I wonder if you and I are really any different from the woman who said,

“I don’t think you understand. I hate kids.”

She was right, actually. I didn’t understand. I thought I had heard her incorrectly.

“I don’t like kids. I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t relate to them.”

I realize now that she doesn’t actually hate kids. She just feels uncomfortable around anyone who’s notably different from her. Anyone she can’t relate to easily is a little bit, well, scary. She would rather avoid them.

And I wonder if a camaraderie about something that is, frankly, a little bit shameful might actually be where we can start building our own personal and community efforts to break the chains of those held in a death grip by extreme poverty.

Brainstorm with me here for a minute.

This acquaintance of mine is certainly not the only person in the world who feels uncomfortable around kids. She isn’t alone in feeling uncomfortable around people from another culture or another economic reality.

In fact, I’ve been a bit surprised recently at just how many people I know who have stayed away from the challenge of fighting poverty because the whole thing is just uncomfortable.

Maybe your friends or colleagues wouldn’t use the word uncomfortable. Maybe they would use adjectives like overwhelming, challenging, thankless, too big of a risk, or uncontrollable. They may even fall back on some unflattering biases about the poor including the stereotype that most of the poor are poor because they just don’t work hard enough.

Please believe me when I say I am not out to objectify people who hold these preconceptions. They’re a very present reality in our Western world. Some individuals are just a little more honest about it than others.

I’ve seen these attitudes outside of the West, too. Some blurt out,

“I hate kids.”

Others softly chide,

“Stewardship is important but I need to ensure that there will be a good return on my investment or it’s just not worth the risk.”

The perceived risk makes them uncomfortable.

So how do we address these realities? Because if we’re truthful, although most of us fully believe that children and adults can be released from poverty, we have all felt the weight of those unflattering adjectives ourselves from time to time.

What causes you, an advocate for the poor, to stay strong and carry on in those moments when you feel combating poverty is overwhelming, unappreciated, or uncomfortable? Is there a specific moment or story you can point to and say,

“I have been there, I have felt that, and I know the rewards of persevering.”

We have great resources at our disposal – informative and soul-stirring resources like 58:, as well as books and video clips, talking points and Scripture passages.

But I think that to really communicate with those who are skittish, or those who genuinely want to say “I am uncomfortable around kids” or “I don’t know how to relate to the poor,” we need to find a bridge.

That connection won’t come by patronizing or scolding the other person. It’s going to come through authentic conversation — respectful exchanges in which we express that, really, we’ve felt the same way too … but here’s what happened, here’s why this thing we call “fighting poverty” is working, and here’s why it’s so important that you get involved even though, right now, you might just feel a bit uncomfortable.

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One good game that kids in the Dominican Republic play is “El Pañuelo” (The Handkerchief).

To play this game, two groups of kids are formed, both with the same number of participants. Both groups stand behind a line, face to face and leaving a space of around 20 yards between the groups. In both groups, everyone is given a number to respond to, start with the number one and counting up to the last participant in each group.

In the center of the field on an equidistant dividing line stands an independent participant who softly holds a handkerchief by its corner.

The independent participant shouts a number at random. The player tagged with that number in both groups will run to the division line, without crossing over it, to try to snatch the handkerchief and bring it to his group without being touched by the other player. If accomplished, that group scores a point; but if touched, the point is scored for the other group.

Only when a runner has taken the handkerchief away from the independent player’s hand can the other runner cross the division line to touch his rival before the handkerchief arrives behind the group line.

That’s why there’s a chance to fool a rival when both players reach the division line and patiently stand there for seconds waiting for the other runner to snatch the handkerchief and try to run. Then one player, as fast as a flash, will rub the handkerchief with his hand, making believe that he is taking it away from the independent player’s hand without actually doing so. And at the same time that player will turn back and run one or two steps away to deceive the rival and make him illegally run across the division line, making him lose the point.

The winning group is the one that scores the higher number of points.

Other versions of the game include removing runners from the game who lose a point and distributing multiple numbers to players in the losing group so the winning group will have the fewer tired runners and hopefully win the game.

Another good game for kids played in the Dominican Republic is called “El Juego de la Silla” (The Game of the Chair).

To play this game, some chairs are arranged forming a circle. It doesn’t matter how few or how many the chairs are; it depends on the number of players available. The more players, the bigger the circle.

From the beginning to the end, there must always be a higher number of players than chairs available.

The rules are simple: Everyone is standing outside the circle of chairs; as soon as the music or the director’s singing starts, every one starts running in the same direction around the chairs.

When the music or the singing stops, everyone must quickly find a chair to sit. Those who remain standing or occupying the smaller part of a chair lose and leave the game. Each time, one chair is removed and the circle becomes smaller and the game restarts.

At the end, only one chair and two players remain. When the music or singing stops, one of them will sit on the chair and be the winner.

Some other rules may include: Those who desperately sit on a chair before the music or singing stops lose and leave the game, and the equal number of chairs is removed for the game to continue.

A fair treatment from the music director or singer would be not to watch when only two runners remain in order not to benefit the one running by the front of the chair when he has to stop the music or singing.

Usually, the participants will clap their hands for the music or singing while running around the chairs.

The game is played to teach children that they have the chance to win but they can sometimes lose, and that they should be bold and have courage to get what they want and always be honest.

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Christian child sponsorship: kids get it.

Tony Beltran

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Because of your responses, we’re moving forward and mailing our first issue this January.

