I remember her – a poor woman sweeping the pavement in Calcutta.

I was across the road, separated from her by cars and straining buses that leaned precariously as they traveled, overloaded and overcrowded, down the street.

She had a small child. The little girl played in her make-believe world, not knowing that the odds were already stacked unfairly against her. Odds like disease, abuse, trafficking, hunger, poverty.

As I watched, I witnessed one of the most troubling sights I have seen. As the mother hunched over, sweeping the path, the little girl took a discarded plastic cup and filled it with wastewater from the gutter.

She poured it on the concrete and began to scrub the pavement clean with a piece of litter.

I could almost hear her say,

“Look, I’m just like mummy.”

At that moment, poverty had claimed her life and marked her place in the world, yet she was barely old enough to speak or walk.

I tell you this story not because I want you to feel guilty, but because I want you to feel outraged by poverty.

I want you to identify with this mother and her child as your own sister and daughter.

I want you to feel disturbed enough to ask why these things happen, then stand up and speak out as an advocate for the “least of these.”

I want this story to trouble you enough to provoke a moment longer of prayer on their behalf, and to ask yourself how much is enough. What do you really need so that out of your comparative wealth you might find that extra to give?

It is a true gift from God when we move past dutiful charity and come to a deep solidarity with the poor.

Anchoring our discipleship in the compassion and justice of Jesus is something we should all wish for. In short, a heart for the poor is a conversion experience.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” — Mark 10:25, NIV

Prayer: Loving God, please give us just a glimmer of your heart for the poor. Encourage us to stand up and defend the weak and the powerless, and deeply anchor our discipleship in the justice and compassion of Jesus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen Tollestrup is the Executive Director for TEAR Fund New Zealand. He is the Director of the World Evangelical Alliance Peace and Reconciliation Initiative and has an honors degree in Theology and a post-graduate degree in Industrial Relations.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Hlaa me u lives in a village where pregnant mothers are afraid to go to the clinic or hospitals. The mothers don’t rely on modern medical care. The nearby clinic has some limited facilities for safe baby deliveries, but old superstitions keep the villagers away.

Hlaa me u is from the Marma tribe of Bangladesh, and the majority of Marma babies are delivered at home by a local wet-nurse. Often the wet-nurses lack knowledge of midwifery, which has caused the deaths of many children.

Money is also a big issue. It costs around 3,000 Taka ($43) at the local clinic for child delivery. Hlaa me u’s day-laborer husband earns less than 1,200 Taka ($17) per month. She had no other option than giving birth to her first child at home.

Hlaa me u lives in a small, one-room bamboo hut with her husband, mother and sister. They don’t have any furniture. There is no electricity  or water supply at their house. They sleep on the floor at night.

Hlaa me didn’t receive proper maternity care when she was pregnant. There were days when she had to starve with her family. She couldn’t work during her pregnancy, so her husband was the only one earning in the family.

“I felt so tired and weak during my pregnancy. I didn’t know that I need to have an improved diet for my baby’s health.”

In October 2010, during her seventh month of pregnancy, Hlaa me was registered as the 39th mother of Compassion Bangladesh’s Rowangchari Child Survival Program (CSP) at the local church. It was a special experience for her.

Hlaa me learned how to properly care for her newborn baby. She was expecting the baby in the first week of November, but her daughter came to this world one month early. The CSP implementer at the center is a well-trained nurse by the name of Vanzir. She assisted Hlaa me with the birth of her first child, who was born safely at home.

This assistance saved Hlaa me 3,000 Taka ($43), which is a large amount considering her economic condition.

The baby was healthy and weighed 2.8 kilograms (6.72 pounds). Hlaa me attends the center four times a month. Learning is not the only activity she is involved with. She also gets proper nutrition, a new set of traditional dress, a pair of shoes, a bottle of Horlics (energy drink), toiletries (shampoo, soap, hair oil), baby oil, baby lotion and baby powder.

“I never expected these gifts. I knew about the children’s program (child sponsorship). But Compassion is equally careful for the pregnant mothers and the mothers with little babies. I couldn’t afford these for my baby. They also visited me and my baby several times. My baby is lucky to receive such love.”

