Many of us are allergic to business jargon. Nothing can make people start itching faster than sitting in a meeting and hearing words like “strategy,” “assessment,” or — horror of horrors — “best practice methodology.”

“Partnership” can be one of those abstract business-like words that make our eyes glaze over. The word has been used to mean a lot of things to a lot of people until it hardly means anything to anyone. What is partnership?

Partnership is at the center of what we do at Compassion. We not only partner with you, our sponsors and donors, but also with the local church around the world. So it’s worth understanding what we mean by partnership and how we do it.

The word “partnership” is derived from the Latin word for “portion.” In partnership, we share a portion with each other.

Partnership should achieve a vision that is mutually desired and that cannot be achieved by any one partner alone. It is not simply having tea together. It is having tea in order to work together on something that you both care about and can’t do alone.

With this in mind, this is how we define partnership:

“A Compassion partnership is a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship between Compassion and another entity for the purpose of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name beyond the capacity of either partner individually.”

Our definition is based on three things:

1. A common mission to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. This is the only purpose for which we will enter into partnerships.
2. A collaborative relationship. Both parties must actively build relationship with each other and cooperate willingly on the mission.
3. Mutual respect and mutual benefit. We recognize that we need one another to accomplish the mission.

And based on these three things, we have developed a set of principles that guide us toward healthy, God-honoring partnerships.

They apply to our relationships with you and our supporting church partners; they apply to strategic ministry relationships; and they apply to our implementing church partners.

Partnership Is Founded Upon Our Identity in Christ.

In Christ we are one body with many parts. Each part offers unique service and is equally important to the health of the body. Each partner, irrespective of size, power or resources, is valued. No partner is viewed as more important than the other. This can be achieved only if we are committed to the attitude of Christ and “having the same love … and in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:2-3).

Partnership Seeks Mutually Respectful and Beneficial Relationships

No partner should use the other for its own goals, but should develop genuine, mutually respectful, and beneficial relationships. A partner does not lord over or “do mission” for the other. Rather, a partner seeks to help, empower and serve the other to enrich their shared ministry.

We give priority to relationships over tasks and projects. When relationships empower, rather than impose agendas, all partners are transformed in the process.

Partnership Accepts Mutual Responsibility and Commitment

Partnership takes the commitments made to one another with utmost seriousness and works in collaboration, without dominance, exploitation or condescension.

Increased trust is built through partners being accountable to each other, ensuring that their words and actions are consistent. Partnership requires an enduring commitment to not only the common vision but also to each other.

Partnership Produces Visible Transformation and Outcomes

Partnership does not exist as an end in itself. It exists for the purpose of advancing the kingdom of God further, better and/or faster than either party could do alone.

For us, partnership exists for the shared goal of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. The essence of partnership is that one plus one equals more than two. We enter into partnerships in order to do something we cannot do alone or that we can do better together.

“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, and some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.

That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world.” Henri J. Nouwen, The Mosaic That Shows Us the Face of God

At Compassion, we are deeply honored to be part of the thousands of little stones that God is using to build a beautiful mosaic. Together we are telling a story that none of us could tell by ourselves.

Through our commitment to and relationship with one another, we are revealing the face of God to the world and advancing His kingdom by releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

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Many of us think we “know” what faith means. When it is time to put our faith in action, however, it’s another story. Honestly, I have failed the faith test many times, but God’s mercy helps me to stand up again and again.

Last year my family had to make a decision that would affect our lives permanently. We prayed together and agreed to pray individually for some weeks before getting together again. At first, I thought I was praying and trusting, but as the days passed, I was more anxious and weary.

At one point, I finally gave up and poured out my heart to God in prayer. He knew how far I could go. It was then when I began to see His hand working in guiding the decision we were about to make. My soul was finally at rest, and my faith grew stronger. An indescribable joy was flowing inside of me. I knew I passed the test this time. God answered our prayer.

At Compassion, we also get together every week to pray. A staff member once asked for prayer for a child’s critical health. She said, “I know this is a group of anointed people, and God will hear your prayer.” We prayed, and healing came to the child’s body. God did it again! We rejoiced and our faith was strengthened.

No doubt many difficulties have come along in this ministry. But God has placed anointed men and women who stand with confidence that God is in control to watch over the millions of children who will be released from poverty in Jesus’ name. Some day they will join us in faith and intercede for others.

God is there for you; trust Him! You will see great results in your life and in this ministry.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. — Hebrews 11:1, NIV

Prayer: Help us, Father, to trust in You even when we don’t see a way out. Amen!

Read all the One in Spirit devotionals.

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Everyone wants to be trusted for their character and their competence. We all know it. But in our relationships with each other, we often say or do things that can easily undermine trust.

Sometimes mistrust is due to miscommunication or misunderstanding. Sometimes it is due to our past experiences. Other times it is due to lack of consideration toward the other person.

