Several times the man calls out, even louder after some in the crowd tell him to be quiet. “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

- Luke 18:40-41 (NIV)

I am that blind man calling out to God.

Encourage me. Strengthen me. Provide for me. Comfort me. Save me. Give me. Help me.

That’s what I want.

What do you think these kids want? What are they crying out for?

Fifty kids in Haiti. All at the same center. All need God’s love. All need God’s mercy.

How about you? What are you calling out to God for?

All the while we cry out, God is calling out to us. Follow me. Be like me. Share my love.

Is it possible that my needs and your needs complement these kids’ needs? That we offer one another an opportunity to give God what He wants?

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“Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” —  Proverbs 31:9 (NIV)

In the movie Pearl Harbor, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle surveys a group of pilots who have stepped forward to go on a dangerous mission. In response to another officer’s concern about the mission, Doolittle determinedly says, “There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.”

Later, one of the volunteers addresses the crux of the matter: “We’re the tip of the sword.”

It’s true. We —  both sponsors and Advocates —  are on the cutting edge of the fight against poverty, and we’re not giving up this battle!

I’m writing this post to ask you to join me as a member of Compassion’s Advocate’s Network. That’s it! Plain and simple.

This is my story of Compassion. It’s long but only because I love being the “tip of the sword,” and want to share every ounce of my joy and love with you.

How to Become a Child Advocate

I have been a blessed member of the Advocate’s Network since 1994, and my involvement began with my first sponsorship in 1988, one year after the network started.

I had been praying about sponsoring a child for months but didn’t know which company I could trust. My answer came as I was eating lunch with a missionary doctor from Haiti. She was telling me about a recent hurricane that hit the country.

I asked, “How do those people live? What do they eat?” and she replied that the children in Compassion had been well cared for.

I asked if she was talking about Compassion International, and she was. She proceeded to tell me all about Compassion’s excellence, integrity and effectiveness.

In fact, several of the nurses in her clinic were formerly sponsored children! With the answer to my prayers, I immediately called Compassion to request a child from Haiti.

Why Others Often Become Child Advocates

Many sponsors sign up because of the faithful service of members of the Advocates Network, members who are driven not by rules, paperwork or pressure, but by the love of God for children.

Child Advocates are not told where to work or what to do; involvement is completely self-initiated and voluntary.

As I tell my team of Advocates, God is already speaking to His people about helping the poor; we only need to be praying that He will lead us to those whose hearts are ready. It’s truly His work, not ours.

Being a member of the Advocates Network is all about Jesus. As we walk closely with Him, He brings people across our paths that want to sponsor children and want to know who they can trust, just like I did.

Although I cannot sponsor hundreds of children, I can help to connect them with their God-appointed sponsors. The plan is to help one child at a time, exactly the way Jesus did, and by following that plan I have been greatly blessed in so many ways.

Highlights From My Time as a Child Advocate

• A friend sponsored a child in memory of the child she lost in a serious accident.
• A woman said she’d been awakened in the night and told to sponsor a child (she had no idea I was coming to her church that day).
• Some friends sponsored a child for their elderly parents as a Christmas gift.
• When handed Child Packets randomly in a concert, some have said the name of the child they were given was the same as that of a child they lost, or that the child had the same birth date.
• Many families have chosen to sponsor a child for each child in their family.
• I once spoke in a one-room church with seven in attendance, and five children were sponsored.
• A young man came to me at a funeral and said, “You’re the Compassion lady, right? I want to help prevent a young girl from being forced into prostitution.” He sponsored a child and later became an Advocate on my own team.
• I worked an event that registered 190 new sponsors, and several current sponsors asked how to become Child Advocates.
• Children have dragged their parents to the table, literally, and asked them to sponsor a child.
• I met a physically challenged girl in a child development center in need of a sponsor. When I returned home from that trip, the first friend I saw was someone who works with physically challenged children; she happily sponsored the child.
• Many have come to tables to say how much sponsorship means to them.
• To my delight, our grown children followed suit on their own —  sponsored kids, helped at my table and shared with friends about sponsorship.
• I have brought many Child Packets home from sponsor tours and found friends to sponsor each one of them — kids I met personally!
• I discovered I was the only Advocate in the state of Wyoming, but now lead a team of 20 Advocates in three states (Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota).
• I’ve been blessed to see a group of friends hug their sponsored children for the first time.
• I recently signed up my 500th sponsorship from my own sphere of influence (not counting hundreds more sponsored at concerts, events and festivals where I’ve assisted).

