Stories to Connect You With Compassion & Grow Your Faith

This summer, millions of people across the world will crowd around television sets to watch the Olympic Games. They will watch swimming, track, cycling and gymnastics. They will cheer on their respective countries in baseball, boxing, surfing, volleyball and table tennis. But no doubt, some of the most viewed and highly anticipated competitions will be in the world’s most popular sport: soccer.

Soccer has an estimated global following of 4 billion people, a number that is nearly double the second most popular sport of cricket (with a 2.5 billion estimated following). So why is soccer so popular?

Whether they are from the United States, Brazil, the Philippines or Ghana, every child in the world has at least this one thing in common — they grow up! And as they do, according to their culture’s customs and traditions, they celebrate and memorialize certain rights of passage or milestones. These celebrations honor the transition from one stage of development to the next.

When I reached out to our staff across the globe to share messages of gratitude for Compassion’s Prayer Calendar, I didn’t expect to be as touched by their stories as I was.

The letter below is from Susan, who works in our Compassion Kenya office. She shares the impact of shifting from a heart of frustration to a heart of gratitude – and what that does for her spirit.

Finally, it was the moment I had traveled thousands of miles for. There she was, a cute little girl with curly hair, standing outside a crowded church. Someone said, “This is Genesis, your sponsored child!”

Jonah and the whale. Daniel and the lion’s den. Esther saving her people. David facing Goliath. These are all beloved Bible stories for children and are guaranteed to come up when you ask a Sunday school class what their favorite stories are. One story you would not expect to be a 13-year-old’s favorite is the story of Job and his suffering. But for Abel, there was deep meaning in Job’s story.

These girls are like any girls, anywhere. They love to learn and play and have big dreams. However, like more than one-third of Kenyans, they live below the poverty line, and they face confronting challenges. With the support of Compassion’s local church partners, these girls have the care they need to rise above their circumstances with determination and hope.

In many impoverished communities, menstruation is a stigmatized issue shrouded in silence, secrecy and shame. Here are just three personal and societal aspects of life that are restricted when menstruation becomes unmentionable.

Compassion photojournalists Javier Elis in Guatemala and J. Sangma in Bangladesh sat down to ask children and fathers about their mutual love, dreams and memories. Here are some sweet quotes from their interviews.

For the best letter writing tips, go straight to the experts: sponsors! Recently we put out a call on our Facebook page asking for the best advice about writing to children in Compassion’s program. From practical to unique, their letter writing tips will inspire you to send a note the child you sponsor — and remind you that your words of encouragement make a world of difference!

This month, I want you to meet Odette, a supervisor in our Compassion Burkina Faso office. Odette shared about her own childhood, growing up in rural Burkina Faso in a large family that struggled in desperate poverty … I was touched by her story, and as a sponsor, I was incredibly moved by the way she compares the staff in Compassion Burkina Faso with the love of her amazing mother.

“I was in church when I realized I had 15 missed calls,” Christian shares. “My phone had been on silent mode. When I stepped out of the service to call and find out why someone had made 15 calls in the space of seven minutes, the person on the other side of the call told me they were my uncle from my father’s side of the family.”

Food! It’s part of our daily life and directly impacts our quality of life. What we eat says a lot about our culture too. So we thought we’d ask some children who attend Compassion child development centers: “What are your favorite foods to eat?” Here’s what they had to share.