What is excellence? Excellence is answering God’s call to the best of our abilities with the gifts and resources He has given us. It is carrying out God’s work with an attitude of enjoyment.

Excellence is exceeding the expectations of the world and striving to meet God’s standards. Excellence honors God.

To be excellent one must be grounded in Christ, as He is the source of all strength.

At Compassion, we desire to imitate God in all we do, and as a result we commit to excellence so that we may carry out our mission in a way that honors Him.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” – Colossians 3:23 (NIV)

Listen to Dawn Williams, Vice President of Finance, talk about the importance of striving for excellence.

Our ministry takes place in some of the toughest, grittiest places on the planet, but we face these hard realities with an adventuresome spirit.

In the midst of this chaotic world, we do not waiver and we do not blink, as we pursue our single-minded strategy of “Christian holistic development of children in poverty through sponsorship.” We will never raise a white flag in surrender to the evil raging against us.

In the face of extreme poverty, courageous leadership requires determination and faith. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s moving forward despite the fear.

“Courage is fear that has said it’s prayers.” – Karl Barth

Listen to a member of our leadership team talk about the importance of courageous leadership.

One crucial message Jesus wanted his disciples to grasp is that in God’s kingdom leaders are servants.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:45 (NIV)

At Compassion, as God’s followers, we aspire to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, in who we are and what we do.

Servant leadership requires us to surrender our will for God’s will. It requires confession and seeking God’s power to transform us with His servant heart.

Listen to Mark Yeadon, Senior Vice President of International Program, talk about the importance of exemplifying Christian servant leadership.

What does it mean to live with integrity?

Listen to Mark Hanlon, Senior Vice President of Compassion USA, talk about the importance of living with integrity.

Integrity is not common.

“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” – Matthew 7:14, NIV

To live with integrity:

• means we don’t compromise our faith in Christ.
• means the small things matter.
• means life can feel lonely.
• reflects the character of God who dwells within us.
• requires intention.

At Compassion, integrity means that we say what we mean and we do what we say. We value accurate information and full transparency. We hold ourselves accountable and share the full truth, even when it is difficult.

Officially, we describe it as:

“… aligning our thoughts, motivations, attitudes and actions with the ethical principles found in God’s Word. In both our personal lives and our ministry, what we believe, what we say and what we do should be consistent, congruent, reliable and transparent.”

We cannot do global child development and neglect our own families. God would not be honored if we poured ourselves into the world’s children and neglected our own.

“If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?” – 1 Timothy 3:5, NIV

Listen to Mark Hanlon, Senior Vice President of Compassion USA, talk about the importance of cherishing our families.

Many companies have a dress code for their employees. Compassion does too, but it’s not what you’d typically think of as a dress code.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” – Colossians 3:12 (NIV) –

And in this light, we commit to you:

• to honor Jesus Christ in all that we do
• to submit to the Word of God
• to NOT compromise the centrality of Christ in our messages and programs
• to treat children and their families with dignity and respect
• to tell the truth and communicate honestly and openly
• to align our thoughts, motivations, attitudes and actions with the ethical principles found in God’s word

Listen to Wess talk about the importance of demonstrating Godly character.

Integrity is another one of our core values. But what does that mean? What is integrity?

“Integrity means doing the same thing whether people are with you or whether you are alone.” – Ed Anderson, senior vice president and chief financial officer

Integrity doesn’t just apply to big decisions. It also applies to your small decisions. It pertains to your whole life.

Integrity is doing the right thing, not necessarily the popular thing.

Integrity is being honest, upstanding and having a strong character.

Officially, for Compassion, integrity is:

“… aligning our thoughts, motivations, attitudes and actions with the ethical principles found in God’s Word. In both our personal lives and our ministry, what we believe, what we say and what we do should be consistent, congruent, reliable and transparent.”

• Do you think that the children at our child development centers ever “get tired” of “pleasing” the sponsors who briefly, but regularly visit many of the same centers on our sponsor tours?
• If the children do “get tired” and would rather be doing something else but can’t admit that they don’t want to greet another group of sponsors, for whatever reason, is this a matter of integrity?
• If it is a matter of integrity, of not aligning our thoughts with our actions, who is out of alignment? The child? The sponsor? Compassion?