Become a Child Advocate. Attend the Annual Advocates Conference

One of the joys of advocacy is the opportunity to attend an annual Advocates Conference.

In addition to relaxing with family and friends, attending advocates are inspired to draw nearer to God and are instructed about the unique aspects of Compassion’s ministry —  our ministry.

• The fact that it is Christ Centered, Child Focused, Church Based and Committed to Integrity.
• We learn not to put pressure on anyone to sponsor a child and to always remember the dignity of the poor.
• Rather than using emotional pleas for help, we focus on the positive changes and opportunities that take place in the child’s life through sponsorship (I love this!).
• We serve the church —  providing a bridge between those who don’t have enough and those who have more than enough. Sponsorship fulfills the Great Commission; it is the “total package” in every way.

I really believe we need the poor as much as they need us. As Dr. Wess Stafford has said many times,

“Without us they die in need and without them we die in greed.”

I believe there is a wall that separates the church here and the church abroad, in many ways, and that it is an Advocate’s job to bring down this wall through prayer, education, enlightenment and loving encouragement. We need each other.

We need their prayers, contentment and deep spirituality, and they need our support, confidence and friendship. In some ways, this is the only answer to our materialism and selfishness.

I’m delighted to help tear down the wall of separation and bring children and sponsors together, never to be the same again.

The conference is also a good place to form lasting friendships and partnerships in ministry. It is a great opportunity to meet pastors who support the needs of children in poverty, and to meet country directors, Global Ministry Center staff and formerly sponsored children of the Leadership Development Program (LDP). The testimonies are powerful! As you can see.

When I meet members of the LDP, I have a million questions for them, because the girl I’ve sponsored in Thailand, since she was tiny, is currently in the LDP! I hope to attend her graduation in 2010.

I was recently able to attend the Global Advocates Conference in the Dominican Republic, and was inspired to meet Advocates from eight of the 11 partner countries.

There are currently mor than 5,000 Advocates around the world. Collectively, we have brought in hundreds of thousands of sponsorships. The friendships have continued online and will last a lifetime.

Some Advocates have traveled together to visit their sponsored children. I think we all agree that the more we experience such visits to the centers —  meeting children face to face —  the more convinced we are that this ministry is really doing what we say it is.

We become more passionate in our goals to register new sponsors because it really works. We can personally ask country office staff and church workers and pastors about the inner workings and integrity of their centers. We are reminded why we volunteered for this very worthy cause in the first place. Our hearts are enlarged.

Become a Child Advocate

As I said at the beginning of this post, I’m writing it to ask you to join me as a member of Compassion’s Advocates Network. That’s it! Plain and simple.

If you’re up for it, you just need to:

• Fill out an online registration form.
• Authorize a background check.
• Participate in a telephone interview.

If advocacy is in your future, training materials and resources will be supplied to you at no cost. Best of all, you will be welcomed into the Advocates Network with open arms, and you will begin to see lives blessed!

If you are a Child Advocate already, speak up! Tell us what experiences have impacted your life. What are your favorite stories?

“But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” —  Luke 18:16 (NIV)

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Nevertheless, they eagerly counted down the days . . . I too was keen for the FAST to be over! Skipping a meal a day hurt.

The FAST has come to an end, but despite having to experience the pain of self-imposed deprivation, God’s given me a spiritual FEAST! So far I’ve experienced moments of intense hunger and vulnerability, yet contrasted by immense joy and freedom. I cannot tell you enough about the good things He’s done in me and revealed to me over the past month!

The hunger pangs have given me a glimpse of what our precious friends living in destitution experience day in, day out. They’ve also reminded me of how lucky I am to be hungry by choice and not due to personal circumstances. I–AM–BLESSED!

Another thing I’ve been challenged by is to give more of myself . . . not out of my budget, but out of my heavenly inheritance. So I’ve been meditating on Luke 12:32-34. I found The Message version easy to relate to:

“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself. 

“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”

Enough said!

While I’ve yet to fully discover what my heavenly inheritance entails, I know that it comes from a good and kind God who is love Himself . . . a God who does not change and cannot deny Himself (of His goodness, kindness, grace etc.).