And sometimes the very way we conduct our work may affect the culture of trust that we want to promote.

I remember how, as the Haiti Country Director, I used to get so many questions from pastors and church staff regarding our audit and reporting processes. They would often imply that the reason we audited them was because we did not trust them.

I struggled a lot with these remarks, and was never sure how to respond. Have you ever received similar comments? I would love to hear how you answered them.

I’m also aware that, in the developing world, some people question the necessity for performance reviews in the work environment. They wonder whether the reviews are conducted because we do not trust them to accomplish what they say they will do.

So let me ask you these questions:

• Is there room for audits and performance reviews in an environment of trust?
• Is it possible to use these processes to reinforce trust? If so, how?

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We could answer the question for you, but you’d take what we say with a grain of salt, right?

How about what Ryan Langford has to say about us?

Ryan joined his wife, Stephanie, on our recent blog trip to the Philippines. He wasn’t there as a blogger, but he felt compelled to tell you what he discovered.

I’ve been praying a lot lately about the money [God has] entrusted to Stephanie and me to steward, and I can’t shake the feeling that He’s calling us to greater levels of both stewardship and generosity.

Generosity is being willing to part with the resources under your control for the good of others. Stewardship gives generosity focus. Its purpose is to maximize the impact of our generosity.

So with this sense of calling in my heart, I tagged along with the Compassion Bloggers as they visited the Philippines to see the work that Compassion International is doing among the children there. We had the opportunity to visit the head office, four development centers, and six homes — and to meet dozens of inspiring volunteers and hundreds of Filipino children.

As we visited all these places and met all these beautiful people, one question burned in my heart as the backdrop for the entire trip:

Does the money that is invested with Compassion International produce a good return on investment?

This is the question I ask myself when I’m making business decisions, so why shouldn’t I look for a good return when I’m investing in God’s business? So I spent the entire week asking hard questions, poring through accounting books, reviewing auditing practices, and evaluating first-hand the kind of impact and scale of impact of Compassion’s work in the lives of those we are called to love and serve for the glory of God.

I crossed the line of professional courtesy before I could shake the first hand, and that line quickly disappeared behind me as I invited myself into every area that I felt mattered in my quest to answer the question. To be fair to the folks at Compassion, though, they never seemed to mind my intrusions and every question was met with complete transparency and invitations to explore further.

Now that we’ve set the stage, read the entire post at Keeper of the Home.

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I was sitting in a small two-room house in Lima as this insight was revealed to me.

“The government, they just provided me with milk. But the church staff, they teach me how to raise my child.”

The speaker was a caregiver in our Child Survival Program (CSP) in Peru back in 2004. I never forgot that quote. It left a lasting impression.

Sometimes, the measure of success by large financial contributors to interventions for the poor is “the medicine is available at the clinic” or “the well has been dug.” These are all good things and the poor can take advantage of them. However, in essence, they are simply services that have been made available to the poor. They do not factor in the learning aspect. There is no guarantee that just because a service is available, the poor will take advantage of it on their own.

This is where the local church partners that implement our Child Survival Program come in. We partner with local churches in the developing world so that church staff may develop relationships with caregivers in their communities. We call these people “CSP implementers.”

Implementers register pregnant women and caregivers with young children into the Child Survival Program. They visit them at home one to two times a month. During this time, implementers and caregivers develop trust between each other.

The implementer provides the caregiver with child survival knowledge, such as coaching the mother of a newborn as she learns to breast-feed or teaching the mother of an older infant to recognize the symptoms of life-threatening diseases so that the mother can take her child to the local clinic for proper intervention. However, all of this happens as the implementer and the caregiver develop trust in each other. The key word here is trust.

Imagine that one day, you are sitting in your living room reading a book and, suddenly, you get a knock at the door. You go to the door and you are greeted by a group of foreign people. They speak your language, but not that well. You decipher from their conversation that you should eat a certain diet that you can’t afford and that you should practice an exercise regime that you have no interest in or time for.

They invite you to their gathering for next Saturday and they tell you that they have some of this food for this new diet available there. They shake your hand and then they leave.

After reflecting on your conversation for three minutes, you determine it is not worth your time. You decide not go. You return to your couch to read your book.

This same scenario can very easily occur in the developing world except that the caregiver might be milking her goat or cooking a pot of soup over firewood instead of reading a book at the time of the visit.

The suggestions that the visitors make seem foreign to her. She has never heard of this new diet and it doesn’t appeal to her. Since there is no ultimate incentive to participate, she easily ignores the suggestion.

Therefore, trust is the key component to truly making child survival interventions or, for that matter, any interventions for the poor likely to occur.

The desire to practice a new behavior or try out a new way of doing something has to be relational in nature. The fact that we partner with local churches makes this possible. These relationships that implementers develop with the caregivers in their communities are exceptional.