Vanzir joined Compassion recently and is excited about her new role.

“It is a special experience for me to serve these mothers. I visited Hlaa me’s house several times. I knew her family condition. Thank God that He blessed them through Compassion. The lives of the babies in this community depend on fate.

“These families are not aware of the benefit of modern treatment at hospitals. They are afraid to go to hospital, and most of them don’t have the capability to pay hospital fees. Hlaa me’s family doesn’t have the ability to pay the hospital fee and had to take the service from uneducated wet-nurse. That could bring both the mother and child in danger. It was an amazing experience to see a newborn baby.”

Mothers like Hlaa me in the Marma community are giving birth to their babies without any modern medical attention. The fate of the baby depends on the health of the mother and the expertise of the uneducated wet-nurses. Thirty times out of 100 the wet-nurses fail to save the babies.

You help give hope to these pregnant mothers through the Child Survival Program.

Now the mothers will be under the care of the expert CSP implementer during deliveries. It will ultimately decrease the chance of infant mortality. The awareness program, baby training and other assistance (like nutrition and baby kits) at our centers helps ensure healthy mothers and babies.

Thank you for supporting these deprived mothers and babies. Your loving contributions impact the fate of these babies and ensure healthy lives.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Most of us have a story. Actually, most of us have a lot of stories. We have our life story. We have relationship stories. We have travel stories. We have “remember that one time when … ” stories. 

Stories make up our lives. They hold memories, moments that last a lifetime. They often hold the explanation to why we are who we are. 

I’m guessing that since you read this blog, you also have a Compassion story. A story about what caused you to pick up a Child Packet or visit Compassion’s website and sponsor a child who lived in poverty. Maybe you have a story about why you have continued to sponsor your child even in the midst of an economic recession, or why you have chosen to sponsor more than one child. 

Your story is unique. It’s also a very powerful way to bring more people into the Compassion family. 

Here is the Reader’s Digest version of my Compassion story:

I was 16 years old, a recent high school graduate, with no job and no income and a pending move to a new city. I heard a certain recording artist share his story about meeting a young girl in Bolivia that he and his family had sponsored for years. 

He shared about her life and the poverty in which she lived. Pictures flashed up on the screen, pictures of slums, tiny one-room houses, and trash piled up in the streets. 

Then there was a picture of a young teenage girl with a beaming smile standing next to him. He talked about how his sponsored girl now had an education, health care, nutritious meals, and a place to be a kid in a safe and nurturing environment. He talked about the letters they exchanged back and forth, how he considered her to be his daughter and she thought of him like her father. 

He shared that on the day she decided to give her life to Jesus, hope broke through on her world of darkness. But then he said this: “Whatever your financial situation, God’s Word is full of promises that if you will care for the poor, God will care for you. That doesn’t mean you’ll be rich, but God promises to take care of your needs. You can trust Him in this. Completely.” 

I sat down and began flipping through my Bible, reading passages that the man had shared. It was true — God gives great promises associated with our willingness to care for the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow. So I decided to see if the promises were real. I walked back to the Compassion table and sponsored a young boy from India named Naveenababu Mutyala.

More than a decade later, I can tell you with full confidence that God keeps His promises. I have a few more sponsored kids in my family. I have gone through job transitions and moved across country, done a lot of wrestling with God and “working out my salvation with fear and trembling.” 

Through it all, as I have remained faithful in sharing what I have with the poor, God has continued to share with and take care of me. It has been through my experience with Compassion that I have learned about God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises, and it has been the single most influencing factor in my willingness to walk the journey of learning to trust God completely. 

I have been blessed to be a part of the life of a young girl in Mexico who gave her life to Jesus this August, the life of a teenage boy in Thailand who has gone from writing self-loathing letters to letters of hope for the future and inquiries about God, and wrapped my arms around a precious boy in the Dominican Republic who stole my heart with his quiet sincerity and silent tears at our parting. 

