God’s Army of One
It never ceases to amaze me how diverse the army of God is. I think in our adult minds, we all too often differentiate between “adult tasks” and “children’s tasks,” but God doesn’t think that way. His foot soldiers include people of all ages from every nation.
Consider for a moment the job of fundraising. Now, I’m not talking about the summer phenomenon of lemonade stands that offer a refreshing cup of the tart but sweet drink for 50 cents. I’m talking about the task of raising tens of thousands of dollars. Most of us would not consider that a child’s job.
However, one 14-year-old wasn’t hindered by the adult mentality of the impossible. God instilled in young Emily Blake a passion for the possible.
While attending a church summer camp in 2007, Emily, then 12, heard the disturbing statistic that more than 25,000 children living in poverty die each day from such preventable causes as poor hygiene and lack of food. The young preteen looked around at the world she had grown up in and knew it didn’t have to be this way, so she decided to do something about it.
Uninhibited by her age, she successfully reached out to as many as 100 kids in Kenya whom she never met, and changed their lives forever.
This is how she did it.
Continue Reading ›What Is Your Passion in Life?
What fuels the passions burning inside of each of us? Mine stir up when I see images or hear stories of children in East Africa.
Four years ago, a life-changing documentary ignited a fire in my heart that’s been gathering fuel ever since. This “Invisible Children” documentary follows the journey of child soldiers in northern Uganda, an area where we have child development centers close by.
I sponsor a beautiful child in Uganda named Emmanuel, and children Emmanuel’s age are vulnerable. Partnering with nonprofits like Compassion and Invisible Children, I try to use every sphere of influence I have to tell the story of the children in Uganda. The children who are pulled from their beds at night to join the rebel army. The children who are forced to shoot their parents and family members in order to survive. The children who are forced to fight a war older than they are.
But I – we – must do more than watch a documentary or read an article and think about it. My best friend says, “Words without actions mean nothing.”
So I ask you: What is your passion in life? And how can you fan the flames of that passion?
My guess is that if you’re reading this, you’re passionate about children … or poverty, which is why we love you. And that’s why you’re making a difference in the lives of little ones around the world, including ones in Uganda.
But I wonder: Can you take it a step further?
Maybe as you’re reading this, you’re thinking … “I need to . . . .”
What exactly is it that you’re thinking? 🙂
Don’t hesitate. Do it!
Jesus is remembered for extravagant love. What do you want people to remember you by?
If I were to die tomorrow, I would want everyone to remember that I loved Africa deeply. That my heart burned for a land so far away, yet so close that it haunted my dreams and stirred in me something I never dreamed possible. That I fell deeply in love with a group of children who were forced to kill in a rebel army.
And mostly, I would want people to keep fighting so that someday, those children will be free – and the children we serve at Compassion are released from poverty.
During my recent trip to East Africa, a leadership development student said to me, “We hear your prayers and we want you to know … we are not asleep. We are awake.”
He reminded me that through your support, more than 1 million children across the world have come alive and been released from poverty. How will you and your passion come alive today?
Continue Reading ›Rwandan Genocide: Hope Lives
“I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil.” – Major General Romeo Dallaire, Force Commander, United Nations Mission Assistance in Rwanda.
But where evil is strong, hope is stronger.
I’m an employee at Compassion. I work as an assistant for our International Program Communications Director. I love my job and I love working for Compassion.
However, for years my heart has ached to travel to East Africa. I wanted to see firsthand the children that haunted my dreams and now consume my days as I work to help release children from poverty.
Last year, my boss agreed to let me take a two-month leave of absence to work at a Rwandan orphanage. I just got back a couple weeks ago.
While in Kigali, I experienced more hope and more devastation than I thought possible. But it’s because of Compassion that I am able to bring you this story about love, hope and sorrow in Rwanda. About some orphans, some widows and some abandoned children who when they have nothing left, cling to Jesus. In the midst of extreme poverty, they choose hope.
Rwanda. It seeped into every part of me. The only phrase that seems appropriate for this country is “Devastating Beauty.”
In Kigali, I saw more beauty than words can express. However, in some of the same moments, the realities of poverty and sickness overwhelmed and haunted me. All I know is that it profoundly changed me.
Like many 25-year-old girls in America, before I left for Rwanda, I attempted to define some characteristics of young men of integrity. In Kigali, I found examples of those men.
Beauty From Ashes
If you pick up a dictionary and thumb your way through the pages to find the word “genocide,” this is what you’ll read: “The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular race or ethnic group.”
We have that word in our vocabulary. And somewhere, at some point in history someone said, “What name will we have for the deliberate mass killing of people?” We needed a word for it because such a thing was taking place.
