Comments on: Wess Speaks (Part VI)

By: Mike Stephens

Mike Stephens — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:55:15 +0000

It is great to know and see that God is building HIS Kingdom!!! What a privilege to be a part of it!!!

By: Mark Yeadon

Mark Yeadon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Prairie Rose,

I’m glad your question asked for an “estimate” of the number of children that make commitments to Christ while in our program because that is a hard number to pinpoint exactly. We do receive news on a quarterly basis from our local church partners about the number of children who have made new decisions to follow the Lord, but that “data” isn’t really tied to a percentage of those who complete the Compassion program. The number that Wess stated of 150,000 children giving their lives to Christ this coming year, was based on an average of 37,500 children per quarter , which is right in line with the kind of numbers that our church partners have been reporting to us.

However, I have a feeling that may be a fairly conservative number, since asking and responding to that question is optional for our church partners and our children. Christianity is a minority religion in many of the countries where Compassion works. Therefore, we attempt to be as culturally sensitive as possible regarding the type of spiritual records that our church partners elect to keep and share with us. Another reason that this number may not fully represent all the little hearts around the world that are being transformed is due to the rapid rate of continued growth throughout Compassion’s ministry. Our averages for a lot of “statistics” are hard to maintain when the base numbers grow so quickly. (Not that we’re complaining about that… It’s amazing to watch how God is moving throughout the world!) So, the miraculous number of children giving their lives to Christ is really very dynamic and hard to pinpoint. But it is so encouraging to have even an estimate of the lives that are being transformed by God’s saving grace… 150,000 per year…thank you Lord!!

Mark Yeadon
Senior Vice President of International Program

By: Kees Boer

Kees Boer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:37:53 +0000

Wow, I didn’t know that, and I was a journalist that interviewed Wess. He’s extremely gracious!!!

One thing that excites me too is that for every child that is sponsored about 30 people get reached. That is 30-million people, that’s more people than are in many countries in the world.

Kees

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:59:17 +0000

Thanks for answering my question, Wess! I’m sure you would have made a good journalist, but you are definitely blessing others in a much greater capacity through your involvement with Compassion.

I’m really enjoying this series!

By: Prairie Rose

Prairie Rose — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:42:31 +0000

In relation to this, how many children accept Jesus by the time they’ve left Compassion’s program? i.e., out of all the sponsored children, what’s the estimated percentage of how many graduate the program as believers?

By: Vicki Small

Vicki Small — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:05:06 +0000

Hmm–how ’bout a t-shirt that says, (front) “I’m changing the world…” (back) “one child at a time / 477 children a day / 150,000 a year”? Except that, by next year, those numbers would be wrong. So we’d need an asterisk and a small note at the bottom, or something.

Wess, when your ten answers have all been published, here, I hope you’ll still “drop in,” as often as you can, to inform us and lift our hearts. And I hope that, from time to time, in some way, we are able to encourage you.

By: Compassion dave

Compassion dave — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:12:05 +0000

“My greatest joy is that this year over 150,000 of Compassion’s little children will accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.”

Little candles being lit for Jesus–all around the world. One day there will not be one dark corner on this planet! What a blessing it is to be on God’s team.