you’ve never commented before, please consider doing so now. You non-commenters have opinions too. I know you do.