The Importance of Respecting Children
Each of us needs to take seriously the call to be an advocate for children. Kids watch us, and we have a responsibility to model fully the life we encourage them to walk.
Continue Reading ›Parents in Poverty: In the Trenches of Child-Rearing
No different from parents everywhere, parents in poverty are in the trenches of child-rearing day in and day out. So, encourage your child’s parents in your next letter. Consider including a Bible verse or a small card “For Mom & Dad.”
Continue Reading ›Restoring Social Outcasts to Community
Dr. Matt Rindge, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University and a Compassion Child Advocate, spoke at our National Advocates Conference in October. In his message, he shared two observations about Jesus’ ministry.
- The primary effect of Jesus’ healings was to include social outcasts into community.
Jesus’ healings restored outcasts to community by removing the obstacle that made them outcasts. By eating with outcasts, Jesus welcomed and accepted them just as they were.
With the temple incident He critiqued a system/structure that excluded outcasts on the basis of their race.
- Jesus touched those whom He healed. He was willing to get dirty and even become unclean by touching them.
- Lepers (Mark 1:40–45)
- Bleeding / Hemorrhaging Woman (Mark 5:24b-34)
- Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
- Physically Disabled (Mark 2:1-12; 3:1-6; 7:32-37; 10:46-52)
As Compassion Child Advocates we are critical in the work of restoring social outcasts — children in poverty — to community. While I can’t say that I’ve ever healed anybody in Jesus’ name (I’ve tried), I do believe that Jesus is bringing healing through our advocacy — a healing that gives children a voice and that begins to take the poverty out of them.
What I’m especially convicted by is Rindge’s second observation about Jesus’ physical touch. Jesus got dirty, even unclean, according to Jewish law, by doing so.
I confess that a lot of my advocacy hasn’t gone that far.
Wess Stafford, our President and CEO, regularly shares that his mission is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
I love this statement. What’s also true is that the comfortable may afflict you right back. They did Jesus when they denounced Him for reaching out to social outcasts. And if my advocacy doesn’t result in me being marginalized myself, it’s lacking.
As you “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” are you encountering resistance?
If you are, it’s probably because you look a lot like Jesus.
Richmond Wandera: My Best Day in Ministry
Moody Bible Institute scholar Richmond Wandera shares how the telling of his story and one woman’s response to it reminded him that child sponsorship is a part of God’s work.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
When I was asked to write my first post for this blog, I sent an e-mail to my family and friends joking, “Apparently my ability to drone on and on, (and on), about Compassion International and child sponsorship has gotten back to the organization. I have been given a public forum at last!” I have no doubt there was some good-natured snickering around many computer terminals in Iowa that day.
Let me put it this way. If you know me, AT ALL, you know I sponsor children — you know how I feel about Compassion — and you know that I think child sponsorship is one of the best possible ways to help children in poverty. It is a regular topic of conversation for me and I am known for it.
Jesus told us to let our light shine before men. We are not to light our lamp only to put it under a bushel. If someone who had been a friend for a long time suddenly came to me and said, “I had no idea you believed in Christ!” I would feel that I had not done my job as a Christian. If my faith was so absent in my daily activities that there was no outward sign of it, what would that say about me as a follower of God?
I feel exactly the same way about my ministry with Compassion. And that is what I consider child sponsorship to be — my ministry. What kind of a ministry would it be if I told no one about it and gave no one the information that would enable them to participate? To minister is to tell others — to share the good word! Why would I keep it quiet?
So my challenge to everyone today is to BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED. Think about how you can share your Compassion ministry, wherever it is you may be.
Not all of us are great orators. Speaking in front of a crowd of more than 10 would probably give me a rash or hives of some kind. Not all of us are good at the “hard sell,” so I’m certainly not suggesting you go door to door. But I know there is some way that is immediately available to you to put Compassion out there, front and center.
Compassion advocates, can you offer some suggestions on how the average sponsor can share Compassion with others?
Sponsors, is there something unique you have done to get the word out to family and friends?
Has anyone taken advantage of the free brochures, posters, etc., that Compassion offers? If so, how have you used them?
Please share…
And thank you!
Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month in the U.S., a time to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect. Our mandate as child advocates is to ensure that all children within our care and those we interact with every day enjoy a loving and safe environment.
Compassion is committed to protecting children from all forms of abuse and exploitation. Our board policy communicates this clearly by stating that:
“Concern for children is the cornerstone upon which Compassion International has been built. We are opposed to all forms of abuse and exploitation and will do everything within our power to ensure that no harm comes to any child registered in our program due to his or her involvement in the ministry of Compassion International.”
