I Share Compassion
I share Compassion . . .
How Drug Running Affects a Community
Like in any place where drug smuggling is done, a strong clandestine support structure is needed. A list of packers, sellers, messengers, gunmen, guards, lawyers, policemen, drug-storage-home owners and front men are supposedly kept on payrolls, and the financial benefits are still enough to make the capos richer. Gualey is no exception.
Tag Along on the Global Advocates Tour
One hundred and thirty eight Compassion advocates from the United States and countless other advocates from around the world will be gathering in the Dominican Republic from October 5 to October 11 for the first-ever Global Advocates Tour…And we want to do our best to bring the experience to you!
Beginning slightly before our departure and continuing through the trip itself, we will do our best to bring you updates, tales, and highlights, in picture and in word, of this momentous world-wide Compassion event.
Our intention is to:
- Upload photos to Compassion’s Flickr group, which you can see in the sidebar under Your Flickr Photos (Kees will be doing this.)
- TWEET! – send regular text updates of what’s going on – so follow us on Twitter (That’ll be Kees too.)
- Share stories and commentaries on our blogs – Jesus and Compassion, Sheep Droppings and the “official unofficial” blog of the conference.
- Get YOU close to the action
- Provoke you (in a good way) to jealousy
We will be visiting many child development centers on this trip (too many to list here) and many of us, myself included (Oh! This is Compassion Dave.) will have opportunities to visit with the children we sponsor. It is our hope to transmit as much of the excitement and joy as we are able, so please tag along and be inspired!
I Gave a Gift
I gave a gift to my sponsored child and . . .
One Million Dollars
If I had one million dollars to use in the fight against poverty, I’d . . .
Promote Our Blog Widgets
Uh, yeah. Hi. How ya doing?
Umm…oh, this is so hard. It’s kind of embarrassing.
We have a friend, who has a blog and all, and we were wondering…uh, he was wondering if you’d be interested and willing to promote our his blog on your site.
We He made some blog candy for you to enjoy.
Here’s the sugar free blog widget.
And the full fat, caffeinated, sugar-boosted blog widget.
Thanks.
Blog Trip to the Dominican Republic
The Compassion Bloggers are at it again.
Uganda last February. The Dominican Republic this November.
Here’s who’s going. Go ahead and get familiar.
- Jennifer Donovan – 5 Minutes for Mom
- Mary Ostyn – Owlhaven.net
- Tim Challies – Challies.com
- Marlboro Man, from ThePioneerWoman.com
- Melanie – BigMama
- Shaun Groves – Shlog
Where Should I Sponsor a Child?
Need help deciding where to sponsor a child?
Are you curious to see if you’re sponsoring a child in the “right” place?
Do you prefer tamales and red sauce or curry and rice?
Is your cruise of choice, boating on Lake Victoria or sailing down the Amazon River?
Are you more concerned about children experiencing drought or hurricanes and flooding?
How about children who fall victim to child trafficking or gang and drug-related violence?
Lisa Miles, wife and mother of one, sponsor of two kids in Ethiopia and occasional guest contributor to this blog, created a “Where Should I Sponsor a Child?” test.
Take it and all your dreams will come true.
The Price of Greatness
I heard on the radio the other day that it’s probably the biggest thing that’s ever come to Denver. They were talking about the Democratic National Convention, of course. And they’re right … it is big. The local news has been dominated this week by headlines from the convention.
All this political hype has me thinking a lot about who will be the next leader of our country and what that means for children in poverty. While global poverty may not be one of the “hot button” items on the agenda for the convention, it is by no means an insignificant issue.
In fact, I just read this article about how, according to the World Bank, global poverty is much worse than previously thought. Working at a place like Compassion where we are faced daily with stories of injustice and suffering, I have a hard time not making it THE issue of the election.
However, this post is not about politics or my feelings about who should be elected. It’s about children in poverty and our responsibility to care for them.
Don Miller is one of my favorite authors. He said the closing prayer for day one of the convention, and I thought his prayer was worth sharing.
“Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.
We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.
We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.
Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.
Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.
Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.
Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.
Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.
We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world?
A lot of people don’t like us, but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.
Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world?
Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.Lastly, father, unify us.
Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.
And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments — but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.God we know that you are good.
Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.
Let Him be our example.