And now, we’re inviting your kids to submit the following materials for a chance to be published in the magazine.

We’d like your kids to:

• Write about something special they did for their sponsored child.
• Tell about a letter they received from their sponsored child. Or share pictures.
• Describe what they have learned from their sponsored child. For example, what kinds of homes do the children live in? What do they eat? What games do they play? What are they learning in school?
• Write a poem or draw a picture related to poverty and tell us what it means to them.
• Tell about creative ways to write to their sponsored child.
• If they have a recipe or craft from a country where Compassion works, send it our way.
• If they’ve visited their sponsored child, we’d love to hear the stories and see the pictures.

You can e-mail your materials to compassionkids@us.ci.org or mail them to:

Compassion International
Attn: Magazine Editor
12290 Voyager Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

We’re excited to bring you this new magazine and excited to see the great material your kids will submit!

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Beginning today and continuing through this Friday (Sept. 25), we will send out tweets about specific children in need of sponsors.

And we’d like you to retweet them for us.

When you do, you’ll be eligible to win your choice of some free Live for Him* apparel:

• T-shirts
• caps
• rings
• wristbands

Every retweet counts as an entry, and winners will be randomly selected.

Once that child is sponsored, we’ll tweet information about another child, and we’ll follow that process for the duration of the week.

UPDATE: 9:05 a.m. – When you click on the child link in a tweet and you don’t see the specific child’s biography, it means that somone is considering the sponsorship. If the sponsorship isn’t finalized within 50 minutes, the child will be visible again.

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This free publication will teach kids about poverty and other cultures, and encourage them to engage with children in need.

They will enjoy photos showing what a day is like for kids in other cultures, tips for writing to their families’ sponsored children, recipes, games from other countries, and more.

They will also have opportunities to contribute to the magazine by submitting their own pictures and stories.

If this sounds like something for you and your kids, please let us know. Send an email to compassionkids@us.ci.org with your contact information.

We need to hear from you soon, because we hope to launch our first issue in January!

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Some of you might remember an old television show by Bill Cosby called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” Cosby interviewed kids and they described things in very lively and many times funny ways.

It wasn’t so much to have fun at the child’s expense, but really a celebration of the innocence and beauty of a little child. So, I’m curious about some of the funny things that your children have written to you.

I’ll start off with something my little 6-year-old Sheyla from Peru wrote me:

“I didn’t know you taught math; I have a question: ‘Do you like ice cream?’”

Now it’s your turn.

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How about you? Are you a kid at heart?

If you said yes to any of these questions, we have some exciting news just for you.

We just launched our new kid’s Web site, Quest for Compassion, and we think that it is not only engaging but entertaining too! We love it, and are confident that your kids will as well. Not only is the site fun, but it’ll educate your youngsters all about the ministry of Compassion.

The site is designed for children between the ages of 6 and 10, and it provides a virtual opportunity for them to travel around the world — to four different countries where we work:  Ghana, Bangladesh, El Salvador and Brazil.

It helps your kiddos experience a Compassion child development center and the surrounding community, and will give them perspective on what a child’s life in the developing world is like.

Each child will “build his or her own buddy” to travel with — by choosing gender and skin color – and will be able to give the buddy a name. Then they can pick a region of the world to travel to.

Each town and country is filled with objects to click on and games to play. And with the help of their “buddies,” your world travelers can also learn key words and phrases in each country’s native language. Through these various games and fun facts, your children will get to see and hear about the life and culture of our Compassion kids around the globe.

We created the Web site through the use of real-life still shots taken in the countries where we work, which we brought to life through the use of animated children, teachers and animals that your children will meet along the way.

This is a new, fun and safe way for children, and even for you, to learn more about our ministry.

Visit the site today with your children to discover who and what awaits you! And be sure to tell us what you think.

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I read Gerald McBoing Boing (my personal favorite), Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, and, of course, the ever-popular, Green Eggs and Ham. 

I don’t know what it is, but it seems that when I open up a Dr. Seuss book, I immediately become a child myself…and the children I’m reading to are transported to a magical world where non-sensical rhymes suddenly make sense…and imaginary characters come to life.

As I was reading to the kids, I wondered what it would have been like if Dr. Seuss had written some stories about children in poverty. What a great opportunity to teach kids today about the conditions that their counterparts in other parts of the world live in!

What would that look like? Perhaps:

I do not like that the Sneetch children cry
with empty star bellies that growl all night
I do not like that they can’t drink
of water as clean as I have in my sink.

I don’t like famine, disease and war
I wish they didn’t exist anymore.
I don’t like the heartache, come to think of it,
I do not like poverty,
not one little bit.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Dr. Seuss book if it just focused on the sad. No, indeed the Cat in the Hat turned dreary, rainy days into wonderful, happy, if not misguided, adventures. Maybe something like this:

Then all the Sneetch children would wipe away frowns
To laugh with each other on Flozzle playgrounds
They’d swing and they’d sing and they’d dance in a ring
‘Tis the end of poverty–what a wonderful thing!<

Unfortunately, we don’t have such a book. Perhaps it’s because poverty is far too real and dark to capture in whimsical rhyme. 

But maybe, just maybe, we can all be a Dr. Seuss by rewriting the stories of real children in poverty. It’s not that hard actually.

Sponsoring a child gives you the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty for a child. It gives them the chance to believe in a world where poverty comes to an end. And that is a wondrous thing indeed. 

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