How Long Does My Child Sponsorship Last?
Although age is a determining factor in a child’s completion, we do not finalize a completion just for that reason. Our completion guidelines include consideration of our goals for each individual child and the goals each child has personally set.
Does a Child Have to Be a Christian to Enroll in Our Sponsorship Program?
Children are welcomed into our programs regardless of their faith. Although, we are unapologetically Christian and every child development center is connected to a Christian church or ministry.
That’s one of the things that makes us distinct. We’re church based.
While we provide the children and their families the opportunity to see living faith in action, hear the Gospel and be discipled in the ways of Christ, neither they nor their families are under any compulsion to become Christians.
What Should I Do if My Sponsored Child Contacts Me Via Facebook?
If you are contacted by your sponsored child outside of Compassion’s portals (e.g., by phone, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), please don’t respond, even to say “I’m sorry but I can’t talk with you in this manner.” And please let us know about the contact.
Tell Us How We’re Doing
Everyone in our contact center wants to provide the best service possible to you, at all times. But at this time, we don’t have a way to measure how we are doing with this.
Please consider this blog post an open forum to let us know about your experiences calling and e-mailing Compassion, good and bad! Whatever you have to say, we want to hear about it.
Who Cares About the Poor?
If I cared, I’d be more like Bono or Mother Teresa or even Wess Stafford — someone with influence and name recognition, someone with a story. If I cared, I’d do more, right? If I cared, I’d dedicate my life to serving the poor — as their champion, as their savior.
A Skeptic’s View on Child Sponsorship
A friend of ours in Facebook, Sara Campion, brought this Relevant Magazine article to our attention yesterday. It starts off with some questions we hear quite a bit.
“Do you ever wonder what happens to that $35 you donate every month to a child sponsorship organization? Are you a little skeptical that the money you give is actually going to sponsoring a child instead of a mismanaged nonprofit? If that’s you, I’m with you. A couple years ago, I had convinced myself the money I was giving each month wasn’t actually reaching the child whose picture I had picked out years earlier, so I canceled my sponsorship. It turns out I was wrong, and it hit me like a ton of bricks two years later.”
Read the entire article at Relevant Magazine.
At My First Graduation, I . . .
I knew our Leadership Development Program has graduations. I knew our Child Sponsorship Program has graduations. But I had no idea that our Child Survival Program (CSP) has graduations, until I saw this precious little gem…
The kids obviously take the graduation ceremony very seriously. (Or maybe they’re simply concentrating on holding such a large diploma.)
I distinctly remember my first graduation ceremony … 6th grade. I marched across the stage to get my diploma and then gathered with my class on three tiers of bleachers and sang “Country Roads” by John Denver. Even after 21 years I still remember every word to that song. I wonder what these CSP graduates will remember about their graduation.
How about you? What do you remember about your first graduation? Anything interesting?
What Is It Like to Meet Your Sponsored Child for the First Time?
How would you describe meeting your sponsored child for the first time? Can you sum it up with one word?
If you can, please do. If you can’t, please use all the words you need.
Tell Me How to Do My Job
This blog is meant to be an authentic and sincere communication tool with you and for you. It’s not supposed to be about us talking at you.
I strive to make this blog relevant to your sponsorship experience, and most of the time with what I publish, I’m just guessing. Your interests, situations, questions, familiarity with Compassion, etc. offer up quite a challenge when it comes to finding the proper balance between our desires for advocacy and getting more children sponsored and what I imagine your desire to be:
“Help me feel closer to my sponsored child!”
It’s important to everyone on our Web team that you get what you want, that you feel more connected with your sponsored child because of what you read here. If you perceive this blog to be a one-dimensional commercial about how great Compassion is, then we are failing you.
Please use this blog post to let me know what content you want more of and what you want less of. Let me know what information you aren’t getting that you wish you were getting.
I’m asking for your help in determining what gets published here. The comments you leave will allow me to make specific requests for blog posts from our field communications specialists and from the staff serving in Colorado Springs.
Thanks.
Being a Sponsor is Not Easy
Dreams are made with sweat and discomfort, effort and uncertainty and moments of success and failure. They’re kneaded together with sacrifice and generosity and held together with drive, perseverance and surrender.
Relationships are like that too. And so is sponsorship.
Grieving the Loss of a Sponsored Child
How do you say goodbye to a sponsored child who has died? Have you ever had to do that, or to say goodbye to another child in your life?
Recipe to Help Haiti
I know so many of us are riveted to the news, to our emails, to Facebook, or wherever else we can scrap together some information about the Haiti earthquake. Many of us are wishing there was something more we could do to help, some way to respond to the unimaginable things we are seeing.
There is one vital action that is always open to us: Prayer.
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” – Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)
If you’re trying to find someway to respond, consider calling together a prayer group. Spend the night praying for Haiti and make one of the most traditional Haitian dishes, Soup Joumou, which they use to celebrate the new year.
Things to Pray:
- For the safety and rescue of David Hames and for peace and encouragement for his family
- For those still trapped in the rubble
- For those working to rescue people
- That roads would be passable to get in water, food, medicine, and other aid
- For our staff, church partners, and children
- That reliable communication channels can be established
- For efficient and strategic responses to the crisis
- For God’s will to be done
- For God to get all the glory
Ask your friends to each bring $5 or $10 to help pay for the soup and give the rest of the money to relief or rebuilding efforts. You can cook the soup together and use it as a time to build relationships, share prayer requests, and support one another.
Soup Joumou (Pumpkin Soup) (more…)