I have heard of implementers who accompany pregnant women during labor. They are present the entire time.

I have heard of caregivers who want to repay the church for the services they have received, but cannot do so monetarily so they come to the church on Saturday mornings to clean the classrooms and help with overall housecleaning.

There is no other motivator like trust. Where there is trust, there is also commitment.

Peer support is also an added advantage to our program. It is typical for CSP caregivers to develop relationships with each other at group trainings to the extent that they encourage each other to participate.

I read of a situation in the Philippines where caregivers visit the home of a caregiver who missed a group activity to make sure she is okay. This peer support alone causes the caregivers to own the program for themselves. They keep each other accountable to participating in the program. Neighbors’ relationships strengthen.

Behavior change is the single most difficult barrier to overcoming poverty. If someone has been doing something a certain way because she learned it that way from her mother and her grandmother and so forth, why should she have any incentive to try something different?

Why should a mother stop feeding her newborn animal milk or tea or plain water and make sure she is properly and exclusively breast-feeding instead?

Why should a caregiver trust a doctor with a needle if she has no relationship with that doctor? She could think it were poison instead of an immunization. It is the trust component.

If the caregiver hears that she should breast-feed from someone she trusts, someone who speaks her language, and someone who has had similar experiences, and if she has seen results from her peers and if she has the knowledge come to her rather than having to go search it out, then yes, she is very likely to change her behavior and practice proper child survival techniques. The commitment from and relationships with the church CSP implementers make all the difference.

In the end, I would say that the question to measure the success of interventions to the poor is:

“Did the person delivering the service and the person receiving the service build trust in each other?”

If yes, then the rest will take care of itself. The child will survive, the child and the caregiver will be healthy, the caregiver will be empowered and confident about her abilities, and the church staff will have truly been “the hands and feet of Jesus” in their communities. They will have brought new life and new hope to their neighbors.

These scenarios repeat themselves thousands of times each month in over 15 countries worldwide in our Child Survival Program. What a privilege and an honor to be part of these amazing lifesaving and life-changing experiences! To God be the glory!

Please visit RescueBabiesNow.org for more information about our Child Survival Program and how you can become involved.

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Blue symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. It is the color of the sky. And it is the color of Compassion. It represents the unlimited potential of the children we serve.

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How many times have you heard about the misuse of funds hindering an organization’s effectiveness, or greed compromising decision-making and values? Regrettably, I think we all have heard it too many times.

Working in the contact center, sponsors and donors call me and want to know if we — if Compassion — is trustworthy or if it’s a scam. These conversations are difficult because I cannot convince that person — through one phone call — to trust us, to trust Compassion.

If someone has been “burned” before, they look for faults in everything — the letters from their sponsored child, the pictures we send them, the way we use the funds we receive.

I have heard questions like “Is my child even real,” and “How do I know that the funds are actually getting to the child?”

I really don’t blame anyone for asking these questions. Were I on the other end of the phone, I’d be asking the same things.

For those of you wondering, here are my thoughts:

We, as Christians, are called to be good stewards of the resources God has given us. Here at Compassion, we are very passionate about ensuring we are.

Internal and independent audits are regularly conducted for our offices in the field and here in Colorado Springs. Every financial process undergoes intensive and continual scrutiny to ensure that funds are properly received, tracked, and managed. We want our program to be effective, so we monitor the child development centers to make sure they are making a difference in the lives of the children we serve.

Our goal is that the children in our program follow Jesus Christ in faith and deed, support themselves and share with others in need, are responsible members of their families, churches, communities and nations; and maintain their own physical well-being by the time they complete our Child Sponsorship Program. We have put measures in place to make sure that these goals are being accomplished.

Is Compassion a trustworthy organization?

Yes, I think so — but don’t just take my word for it. If you are a sponsor with Compassion and have thought about this before, I encourage you to check out Charity Navigator’s review of Compassion.

Not only did we receive the highest rating of four stars last year, but we received it for the previous seven years as well. Chris mentioned that in a blog post last week, “How is My Money Used Each Month?”

The question of trustworthiness goes beyond financial accountability. Regrettably, there aren’t any independent rating agencies that I’m aware of that grade organizations on how trustworthy they are. But here are some other resources for you to review if you want more information:

• What does it mean for an organization to “live with integrity”?
• Compassion International’s profile at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
• Compassion International meets the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability

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Last week, they spoke to me again from a place where you wouldn’t expect to find much of anything at all except despair, doubt, hatred and cynicism.

The place is Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. It was this largest of African slums that many Compassion-assisted children witnessed firsthand the worst that human nature has to offer.

Shortly after Kenya’s incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27, 2007, ethnic violence surged throughout the capital city of Nairobi, affecting some of the poorest areas the most.

