10 Ways to Choose Which Child to Sponsor

three smiling children

Choosing a child to sponsor is a daunting prospect when you consider that the child you select may be a part of your heart for a lifetime. How do you choose whom to help and whom someone else must help? Here are several ways to approach your decision.

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Got Any Great Fundraising Ideas?

lemonade stand

We have this spot where we can share our fundraising ideas and experiences. Bake sales, aluminum can drives, Compassion parties, golf tournaments, lemonade stands — this is the place to bring it. If you’ve organized an event already, please share what you did. What worked? What didn’t work? What would you do differently?

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Bloom Where You Are Planted

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

When I was asked to write my first post for this blog, I sent an e-mail to my family and friends joking, “Apparently my ability to drone on and on, (and on), about Compassion International and child sponsorship has gotten back to the organization. I have been given a public forum at last!” I have no doubt there was some good-natured snickering around many computer terminals in Iowa that day.

Let me put it this way. If you know me, AT ALL, you know I sponsor children — you know how I feel about Compassion — and you know that I think child sponsorship is one of the best possible ways to help children in poverty. It is a regular topic of conversation for me and I am known for it.

Jesus told us to let our light shine before men. We are not to light our lamp only to put it under a bushel. If someone who had been a friend for a long time suddenly came to me and said, “I had no idea you believed in Christ!” I would feel that I had not done my job as a Christian. If my faith was so absent in my daily activities that there was no outward sign of it, what would that say about me as a follower of God?

I feel exactly the same way about my ministry with Compassion. And that is what I consider child sponsorship to be — my ministry. What kind of a ministry would it be if I told no one about it and gave no one the information that would enable them to participate? To minister is to tell others — to share the good word! Why would I keep it quiet?

flowers blooming in a pot

So my challenge to everyone today is to BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED. Think about how you can share your Compassion ministry, wherever it is you may be.

Not all of us are great orators. Speaking in front of a crowd of more than 10 would probably give me a rash or hives of some kind. Not all of us are good at the “hard sell,” so I’m certainly not suggesting you go door to door. But I know there is some way that is immediately available to you to put Compassion out there, front and center.

Compassion advocates, can you offer some suggestions on how the average sponsor can share Compassion with others?

Sponsors, is there something unique you have done to get the word out to family and friends?

Has anyone taken advantage of the free brochures, posters, etc., that Compassion offers? If so, how have you used them?

Please share…

And thank you!

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4 Tips for Writing Your First Letter

Letter-Writing Ideas

One-on-one sponsorship is set up to give each of us the opportunity to shepherd and encourage the children of our world. We need to be there for our kids. We parents know how quickly our children grow up. Well, the kids you sponsor grow up just as fast! Don’t waste the opportunity to connect with them — to know them.

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smiling Ugandan toddler

Faith of a Child

I think of my own sponsored child who, in his very first letter at the age of seven, told me of his intention to be an artist. This is a little boy in rural Africa who had never owned a box of crayons or a set of paints in his life. But what does that matter to a child who has faith?

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