It completely unravels my nerves, but not as much as my ignorance does. In a lot of ways evil, for me, is something I have heard of. Something I have learned about. But for so many it is a memory, an experience. Some of those people live in Rwanda and have come intimately close to witnessing pure hatred.
My lack of knowledge took a back seat in college when I truly began to discover so many horrific events that I had heard of at one time, maybe on the news or seen as a headline, but was never thoroughly introduced to what had taken place.
I watched documentary after documentary, movies based on true events, read history books … I was like a sponge soaking it all in, attempting to wash away my ignorance, trying to grasp how such things had even taken place.
How can we be so capable of such evil? (more…)
An Interview With Dr. Laurent Mbanda
As the Rwandan genocide unfolded 15 years ago, Dr. Laurent Mbanda followed the fighting lines of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to help administer aid to those who needed it most.
Mbanda is now Compassion’s Regional Vice President of the African region.
1. Where were you when the genocide started?
I was not in Rwanda. I arrived in May 1994 with Compassion to administer relief behind the RPF fighting lines. I was in Nairobi, Kenya, but before that I lived in the USA for 21 years. My parents left Rwanda, running for their lives, when I was 4.
2. How was Rwanda on the ground when you arrived?
Horrific! The country was on fire, it was in disarray, people were dying like flies; displaced people everywhere, bodies rotting everywhere. The military the RPF was trying to stop was visible. I could hear gunshots from where I was.
3. What were your impressions?
(more…)Horrible! Inhuman!
How could a human being do what the Hutu militia did to another human being? How could a government, a leadership of a country, turn against its people and butcher them?
I was angry. It was my people that were being butchered. I was scared for my life even as we went around administering relief where we could.
Initially, I was angry at some NGOs (nongovernment organizations). Many were coming in taking pictures and returning back to raise money. How could they have gone in empty-handed?
A Conversation With Richmond Wandera
Do you remember Richmond? He’s one of the Wess Stafford-Moody Bible Institute Scholarship recipients Celina told you about.
Do you have 21 minutes? If so, you’ll be hard-pressed not to be impressed by this humble man.
Greg Nettle, senior pastor of Rivertree Christian Church, conducts the interview.
Poverty Stops Here
Fighting Infant Mortality in Tanzania
Martha sits on the chair facing the window, arms crossed, and gives a great sigh of relief. She looks at her big tummy and realizes that the days have advanced very quickly. Not many days are left before she visits the clinic.
Martha is six months pregnant. She is expecting that perhaps this time she will hold a baby in her hands, and be able to breast-feed it until weaning age. If this happens, the baby will be her first surviving child. Martha has had two pregnancies at an interval of three years, but neither of the children were delivered safely.
She lost her first child through labor complications because she could not reach the maternal clinic early enough to get medical attention. Her second child died a few days after birth because of lack of proper care and medical treatment.
Martha is so alert and aware at this time to do all she can to have her child survive. She cannot withstand the horrible idea of losing her third child after nine months of painful pregnancy. And she wants to be respected and not mocked in the village and in the family of her husband. She hopes the child inside her will reverse this. (more…)
Gezahegne’s Community Development Work
Gezahegne is director of Mekanisa Addis Kidan Child Development Center, one of the oldest child development centers in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. When asked to initially volunteer his time as the center accountant in 1991, he said, “For this kingdom work, I will do it.”
The idea for the center began in 1989 through the initiative of Gezahegne and other church leaders who discussed various options to evangelize in the community. After these many discussions, Gezahegne says, “We agreed that Compassion would be the best method.”
At the time, Compassion required only three people to start a child development center – an accountant, a social worker, and a director. Gezahegne’s accounting experience prompted the church elders to invite him to that position.
After Gezahegne’s initial work as the center accountant, he was approached again by the church elders to become the center director.
As Gezahegne reflects on the impact of his program, he says,
“When I was a child, my friends and I had no direction or guidance growing up. Here at Compassion we fight to protect the children from negative influences, and we give them support to continue their education.”
This academic support for the children comes in the form of tutorial classes and money for school fees and materials, including clothing. However, the program also provides for their physical and spiritual needs as well; Compassion gives grains and other food stuffs, hygienic materials, and provides summer and Vacation Bible School and Bible studies for the children.
The child development center is located in one of the poorest communities in Addis Ababa, near the city dump where many beggars reside, pilfering through the garbage to get food. (more…)
The Favor
Hey! Remember me?
Well, I just wanted to share another quick story about what it is like to work with the Leadership Development Program* (LDP) grads.
Something that I have learned in my job is that I’m not necessarily supposed to meet every need but to find people who can. In that way, I serve more as a catalyst than anything else. I guess the way I see it is — if no one else can do it, then I am able!
So that is what happened when Richmond Wandera, LDP grad and Moody Scholarship recipient, was headed to the United States to begin his studies.