The violence lasted through February 2008, leaving as many as 800 to 1,500 dead and another 180,000 to 250,000 displaced. The children witnessed firsthand the murderous rampage that also led to the destruction of their homes, schools and churches.

Shortly after the violence broke out, Barrack Okal, an employee at Compassion who was born in Kenya, visited the children at Legacy Christian Academy in Castle Rock, Colorado.

The children, who were learning about Kenya, were told about the terrible violence in that country and asked to write to the Compassion-assisted children living in Kibera.

On the day Barrack picked up the children’s letters, each child took turns praying for the kids in the child development centers who were affected by the violence.

The day after they prayed, the violence ended.

Last week, I went with Barrack to present to the children of Legacy Christian Academy the letters that the children in Kibera sent back to them.

The letters were moving. The Kenyan children portrayed the violence they saw, but then immediately followed up the horrid descriptions with words of thanks and hope.

For example, one letter said:

Dear friend,

My name is Duncan. I live in Kibera, and it is in Kenya.

In my country Kenya some few months ago, there was violence, and we were not safe because some people were looting. Tribes were fighting against tribes. Some people burnt houses for people and there was no peace all over Kenya.

But thank you for praying for me, and now I’m safe. There are no clashes anywhere in my country. Our desks were burnt and we don’t have desks to sit in class.

From your friend,

Duncan

At the bottom of this letter, the amazing hope and faith these children have in their Savior was illustrated with a picture of a double heart depicting the colors of the Kenyan flag. Inside the image it said, “God loves Kenya.”

In another letter, one of the Kenyan children wanted to encourage Christian brothers and sisters in America that God would always be with them.

Dear friend Jean,

How are you? I hope that you are fine. My name is called Dephny. I’m in class seven, and I am doing well. What about you? I also hope that you are doing well in school.

God will always be with you all the time if you believe in him and obey his commands. I thank God because we were not injured during the past election violence. I will be praying for you every day and I am glad to write to you this letter.

Here I have a memory verse for you: “‘I am the first and the last,’ says the Lord Almighty who is, who was, and who is to come.” Revelation 1:8

Your best friend,

Dephny

These stories and others like these have helped me gain perspective on my life.

First of all, God has richly poured out His blessings on me and my family.

I am fortunate to live in a country that, while not perfect, affords me freedom and opportunity to do things that people in most countries can only dream about.

I can worship God how I please. I can go to grocery stores full of food. The home I live in has a roof and glass windows. My children are free from disease, and if they or someone else in my family get sick, access to quality health care is readily available. My list of blessings go on and on.

Second, I all too often take God’s calling on my life for granted.

I measure my happiness based on my circumstances rather than my calling. These children are happy despite their circumstances. They are happy because they know God and because they are known by God. How else can we become truly fulfilled?

Third, I often put hope and trust in things that get old and fall apart. (I’m referring to inanimate objects as well as our physical bodies.)

For these children in Kenya, everything around them may be falling apart, and yet they are full of hope as they put their trust in the one thing that was the same yesterday as it is today and as it will be tomorrow – their Lord and Savior.

What valuable lessons to learn from the “least of these.”

As the letters were being read to the children of Legacy Christian Academy, I noticed that all the children, even the kindergartners, were glued to their seats attentively listening. They didn’t want to miss a single word of what these amazing children overseas had to say.

Neither did I.

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By consciously withholding something or avoiding a subject because I fear a reaction – anger, rejection, judgment, etc., I’m not being authentic. I’m being manipulative.

Choosing what to share and what not to share is lying by omission, and it’s not being transparent or authentic.

What does this have to do with children in poverty and Compassion International?

• You’re reading Compassion’s blog about child poverty.
• A blog is media — social media.
• Media is manipulative.
• We want to get more children sponsored. More! More! More!
• The blog helps us do that.
• We’re afraid to say anything that will muck that up.

I’ve had conversations with employees who have said that “the blog is just a big commercial for Compassion.” And “the blog is too rah-rah, like it’s written by a bunch of cheerleaders.” Or GASP! Marketers.

I agree that our first two months have been filled with lots of feel good posts, and I know we can’t be everything to everyone, and I don’t think we have a problem yet; however, if you perceive the blog to be a one-dimensional commercial about how great Compassion is, as opposed to an authentic and sincere communication with you and for you, rather than at you and for us, then I’m wrong and we have a PROBLEM.

Am I wrong?

And what’s your perspective, meaning how involved with Compassion are you? Are you drinking the same Kool-Aid as us employees? Are you Super Advocate or Super Sponsor … or are you just passing through?

How do we share anything positive with you without sounding like a bunch of cheerleaders?

Am I over-thinking this stuff?

If you’ve never commented before, please consider doing so now. You non-commenters have opinions too. I know you do.

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