Stories to Connect You With Compassion & Grow Your Faith

It’s the second anniversary of our Second Friday Letter Writing Club! And we want to celebrate by sharing our favorite Pinterest ideas from the last two years. Wonderfully fun and beautiful ideas to include in your letters to your sponsored child!

Has your sponsored child ever called you Mom, Dad, Auntie or Uncle? Someone recently asked me if I thought it was demeaning to parents for their child to be sponsored by someone across the world. Does it make them feel inadequate, like they’re not fit to be parents? Maybe this thought has crossed your mind as well.

When one of the children or youth enrolled in our program has a medical crisis, the Compassion staff and church partners in that country will do whatever they can to help. But what about a child who isn’t enrolled in our program?

Instead of showing up to the playground for his morning soccer game, little Mamadou woke with a high fever and began to vomit. His mother, Mariam, rushed him to the doctor. Sitting on the back of the bicycle, clutching his mother’s dress tightly, Mamadou quivered throughout the 10km-long ride from their house to the public health center. His mother had only one thought: She hoped her son did not have malaria.

If there’s one thing that holds true in any country, in any culture, it’s that man’s best friend with his comfort and protection is a universal companion. And it’s impossible not to bring out the camera when they’re around. In our many travels, we’ve taken thousands and thousands of photos and there’s been more than their fair share of cute pictures of dogs. So, just to brighten your day here are some of our favorite furry friends that we’ve met around the world!

The proceeds of East India’s Compassion Sunday campaign bring the promise of a confident future to eight Child Survival Program fathers and their family members.

In the aftermath of the al-Shabab terrorist attack on Garissa University College, Kenyans have displayed powerful love in tangible ways. Standing in long lines to give blood for the wounded, comforting the grieving, providing supplies for the impacted families and contributing money. One of the most loving and brave things the Kenyans are doing is not surrendering to fear, but choosing life instead.

When we first became sponsors five years ago, we headed to the library to check out a book about Colombia. We didn’t know a lot about the country, and since my children were 15 and 10 at the time, this was the perfect time for all of us to learn more about where the child we sponsor lives. So as curious as we are about the countries where we sponsor children, I know the children in the child development program around the world are curious about our country too.

Now available for iPhone and Android, the new free Compassion app puts your sponsored child’s picture, biographical details (hobbies, chores, family life, etc.), and information about their church and child development center at your fingertips. It’s now easier than ever to connect with the child you sponsor. Here are just a few of the new features!

World Health Day is April 7 and this year’s focus is food safety. More than 200 diseases are caused by unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses and chemical substances. Helping meet the physical needs of the children in our program, and of their communities, sometimes means having to find healthy food sources. Often, farm to table is the best solution possible. This is where little Borisut comes in. He is a sponsored child in Thailand’s rural northern region. And we’d like you to hear his perspective on how farm-to-table living has benefited not only his family but also his entire community.

A children’s TV program provides a means for staff member Phoebe Lankoande to share the message of Easter beyond the walls of the church in Burkina Faso.

What is Easter?

If you were to ask this question along the streets of Colombo, Sri Lanka, a few people may be able to give you the right answer.

But if you move away from the busy towns and suburbs, you will likely get blank looks or vague responses. The reason is that in a nation where Christianity is a religious minority, Easter is just another day.

The day the Christian world celebrates the Risen God is celebrated quietly in churches here is Sri Lanka. And in our Child Development Centers (CDC) with our church partners, Easter isn’t celebrated on a large scale.

Approximately 80% to 85% of children in our program in Sri Lanka are non-Christians.

Some of the centers give children a short vacation during this time, due to school holidays and the fact that little ones often go to their mothers’ or fathers’ villages. Easter also falls at the same time as the Sinhala and Tamil new year celebrations.

But that is not the end of this country’s Easter story. Since the start of the Child Sponsorship Program in 2011, many people in the CDC communities have heard the Good News.

“Children are turning to God,” shared Pastor Babu from Castlereigh, Hatton, where the local church ministers to the community through both the Child Survival Program (CSP) and the Child Sponsorship Program (CDSP).

Registered children are now a part of Sunday school classes, and families are part of the local church. This Easter, up to 10 families joined in their service last year.

Pastors from all over the country shared similar results last Easter season.

“We have children from our CDSP bringing their parents to church. At the Easter service, it was such a blessing to see our project children and their families,” Pastor Patrick, from another church partner, said.

In the Puttalam region, children in Puliyankadawara talked about what Good Friday and Easter meant.

“The children listened carefully as we shared the message of Good Friday and the good news of Easter,” shared Nimmi, a project manager.

“Many of the parents have had life-changing experiences thanks to their children being a part of the CDSP and the daily prayers of the pastor and staff. God is working in amazing ways. If you ask me to share about how many families have changed, just within the last weeks leading to Easter, I cannot tell you the stories in just one day,” she shared.

Child development centers start their times of learning with a prayer, and all the children and their parents and families know the basis of our program and the church.

This transparency has led to children starting to talk about God in the classes as well as in their homes.

Word spreads.

“Easter was a special week for us,” shared Pastor Susil from Dummalasooriya, Chilaw.

“Children and their families from the CDSP attended the service along with our parishioners. The community now knows about God. Yes, there are struggles, but this Good Friday and Easter, we had the opportunity to share about God. What a joy it is!”

This center has been instrumental in reaching out to the community through both word and deed.

The mothers who attend the CDSP with their children and wait for their classes to finish have a special time of sharing with the pastor’s wife. She shares lessons from the CSP curriculum with them and spends time in prayer with them.

A center in Mount Vernon lays hidden within the lush, green tea bush mountains of Hatton. The CDSP and CSP started here over 2 – 3 years ago, and the children now call the church their second home. Many of them were present during the holy week services.

Though some of them are not Christians, they still feel that the church is a place where they can go without any barriers of religion.

“I have heard about God, but I really learned who He is and what He has done for me during last week’s Easter services,” shared one of the fathers from the CDSP, who attended the Easter service.

A center in Arunodayapura, Colombo, also had its Easter services, as it does each year. This year, half of its congregation was made up of project families.

Christmas is celebrated by everyone in Sri Lanka, irrespective of religion, but Easter is not. Yet, that is now changing as our church partners have been able to bring it out to the hidden communities of this nation through the Child Development Program.

“One day we will see our village come to know God,” shared Pastor Rohitha from Sengaloya and Chilaw. “Then we will see the Chilaw Puttalam region — and then this nation — to God.”