Thanks for the encouragement (affliction) I often need a little help to get moving in the right direction!!! If not a lot of help!!!

Following my years “in the field” working for a consortium of relief and development agencies (which included Compassion), I joined Compassion as the Associate Director of Education in 1980. In that role I worked to improve the quality of primary education in about 30 different countries. I also designed some programs to integrate nonformal education into community development programs in several countries. And of course, Haiti still held a very special place in my heart, so I also focused a lot of attention on the Compassion programs in Haiti.

In 1984, I transferred to the President’s Office and was privileged to work closely with Compassion’s prior president, Wally Erickson. My official title then was Assistant to the President and my duties in that job included acting as the official spokesman for the ministry and representing the President’s Office at public events and on overseas assignments. I also spent a lot of time in those days working with a committee of people to document the core corporate policies of the ministry. Now why I was given that task I’m not exactly sure… I suppose drafting policy and articulating that kind of thinking was important, but at the time it seemed like a great punishment directly from the hand of God!

Then, around 1986, I became the Executive Director of Development. Back in those days Compassion was a small enough place that all of our marketing efforts were combined into one department, and as Executive Director I oversaw all the media efforts, donor services and planning for future fundraising. I think we were dealing with numbers around $25 million in annual income back then, which seemed like a lot. Now, when I think about the $400 million that we’re accountable for today, I’m amazed and thrilled to see how God has continued to bless Compassion’s ministry!

A few years later, in 1990, I became the Executive Vice President of Compassion. That position was really a high-level combination of everything I had done in the ministry before with some added responsibilities thrown in, like overseeing the Program Division (the folks who manage the child development efforts that really impact the kids out in the field) and the Finance area. As Executive VP I again represented the President and his office to various groups and I was also part of the executive team that was responsible for all the planning and decision-making that went on around here.

Back in those days we used to spend a lot of time making “five-year plans.” We didn’t keep that practice up too long, since things started growing and changing so quickly that we realized there was no way we could predict as far as five years out! We still take planning for the future seriously, but the pace is so much faster these days.

Then in 1993 I was chosen as Compassion’s president when Wally Erickson decided it was time to retire. I remember wishing there was something I could do to change his mind… not about choosing me for the job, but I just couldn’t imagine this place without Wally. He was such a wise leader and a wonderful friend to me! But, Wally assured me that he had done what God had called him to do here and that it was time to turn it over to the next generation. I was very humbled by his faith in me. Now, I’m thrilled to also have a great group of senior leadership who help guide and direct the management activities of Compassion. I spend most of my time as president speaking to groups and trying to find ways to share Compassion’s vision for releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name in a way that motivates people to become advocates for children.

It would be great if after really grasping the importance of children, people also see Compassion as a wonderful way to meet children’s needs, but often my goal is simply to inspire people to think about children—the kids in their own neighborhoods as well as the kids we minister to around the world—and to value, love and invest in them.

I often say that my job when I’m traveling in the developing world is comfort the afflicted, but my job when I’m in the US or Europe is to afflict the comfortable—to motivate them to reach out to the less fortunate. I think that little saying pretty well sums up my duties today as president of Compassion.