Integrity is another one of our core values. But what does that mean? What is integrity?
“Integrity means doing the same thing whether people are with you or whether you are alone.” – Ed Anderson, senior vice president and chief financial officer
Integrity doesn’t just apply to big decisions. It also applies to your small decisions. It pertains to your whole life.
Integrity is doing the right thing, not necessarily the popular thing.
Integrity is being honest, upstanding and having a strong character.
Officially, for Compassion, integrity is:
“… aligning our thoughts, motivations, attitudes and actions with the ethical principles found in God’s Word. In both our personal lives and our ministry, what we believe, what we say and what we do should be consistent, congruent, reliable and transparent.”
- Do you think that the children at our child development centers ever “get tired” of “pleasing” the sponsors who briefly, but regularly visit many of the same centers on our sponsor tours?
- If the children do “get tired” and would rather be doing something else but can’t admit that they don’t want to greet another group of sponsors, for whatever reason, is this a matter of integrity?
- If it is a matter of integrity, of not aligning our thoughts with our actions, who is out of alignment? The child? The sponsor? Compassion?
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I hope , compassion international inc is one of the best channels through which God is delivering his salivation to the youth generation and showing his hand unto the needy in care of them as he promised in his only begotten child Called Jesus!
Chris, I can only just talk about Bolivia with much experience….
But as far as Bolivia is concerned, I can’t imagine the kids feeling that they keep on having these same sponsors visiting their centers….. And not enjoying it…
However, if that is true in some countries, if tours from the 10 or so countries are visiting the same centers over and over again, that might be about half a dozen or so tours per year, the staff of the CDI might feel a little overwhelmed, because they have to put together a whole program with cultural “entertainment” (for lack of a beter word) , a “welcome committee” make sure that everything in the CDI is at their very best… I think for the kids, it would be fun to have these sponsors from all these different countries visit them and also other types of visits…. Unless some are put under some sort of pressure to participate in some song or dance that they don’t want to do….
Now as far as the SAME sponsors visiting the same projects???? For crying out loud…. (jajajajjajajajajaj) change your program, they’re not going to want to go on these tours again… “Yes, Alice we have already seen those centers 4 times now, we’ll go to a tour of worldvision!!!!”
Hi Chris & All, nice to have found your blog, what a great topic, I have been trying to bring Integrty to The online Business, especially the Marketing Fraternity , who really need to get to know ;
“What is Integrity?”.
I’m a strong Christian, my entire family in Australia Share the same faith and have the poor and marginalized in our prayer.
Cheers & Blessings,
Eric Hansen
IntegrityOnlineMarketer
well done ……………….God be wit u all
Yes. For several reasons, one of them being location, some child development centers do receive more visits than others.
And yes, when child development centers are visited the centers often want to warmly welcome their guests. What the welcome looks like varies by country, center, visiting party, etc.
Integrity is what i don’t have and wish to have. Thanks for sharing. Encourgment to work on mine.
When I visited the children in Bolivia, I felt that the other children really wanted to meet me too. I remember sitting in a room with the child and some of the staff workers and the other children would just be walking by the room trying to see what one of those sponsors looked like.
Are you saying that there are some projects that get visited all of the time and that those particular children of those particular project have to do performances for sponsors that aren’t even their sponsors? If that’s the case, maybe they can go to other projects?
I know I’ve wondered about when the children get letters. In some projects, the children will need to write back within 3 days. They get a reply sheet right with their letters. I’ve wondered if I might have written too much and they feel burdened by having to respond to every letter. So, I asked them. All of them said that they wanted me to continue writing as much and one even asked me right at the beginning if I could write more than twice a month.
Kees
The enemy of integrity is selfishness–that quality that grows inside each of us like an arrogant weed. It is this thing that coerces us to say, “But I don’t want to,” with both the demeanor of a bratty child and the authority of a worldly entitlementalist. Attempts to eradicate the infestation are doomed to failure if tried in our flesh.
1 John 4:4, “You are of God…and have overcome…because He who is in you is great than he who is in the world.”
I’ve belabored the issue as a set-up to answering your question regarding the Compassion-sponsored children. Since these children are the same as our children (as it pertains to sinful nature), it is safe to say that they are susceptible to the same unattractive behaviors that we are.
Enter Jesus
The ministry of Compassion can only be consistently ‘upright’ to the degree we align ourselves with Christ Jesus. The picture that Compassion paints as it strives to maintain integrity through relationship with Jesus reveals an image much larger and relevant as we pass our faith onto these children we sponsor. All that is to say, “Praise be to God that this ‘program’ is Christ-centered and focused,” otherwise we would merely be setting these kids up for failure.
Sorry for the ramble…
How often are the chidren being made to meet sponsors? What do you by “meet sponsors” anyhow? Are they expected to “perform” in some way? This whole blog was a little confusing to me? I sponsor a child and yet I’ve never met my child. Is there anything wrong with children “meeting” sponsors everyday? I would think not if the children were just shaking hands, saying hello, and then getting back to doing kid things. Does this meeting take much of their free time?