I had arranged all of Richmond’s travel plans but hadn’t been able to find someone to pick him up from Denver International Airport. However, my husband and I were available, so we headed off for what turned out be quite an adventure.
Richmond had been traveling all night with no rest. He flew into Denver from Uganda, by way of Belgium, to spend a few days at the Compassion Global Ministry Center before heading to Moody. All of the belongings he would need for the next three years were in his possession. He was leaving behind his family, and we would later learn, his girlfriend whom he intends to marry.
I made a sign that said “Welcome Richmond” because I didn’t know what he looked like, only that his skin was brown, and I figured he would look lost.
I pressed my way to the front of the crowd waiting for incoming passengers and proudly held up my sign, while my husband, Andy, sat back and laughed at me — not wanting to be associated with my dorkiness.
I actually saw Richmond immediately. He did look somewhat lost, yet he also appeared totally confident as he headed up the escalator and immediately saw my sign (he said later that my sign meant a lot!).
Andy and I got out from the crowd and both hugged and welcomed Richmond. We chatted politely about his flight and went to look for his bags, which we learned were lost in transit. Figures! We filed a claim for the lost bags and prayed they would be located.
Richmond was hungry, and Andy and I had waited to eat, so we attempted to ask him which kind of food he would like. He said Mexican, so we went to Chipotle — I mean, what better Mexican experience is there?
He was amazed at the amount of food and could not get over the fact that refills on Coke were free. (I’ll try to get him to tell you that story.)
It was at Chipotle when I realized that we were on holy ground, because Richmond was such a joy and a delight for us to spend time with.
After dinner we headed back to Colorado Springs. About 25 miles from the airport, baggage services called to tell us that Richmond’s bags were (miraculously) at the airport. So we turned around and went to get his bags.
Let me just tell you that by this point I was grateful I would get another 50 minutes with this guy.
Richmond is kind and gracious and had no problem answering all of my 1,000 questions, even though he had been traveling for who knows how many hours.
He shared openly about the struggles he grew up with and the help that Compassion brought to his family and his community.
I think as a Compassion sponsor it is a special thing to hear first hand about the work that Compassion is doing. That’s why, even as a Compassion employee, I felt it was such a blessing to be with Richmond.
All year long we send in our $32 a month and get our letters — but to HEAR it! To SEE it lived out in someone who has overcome! It was an overwhelming experience of joy, and I know my husband and I are forever changed.
The reality is that I thought I was doing Richmond (and God) a favor by picking him up from the airport on that day. What I learned is that God was doing me a favor by giving me time with one of His kids — one who He is madly in love with.
I hope that you someday too will have an opportunity like this . . . and I’m pretty sure that if you keep reading this blog — you may! 🙂
*This content honors our historical Leadership Development Program. To learn more about our current youth development opportunities, click here.
New Year’s Resolutions
I’m not much into New Year’s resolutions. I find it an odd tradition. If you really want to change your life, why wait until January 1 to start? But perhaps it’s a positive thing if it helps us to truly focus on being better human beings — even if our New Year’s resolutions only last a few days or weeks!
Take a look at some of these popular New Year’s resolutions for 2009:
- In 2009, I resolve to eat better.
- In 2009, I resolve to keep my home in better shape.
- In 2009, I resolve to take better care of my body.
- In 2009, I resolve to be better about what I spend my money on.
- In 2009, I resolve to look for a new job.
Any of those look familiar?
Now, go back and read those resolutions again … but this time, from the perspective of a person living in poverty.
Imagine a little boy in Kenya who resolves to eat better because he’s tired of going to bed hungry. Imagine a single mother in Peru who resolves to keep her 6’x6’ shack clean. I’ve seen families that sweep their dirt floors just to try to keep their humble homes presentable.
Imagine a little girl in India who wants to take control of her own body instead of falling prey to the men who abuse it. Imagine the family that scrapes together spare change to eat today. Imagine the father who is desperately searching for a job so he can give his children an education and a shot at life.
This year, I urge you to resolve to do something about global poverty. Get involved.
Here’s a list of suggested, revised New Year’s resolutions for you:
- In 2009, I resolve to go on a mission trip.
- In 2009, I resolve to help my church start a food pantry — or donate to an existing one on a regular basis.
- In 2009, I resolve to pray for children trapped in poverty.
- In 2009, I resolve to support a ministry that cares for the poor.
- In 2009, I resolve to think beyond myself and truly make a difference in the life of a child living in poverty.
And let’s try to make these New Year’s resolutions last.
Highly Vulnerable Children: What Special Needs Do They Have?
Highly vulnerable children in our programs are children at greatest risk of physical, psychological or social harm relative to other children in our child sponsorship program.
