Stories to Connect You With Compassion & Grow Your Faith

No matter how our shelters are designed, what kind of materials they are made of, where they are located, how much they are secured, or who lives in them, there is no guarantee they will give us safety, as we live in a world of so many uncertainties.

How can we (and so many people we know) be so overwhelmed and so outraged about human trafficking and have it still exist in our world today?

Two years ago, the earth violently shook in Haiti. It destroyed cities, claimed lives, and separated families. And, like heroes, we responded.

Have you considered that our God is the one true God? Have you considered what that means?

Out of 3,500 letters from our Project Facilitators, we compiled a list of 10 of the most motivating reasons to write your child.

I was born into a Christian family in 1976. My parents used to tell me how Jesus Christ gave His life for us and how we received salvation by His blood.

However, in childhood it was tough for me to understand such a hard word, salvation. I was recognized by my community as a “Christian” because my family was Christian, but I knew I could not be because it was all too much for me to understand.

In Sunday school and church, I learned many things about Jesus and heard the beautiful and amazing stories about Jesus’ work in this world.

Bit by bit, I was coming to know about the Christ. As I was growing up, my faith was becoming firm. When I received Christ as my personal Savior with my full knowledge and full heart, then I recognized myself as a Christian.

In 1991, I was baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. After that, I felt some change inside me, change that I cannot explain in my speech. I felt in my spirit that I have a good friend in Jesus Christ. Moreover, that He is good all the time.

Sometimes, as human beings, we fall into distress and depression. However, when this happens to me I come to God and say a prayer to Him.

I read this verse from the Bible whenever I fall into any trouble, and I know God can rescue me:

And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me. — Psalm 50:15, NIV

The children are crying in our country. They need the light to survive in this world. They need the gospel; that gospel will be the light in their future. It is good to serve the Christ through children, because the kingdom of God belongs to children.

Therefore, we have to keep the blessings alive through our service and scatter God’s words into their tender minds. Let the children come to the kingdom of God! I have committed to serve the Christ by bringing little ones to Him.

May God bless you all!

Prayer: We pray for our children in Bangladesh who are helpless, wandering the streets, foodless, insecure. Please help us to spread our hands to them, to help them survive in the image of God.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Samuel Bala provides high-level guidance to our partnership facilitators in Bangladesh to ensure quality, holistic child development.

Read all the One in Spirit devotionals.

The past year we launched the 58: Initiative, engaging thousands of you in the movement to end poverty. This year we’d like you to join us on the 58: Global Impact Tour.

In just over 11 years, Compassion Tanzania now works with 236 Implementing Church Partners in 12 regions of the country. We have been growing at an average of 30 percent per year and currently serve almost 64,000 children.

The Ministry Services department in Bolivia asked themselves, ” How can we serve our church partners in some other way than what we normally do every day?”

People join organizations with different motives. However, as they start working, they sometimes realize that their motives for joining do not drive them to their desired goals.

As we move into more than a year of serving communities in Sri Lanka, our staff has come to better understand the reasons we work through the local church.

There were times when our staff in Sri Lanka questioned this theory or saw it as restricting. But today there is clear understanding. Through the eyes of our Child Survival Program mothers and the communities we work in, we see why the local church is important and how it is affecting communities, which are now growing to love the church.

Chandrakanthi is a name that is constantly on the minds of our Sri Lanka staff. After being nearly bludgeoned to death by an axe in the hands of her husband, today Chandrakanthi is a smiling, bubbly young woman, who is a testament to God’s amazing answer to prayer.

Chandrakanthi is part of the Child Survival Program in Puwakpitiya. The Puwakpitiya Assembly of God Church, with the help of our ministry, provided her with a lot of assistance during her time of recovery.

Chandrakanthi’s mother works in Dubai. When she came to know of her daughter’s plight, she returned to Sri Lanka for a short stay to see her daughter.

As soon as she saw Chandrakanthi, she came to the church. Entering the Child Survival Program office in the church, she broke down.

“Thank you, and thank you to the church for saving my daughter. If not for you, if not for this program, if not for this church, my daughter would be dead.”

Chandrakanthi’s sister told us,

“No other organization or even a religious institution would have been able to help my sister. Your God must be special.”

Pastor Palitha, from the Kithusewana Church in Inigodawela, is very happy that such a program is being conducted through the local church.

“Today the church is a meeting place for everyone, no matter what religion they are from. People welcome us into their homes. Even though they are not a part of the Child Survival Program, they inquire about the program. They volunteer to help out at the program. People are not looking at us with suspicion anymore. People are welcoming the church.”

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Sometimes, it’s easy to fall more in love with doing the ministry than with the one who called us. And it’s easy to get tired or burned out doing the routine or difficult tasks.