Author: Chris Giovagnoni

Mexico Sponsor Trip Videos

In honor of the one month anniversary of my visit to the King’s Children Ambassadors Student Center (ME-730) and the Jesus’ Friends Student Center (ME-737), I finally have some video for you.

I wouldn’t call the cinematography enthralling. It’s kinda got an “old Aunt Betty filmed a home movie” feel to it, but despite that, I do think I captured something unique to sponsor tour visits – the welcome that visiting sponsors receive. Hope you enjoy it.

P.S. You should thank my “old Aunt Betty” Brianne for getting these videos presentable.

Do You Love Your Sponsored Child?

Do you love your sponsored child? Really love your child?

We already know I’m an emotionally disconnected person, so help me out here.

Explain to me how you know that what you feel for your sponsored child is actually love.

Come on y’all. I want to know what love is. Sing it.

Commit This

More ‘fo from the FO-rum

Commit this to memory. 🙂 It’s what we commit to, for you.

We commit to:

1. teach and live out the Way of Christ, developing children into lifelong disciples of Jesus
2. mobilize and equip the Church to be effective in ministry to children
3. commit to continuous improvement in our program design and delivery
4. engage with each child as active participants in their own development
5. treat children and their families with dignity and respect
6. design programs that support the family’s central role in raising children
7. submit to the Word of God
8. NOT compromise the centrality of Christ in our messages and programs
9. create opportunities for you to live out your faith by ministering to children in poverty
10. financial integrity
11. use donations only for the purposes for which you gave them
12. align our thoughts, motivations, attitudes and actions with the ethical principles found in God’s word
13. tell the truth and communicate honestly and openly, with no intent to deceive or mislead
14. protect, develop and deploy all of our resources (people, time, money, knowledge, reputation and materials) as if they were “the widow’s mite”

There! They’re out.

Although they’re numbered, they’re not prioritized.

Help us rank ’em. We want to know what you feel is most important.

Give us your top one, two or three and we’ll calculate the product of your priorities.

What is Integrity?

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?

The Church is God’s Strategy

If we want to change the world, we must begin with ourselves. If we, the Church, don’t do it, it won’t get done. If we want to change the Church, we must begin with ourselves. It is an honor for Compassion to walk alongside the Church. To accompany the Church as it helps bring the Kingdom of Heaven to this world.

Global Leadership Forum

Today is the first day of our Global Leadership Forum (GLF). Huh? What’s that?

It’s an annual conference of all our leadership throughout the world, gathered together in one place to discuss the future of Compassion.

This year’s theme is “Strengthen the Core,” to grow in our global unity.

I’ll eventually have a post for you to read, but it’ll probably be after the conference is over.

However, you can follow along on Twitter as things happen.

The Poverty of ME

Last week, I was in Mexico. On a sponsor tour. And I saw the deepest, darkest poverty of my life.

But I didn’t have to travel to ME, the abbreviation we use when referring to Mexico, to see it. I only had to look at me.

I was in Mexico for the wrong reason. I didn’t go for the children, to become a stronger, more passionate voice for them. To serve them better. To serve you better. I went because I like to travel. I went for me.

There certainly are solid business reasons for me to have gone on the trip, but I didn’t get out of my own way long enough to realize them. I hate that.

How do I redeem the opportunity God gave me and that I squandered? (more…)

Experiencing God in Mexico

Hello everyone. This will be my last post from Mexico. I need to put the computer aside and experience God.

I’ve lost my way and made this trip about something other than Him.

I’ve uploaded another 50 photos to Flickr tonight. I’ll have more after August 23, when I return home.

I’ll also have some video of the welcome presentations at the two child development centers we visited today.

And I’ll have one more blog post.

At the Compassion Mexico Office

We spent this morning at the Compassion Mexico office. After a brief introduction and welcome by Omar, the country director, our group of 30+ sponsors broke into three smaller masses, in order to get a little more intimate with the different ministry areas.

First stop for “el grupo de Giovagnoni” was Ministry Services. We had a presentation from Cesareo in Finance. It was about the funding process for money to be granted and distributed to a child development center. It was in Spanglish. Cesareo said that, not me.

Next stop on the office tour, Sponsor Donor Services (SDS).

Here’s the 411 from the folks in SDS, with a little bleed over from Program Implementation, the stars who work with our church partners.

• Compassion Mexico has 129 child development centers in eight of Mexico’s 31 states. They help about 20,000 children.
• 79 percent of the 20,000 children are sponsored. 21 percent are waiting for sponsors.
• Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico and has been for the past 20 years. It’s where most of Compassion Mexico’s work is done, and it’s where we’ll be until Thursday. Chiapas borders Guatemala.
• Last fiscal year, July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, Compassion Mexico processed 23,000 letters from sponsors.
• The staff estimates that 45 percent of sponsors write their children and the remaining children don’t receive any letters.
• In the last fiscal year, Compassion Mexico processed 51,000 letters from its children to their sponsors.
• Around 80 percent of Compassion Mexico’s sponsors are in the United States.
• The average number of children in a Compassion Mexico child development center is 160.
• Compassion Mexico expects to register another 5,000 children during this fiscal year.
• The Compassion Mexico office opened in 1976 and does not currently work with the Child Survival Program or Leadership Development Program – only Child Sponsorship and Complementary Interventions.

And here’s some additional info bling strictly from Program Implementation.

• The children in Chiapas are three times less likely to grow up healthy and to attend school.
• 90 percent of children in Chiapas don’t attend school regularly. They work as laborers.

After we left the Compassion Mexico office, the rest of our day was spent traveling – by bus from Mexico City to the Toluca airport and then from Toluca by plane to Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Adios for now.

Hope you don’t mind that this post has been search engine optimized for the keyword Compassion Mexico.

I’m Going to Mexico

I’m going to Mexico! And I want you to come with me.

I was left behind once, and I’m grateful it wasn’t in the “missed the Rapture” sense. Because of that experience I will do my best to make you feel like you’re in Mexico with me.

I’m going to Mexico as a co-leader on a sponsor tour, not as a Compassion Blogger.

My first responsibility on the trip is to support the sponsors who are traveling with us to meet their sponsored children. However, you will always be in my thoughts.

I intend to:

• upload photos to our Flickr photostream, and I’ll add the best ones to our Flickr group, which you can see in the sidebar under Your Flickr Photos.
• tweet – send regular text updates of what’s going on – so follow us on Twitter
• write colorful and moving commentary you’ll find here, on this very blog
• take some Blair Witch/Cloverfield amateur-style video to share with you when I get back
• eat lots of beans and rice
• hug lots of kids
• et cetera

I don’t sponsor a child in Mexico but if you do, and they’re at one of these child development centers, let me know. I will TRY to get a photo of your child for you. I cannot promise anything other than I’ll try.

The child development centers are:

• The King’s Children Ambassadors Student Center (ME-730)
• The Jesus’ Friends Student Center (ME-737)
• The House of Bread Student Center (ME-708)

Please don’t leave your child’s name or number in your comment. Just let me know you have a child at one of the centers and someone will contact you via email to get the information.