Stories to Connect You With Compassion & Grow Your Faith

The world that 6-year-old Sophia sees around her is one of poverty and limitations. But Compassion’s photojournalist in Brazil, Sara Navarro, is among the caring adults who inspire her to dream without limits. Here’s Sara’s story of the day she visited Sophia.

In these photos of gardens around the world, you’ll see more than just plants. In these gardens are vegetables — but also opportunities. Fruits are flourishing — and so are small businesses started by families living in poverty. A fledgling sprout peeking up from the soil can signify a whole new future for a child. Because people in poverty who can grow successful gardens have not only a source of nutritious food, but also a source of income.

“My dad does everything for me! … I love him so much. One day I asked him to buy me ice cream and even without much money, he managed to buy it for me,” exclaims Davi about his father, Damião.

Upon hearing his son’s words, a tear falls from Damião’s eyes. In their culture, men rarely cry in front of others. But in the last few months, crying has been a normal part of Damião’s life.

Have you ever had one of those awesome, world-colliding moments when people from two different parts of your life meet? Like bringing a significant other home to meet your family for the first time. Or introducing your friends from church to your friends from work at your birthday party. These experiences only come around every now and then. And I love them.

I’ve always loved the sentiment “It takes a village.” To me, those four words encapsulate the most powerful aspect of human growth and development: community. We all have a village surrounding us. And so does each and every child in the Compassion program.

Kids sure do love their birthdays. As I write this, my wife and I are in the midst of planning a birthday party for our two sons. They are turning 9 and 7. Their birthdays are within two weeks of each other, and since they are so close in age, they share many of the same friends. So, we’re able to do a bit of a two-for-one deal.

Baby Deinner was delivered prematurely via emergency surgery as his mother, Cindy, battled COVID-19. Tragically, Cindy died the day after — leaving Deinner’s grandmother, Bridis, to raise her baby grandson and his two siblings.

Bridis shares her daughter’s story and expresses her hopes for Deinner’s future in this letter she wrote for him to read one day.

This Good Friday, our friends at Compassion UK put together a beautiful recipe for easy-to-make hot cross buns paired with an Easter devotional. Once you’ve made your buns, settle down to reflect on the Easter message — and learn about the history of hot cross buns!

OK, so I need to make a confession … I’m not as good as I should be at writing letters to my sponsored child. And I make all sorts of reasonable excuses for it, too:

“My life is already so busy with my work and kids that it’s hard to find the time.” “I feel like I just wrote a letter a couple months ago.” (It was 10 months ago.) “I need to wait until I have more to say.” “My letters don’t really matter anyway.”

In northern Uganda, young Betty once faced a frustrating choice: walk nearly 4 miles to fetch water that cows and pigs also drank from, or drink from the nearby well, which was wriggling with worms.

For Betty, a safe water point changed everything. See for yourself! Meet Betty and other children whose lives changed after they gained access to safe drinking water.

In early March 2020, I was on a storytelling trip to El Salvador for Compassion. One minute we were loading the van to head to a child development center, the next we were packing our bags to rush to the airport — urgently called home as COVID-19, a seemingly distant threat, suddenly became very real.

Here are beautiful moments from the past year that represent prayers answered, lives changed and lessons learned. They show what is possible when together, we rise as one.

The impact of sponsors’ generosity on children multiplies far beyond their childhood years. Compassion centers at local churches offer them safe spaces to discover and lessons on how to steward their God-given talents. Access to resources and exposure to various activities, coupled with vocational and financial training, allow children to dream big — beyond their circumstances.

Check out these incredible stories of talented young entrepreneurs!