I’m convinced that rather than struggle with the recurring tension within me to give sacrificially, by focusing on how unchangingly good He is, and His continuous goodness towards me, I would learn to give as He does. Surely, it is by focusing on the ways of the Kingdom that we’d learn to live on earth as it is in Heaven . . . .

I wonder whether the offering of an average Joe (be it the equivalent of a basket of fish and bread) would be given in faith by everyone across the earth, so that I would live to see a miracle – the end of starvation?

P.S. I set up a Facebook event for FAST for FOOD. Some people commented on the event wall about the timing of the campaign. So I wanted to clarify my thoughts:

If the idea of FAST for FOOD has captured your attention, you can participate in the campaign (with your friends and family) at a time of your choosing.

• The videos
• The prayer calendar (347 KB PDF)
• The poster (460 KB PDF)
• And the PowerPoint presentation (3,465 KB PPT)

have been created without a specific beginning or end date.

Besides, the Global Food Crisis continues . . . . 

– Irene Kao

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And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. – Luke 21:1-2 (NKJV)

The Perfect Gift — Generally Speaking

The perfect gift comes from the heart. Love drives us to it, and despite the fact it might mean sacrifice, love compels us to give it anyway. We know it’s perfect when in love it is accepted — love always fits and need never be exchanged.

The perfect gift is also one that keeps-on giving; it has ‘staying power’ and continues to give long after it is received. Furthermore, the perfect gift provides the one thing that the receiver is unable to obtain for him or herself. Frankly, if they were able, they would have already gotten it.

Finally, the perfect gift is a blessing to both giver and receiver.

The Perfect Gift — Specifically

The perfect gift is sponsoring a Compassion child. How can this be?

Love is the driving force behind such a noble thing. For the giver, it’s the kind of love that says, “What would I sacrifice in order to save a child’s life.” For the recipient it says, “This gift is better than any material thing I could have ever received.”

Child sponsorship is the gift that keeps on giving. Decide to sponsor a child and you provide educational opportunities, regular healthcare, food and clothing if needed, and an opportunity to hear the Gospel message and to be discipled in the faith.

The perfect gift provides the one thing a person cannot obtain themselves, and in the case of a child living in poverty, that one thing is HOPE. Until someone steps up to help, these children wallow in despair.

Finally, the perfect gift is a blessing to both the giver and the receiver. As you can imagine, a child who is given the opportunity to escape spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty is forever grateful, but so often it is the giver who comes away feeling ‘more blessed’ then the recipient. How so? I’m not sure — except to say I am confident it is a God thing.

Compassion Dave is a member of the Advocates Network. He writes a personal blog, Jesus and Compassion, solely dedicated to getting more children sponsored. The blog is an outgrowth of his highly successful MySpace group of the same name, through which he has connected 40 children with loving sponsors.

Dave has been an advocate for six years, and in that time, has found more than 600 children new sponsors.

This year, Dave has scheduled three Compassion Sunday events:

• April 13: Calvary Baptist Church, Little Egg Harbor, NJ
• April 20: Chesapeake Christian Fellowship, Davidsonville, MD
• May 18: St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Washington, NJ

If you’re interested in knowing a little more about Compassion Dave, you can read about him at The Round Table.

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I was reminded this morning of one of the reasons I love this ministry. Every Wednesday morning we meet together for chapel. It’s not something that’s required, but every week, it seems, the auditorium is packed out. It’s a great break from our desks, and more importantly, a chance to feel like a family – like the Church body. We sing together. We pray for our sponsors together. And we hear about how what we are doing as “work” every day is changing lives all around the world. It’s very motivating!

This week the room was especially full. Wess, our president, spoke. Anyone that’s been working here for any amount of time learns that when Wess speaks, it will be moving. He has a lifetime of stories. If you’ve read his book, you know that God allowed some pretty extraordinary circumstances in his life to bring him to where he is now. I love to hear Wess speak because every time he does, he shares straight from his heart. And once you hear him speak, you want to hear him again. Apparently employees here have figured this out because there wasn’t an empty seat in the room. 

The talk, of course, was great. But something that he said this morning really resonated with me. He said that what we as employees are doing here is exactly the same as what Jesus’ mission statement was while he was here: 

Wow. A job description literally right out of the Word of God! It doesn’t get much more motivating than that, huh?

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