Amen.”
Whoever takes the reigns of leading this country in November has an enormous and very difficult job ahead of him. He desperately needs our prayers. One of the best ways I think we can help children suffering from poverty is to pray for the new leadership of our country.
Winston Churchill once said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” We are the richest nation on earth. The man who leads this nation holds great power. Let’s pray that he uses that power to help right the injustices in this world.
What is Want? (Understanding Want)
Hunger and want are so unreal and unknown to us that we don’t even blink an eye at it because the want in the world is unknown or not personal to us.
Holistic Child Development
Another Saturday, another thought half finished.
Holistic child development means . . .
The Dignity of Work
I told you about my new neighbor, the Port-o-Let. One morning, a new big truck came pulling up outside my apartment, and this guy in a yellow vest hopped out.
Armed with a long hose, he proceeded to suck the contents out of the Port-o-Let. Quick as lightning, he hopped back in his truck and was off. Now he’s been showing up in his big green truck each week, happily performing his duty.
And it got me thinking. It’s easy for me to complain about the little parts of my job that bug me (like paperwork and deadlines and meetings). Watching this man gave me a new appreciation for my job. Not, by any means, that I think there is more dignity in what I do than what he does. I believe that there is dignity in the work that God has given each of us to do, no matter how our culture prompts us to view it.
And learning more about the work others do around the world can give us a new perspective on our own work.
Ganesan, shown here with his family in front of his home in India*, works each day as a day laborer in other’s fields to feed his wife and two children.
Working as a day laborer is a common occupation of the parents of Compassion children, as most can’t afford to own land themselves and don’t have the education to seek other employment.
Ganesan earns about 450 Rupees a week for his work — about $10.
Resty is a proud mother of two in Uganda.
Her husband is an alcoholic, so a lot of the time she has to find ways to provide for her children by herself.
She hadn’t worked before, but through the Child Survival Program, she learned how to start a small business, selling charcoal by the roadside.
She gets about 20,000 Ugandan shillings a month selling charcoal — about $12.
She also learned to weave baskets through the CSP, and sells each basket she makes for about $1.
Ryan and Axl’s dads work as fishermen in Indonesia. (And, yes, that is as in Axl Rose. His dad liked rock music.)
Their fathers leave for the ocean on fishing expeditions and are gone from their family for six weeks at a time catching mackerel.
Each trip, they earn roughly 700,000 Indonesian Rupees — about $77.
Where 17-year-old Ezequiel grew up in southern Mexico, the average worker earns $12 a week, working 20-hour days to harvest mangoes and bananas.
But Ezequiel’s dad is a carpenter who makes beautiful furniture.
At his Compassion child development center, Ezequiel learned how to carve wood, and together with their different skills, Ezequiel and his dad can make pieces like this dresser they just finished.
Once he graduates, a skilled woodworker like him can earn up to $55 a week, compared to the $12 of the day laborers harvesting mangoes.
In India, Suren and his wife, Rinu, both used to work full time in a brick factory. Suren lived in a dormitory at the factory, and Rinu would travel home each day to care for the family. Put together, they earned roughly 250 Indian Rupees a week — about $6 — for their family of six.
But Kajali (in the dark blue sweater) became sponsored, and her sponsors gave them a family gift, with which they bought a cycle van.
Now Suren earns many times over as a cycle van driver what he used to earn at the brick factory. When he was working at the factory and couldn’t provide a proper home for his family, Suren says, “as a parent, I felt worthless and of no good use.”
Those words tear my heart, and it’s sadly not the first time I’ve read the sentiment. How many mothers and fathers are out there, working so hard each day as farmers, drivers, and traders, scraping to provide just one or two meals for their children, and still feeling like failures?
Yet it’s so encouraging to know that even a small gesture can transform a family’s life. Suren is now filled with pride for the way he can care for his family. He says, “through Kajali and her beloved sponsor, we have now tasted of the goodness of God’s awesome power.”
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*NOTE FROM EDITOR: This content honors Compassion’s historical work in India. While we no longer have an India sponsorship program, we are grateful for the lives changed and meaningful work achieved through our sponsors and donors in our nearly 50 years there. For a detailed explanation of the end of our sponsorship program in India, please visit: compassion.com/india-update.