Sponsorship is a journey. A journey of faith, a journey of learning to invest in another person, someone very far away whom we might never meet. And sponsorship changes two lives – yours and the life of a precious little one. It’s a gift where everyone involved becomes better, stronger and learns more about what it means to follow Jesus.

We are in the midst of the holiday season, a time when folks are looking for ways to share and bless others. Why not think through your own Compassion story and consider giving one to a family member, friend, neighbor or coworker this season?

Family gatherings, Christmas parties and work celebrations are all great places to talk about what sponsorship has meant to you and why you have chosen to care for the poor. The impact of your story could be all that is needed for someone else to join with you on this journey of sponsorship. Let’s work together to give hope to a child this Christmas.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Are you still with me? Still tracking with these thoughts on eliminating poverty? Good.

Now, I’ll share with you some data – data that show the Millennium Development Goals are on target.

We used to say that 40,000 children under age 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases. Then about 6 to 7 years ago this number was 30,000. Today, 24,000 children under 5 die every day of hunger or preventable diseases.

These statistics show that in 20 years the number of children who die every day of hunger or preventable diseases has been cut in half. Yet, the birth rate is actually going up. The population is increasing.

The blue line represents the years 1800 to 2000. In 1800, 85 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today it’s around 22 percent.

Between 1950 and 2000 there was a dramatic decline from 55 percent to 22 percent.

From 1981 to 2001 the population living in extreme poverty in China dropped from 60 percent to about 10 percent. And the same dramatic decline can be seen in India; the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty has dropped from over 60 percent to about 34 percent.

Between 1990 and 2005 the death rate for children under 5 in the Middle East and North Africa was cut in half. It is on target for the fourth Millennium Development Goal, to reduce by two thirds the mortality of children under 5.

And the same is true for Central America and the Caribbean. The death rate of children has been cut in half in the past 15 years.

Scott proceeded to show graphs from South Asia, Europe, Central Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. All showing that the death rate of children under 5 has drastically decreased.

In fact, the only area where we are behind for decreasing the mortality rate for children under 5 is sub-Saharan Africa, and yet there is still a decline.

All over the world sanitation and water quality have been improving.

As this graph represents, the spread of HIV in Africa has been curbed; it is not increasing as it had in years past; in fact, it seems to be flat-lining.

All these statistics strongly support what Jeffery Sachs (a world-class economist with a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard) has said,

“Ending extreme poverty* is a practical, achievable objective and is an objective that can be completed by our generation.”

He is making this statement through the lens of an economist, as someone looking at the numbers. He is saying this from a secular viewpoint. How much more true his statement is when adopted by us whose belief is rooted in the Creator of the universe. The One who stated, “There shall be no poor among you.”

To bring us to a close, Scott brought us back to Judas’ life. A man who walked with Jesus, who witnessed the miracles and the love of the Lord, yet he betrayed Jesus because of his greed and love for money. He sold Jesus for about half the value of the perfume Mary anointed Jesus with.

Scott states,

“The wealthy church today, the American church, has been entrusted with a purse of the Kingdom. The majority of Christ’s followers live in the developing world. What do they think of us as treasurers? Are they assuming that we would put the treasuries of the Kingdom to celebrating God’s goodness or caring for the poor? How are we doing?”

He then shared a fact that is, to say the least, haunting.

The annual income of Christian American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. The amount of money needed to end global poverty is about $74 billion a year.

Did you crunch the numbers?

Basically, 1 percent of our annual income a year is what is needed to end extreme poverty.

Can you imagine? It could be said of our generation, “And there were no needy persons among them.”

To add a little perspective, Americans spend ten times more on entertainment ($705 billion) than what is needed to end poverty.

Is it just a matter of priorities?

As Scott ended he pointed out that there are only a few important questions:

1. What does God want? Do we have any doubt about that? Does he want children suffering?
2. Are we willing to join Him in His work?

This is a path that has already been paved by Christ-followers who have gone before us. We have a model to follow. We are not alone. We are fighting with the Lord.

Surely, that was quite a bit to take in. And now I am eager to know, was there that shining light of revelation for you? What is the state of your heart?

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates