But Jang is made of more than just muscle. This weightlifter has a heart for the small, the weak, the poor, and she is using her fame to help children in desperate situations.

Jang Mi-Ran is a long-time Compassion friend, but today she is the face of sponsorship for the 1 million children we help.

Fellow Blewussi Kpodo was one of the world’s most vulnerable children, but now he is in the hands of the strongest. She says, “It really is my honor . . . This moment makes me forget every difficult moment of my life I went through.”

Though Jang did not grow up in extreme poverty, she knows what it means to struggle, and she understands the power that God has to rescue.

“I was a girl who was very depressed because of my appearance. However, the factor [my appearance] that I thought the weakest became the factor that I think the strongest.”

Jang is able to stand up to weightlifting giants from around the globe with confidence, but she was not always so courageous. In fact, she was once the wallflower.

“It is miracle that I am standing right here and speak in front of the people because I was the timid girl who didn’t like to be in front of the people. It’s all because God is with me.”

She has broken world records and is laden with gold medals, but Jang is humble. And despite the adoration she receives from her fans and the media, she is tentative to embrace their praise.

“Recently I had difficult time because people started to think me as a superwoman who is doing well in everything only through the image that shown through media. In fact, there are more things that I am not good at than things that I am good at.”

Whether good, bad, Olympian or amateur, Jang is making a difference in this world by speaking up for those who can’t speak for themselves. Her life is an encouragement to children everywhere to find their identity, strength, and hope in God.

“I have strong faith that God would never leave me alone.” And she will be able to encourage her sponsored children to believe that same message. “I believe that God can do impossible things when I pray.”

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

And who better to stand alongside this precious little one than the world’s strongest woman? Fellow’s sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, a long-time Compassion supporter and Olympic gold medalist weight lifter from Korea.

So, the strongest woman in the world is now sponsoring one of the most vulnerable children in the world!

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

However, this particular day we have a sponsorship that is very special in that it represents a milestone for our ministry. Compassion is currently serving 1 million sponsored children! One million!!

I wish we could all be together today to celebrate this joyous moment. What a day it is!

Thank you sponsors! Thank you for your love of children. Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s call on your lives.

I love you, and I love serving the Lord with you through this amazing ministry!

Updated at 4:30 p.m. MDT

“Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)

Tune into Fox and Friends tomorrow (May 21) at 6:50 a.m. EDT to “meet” our 1 millionth child and his sponsor.

The newly sponsored child lives with his father outside Togo’s capital city of Lomé. Togo, a country whose population is seriously affected by the devastation of AIDS, is the most recent country to join the growing list of nations where Compassion works.

The child’s sponsor is from South Korea, the country in which Compassion began its mission 57 years earlier. The sponsor is most recently noted for a gold medal she won at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

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

Within our families, it’s stuff like weddings and birthdays and soccer tournaments. At church, it’s retreats, sermon series, small group studies, and, if you’re liturgical like my church, feast days and liturgical seasons measured in colors — we move from white to red to green.

It’s already been a week since we fasted and prayed for the millions of children and families affected by the global food crisis. I missed my chance to immediately write and thank you. I meant to — you were on my heart.

The day came and was powerful and passed. Almost instantly I was off to the next “important” thing.

Yet, the kids are still hungry. They still need our prayers and our actions. They are not on to the next thing. They are still dealing with and living this one big thing. Hunger.

Over 6,500 of you committed to pray and fast with us last week. And I do want to say thank you for that! Even though my thanks are a bit late, they are heartfelt nonetheless.

I hope your day of prayer and fasting was a day in which you encountered the Lord and His tender heart for those who are suffering. I hope it was a day when you felt a bit more deeply the Lord’s love for these children.

Let’s keep doing that — feeling His love for them. Sharing His compassion with them. Not just on one day. Let’s pray regularly for them. Perhaps when we sit down to dinner to say grace. When we lie down in bed at night. When we rise to another beautiful summer day. Let’s thank the Lord for His astounding provision to us and lift up those who so desperately need a touch of His hand.

A few of Compassion’s international partners are holding days of fasting and prayer just like we did on June 25.

If you enjoy the feeling of joining together with believers across the globe to fast and pray, then you might consider praying with:

• Netherlands on July 6
• United Kingdom on July 13
• South Korea on July 24

Please continue to tell others about the global food crisis. Continue to help raise awareness. Let’s take our focus off gas prices in the U.S. and put the spotlight on the deep and growing needs the children have worldwide.

Don’t assume everyone around you already knows about this and is doing something to make a difference. Most people don’t know, and those who do know, don’t know how to help in a way that will make a tangible difference. Tell them what we’re doing.

In the month of July alone we’re sending $1.5 million to nine of our field countries to help feed children and provide emergency supplemental food for their families. We hope to do the same for the next several months, if the funds come in.

We are also working on a longer term plan that will help the children’s families and our church partners address this problem, into the future, in ways that are sustainable and developmental.

Let’s not let this moment pass in our everyday busyness. In the rush to move along to the next thing in our lives …let’s pause here. Let’s join together and make a difference.

This is important. Really important! Who is going to do it if you and I don’t?

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