By protecting children, we are responding to Christ’s mandate to care for and protect His little ones.
Running for Children
Just crossing the finish line of Colorado’s U.S. Trail National Championship June 29 in Steamboat Springs was quite a feat on its own. Winning an age-group division in this 12-kilometer race was even more of an accomplishment. But what really qualifies Tim Smith as a champion is succeeding in all this with a symbol plastered across his chest to represent the millions of impoverished children around the world.
Tim is a Mail Services Specialist at the Global Ministry Center (GMC) in Colorado. As he says, he is “deeply passionate about and committed to our work … to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”
Tim is a prolific runner and runs as passionately as he works. He approaches both his job and his races with fervor because in his mind these two worlds are not isolated.
The U.S. Trail National Championship was the 10th race he competed in since March 2007 while wearing his jersey and representing Compassion — clearly Tim utilizes running as an opportunity to speak up for children living in the bondage of poverty.
How many eyes saw his Compassion jersey as he warmed up, raced and recovered?
How many individuals wondered about Compassion or for the first time considered the harsh reality of poverty that affects so many today?
Neither Tim nor anyone else may ever know the results of his choice to race in that jersey. All Tim can stand on is that we are all called to “seek justice,” “encourage the oppressed,” and “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Isaiah 1:17) in every area of life. The results are not our responsibility.
Tim’s grass-roots advocacy captures the core of Compassion’s desire: to break hearts for the poor in a way that permeates who we are and causes us constantly to remember the voiceless.
Not only that, but as Tim explains, “I wear the Compassion shirt because my desire is to honor Compassion and the ministry. … I use the shirt as a platform upon which I can witness to other athletes that I come in contact with.”
Not only could his jersey cause people to consider the poor, but it presents an opportunity for Tim to share with other runners the purpose Christ has given his life. Wearing a Compassion shirt is a simple act, but God uses nonglamorous obedience to further His kingdom.
Story by Barb Liggett, Global Strategy Office Intern
Throw-Aways
I’ve been putting off writing this post. There are some things that are just easier not to think about.
They’re called “throw-aways,” people whom the world has no use for. (more…)
Why Me, God?
For about 35 years, once I first heard of such a possibility, I wanted to sponsor a child. But for most of that time, I simply could not afford even $10 per month.
About mid-2001, watching a commercial on TV for another organization, I realized I could finally afford to do something. But through which organization? Who could I really count on to use the money for the child’s benefit? Could I trust any of them, and how would I know? Having no answers, I did nothing.
I spent all of 2002 praying for God to show me what area of ministry He wanted me in. Almost every Sunday, I heard, “Find your passion and use it!” “Hmm…where can I get a ‘passion’?” I couldn’t have found a passion in me with a flashlight or a search warrant. So I prayed, and I waited.
Two weeks before Christmas, I walked out of church on a cold, gray day in a mood to match. I walked down three or four steps into the fellowship area and began to pass a row of ministry tables. Above and behind the first one was a banner saying something about Compassion.
I kept walking, but my inner skeptic wanted to know: “What are we being ‘compassionate’ about, today?”
I turned, looked down at a sea of packets, each with a photo of a child; the world stopped, along with all sound and movement around me. I knew what these packets represented.
I stood there, saying half under my breath, “I can do this! I can do this!” About the fourth time, a Voice inside said, “Yes, you can do this. This is it!”
A warmth started at the top of my head and flowed over me and through me, right down to my feet. I took home two packets, unsure about one child.
That afternoon, I went to Compassion’s website to look at more children. I didn’t realize how many photos they kept on there, and I quickly felt overwhelmed. “God, I can’t sponsor them all!” soon changed to “God, we’ve got to find sponsors for these kids!”
About the fourth time (what is it with four times?!), I heard, “Yes, we do!” Then I realized the “This is it” meant more for me than “merely” sponsoring. And I do not mean to minimize the importance of sponsoring!
So, as is true of so many advocates, if not all, I came into this ministry with a clear calling. There have been times when I have needed to remember that, when church doors refused to open, when people walked by the tables with hardly a glance, and I wanted to use a 2×4 on their heads to get their attention. (Thank God, I’ve grown past that!)
But let me mention some of the things that continually reaffirm the rightness of Compassion in my life, and as a real ministry in this world. (more…)
