We Belong to Each Other: Stories From Compassion Kenya
As the Compassion Bloggers journeyed to local church communities across Kenya, one thing became clear to them: We’re not alone, we belong to each other.
Continue Reading ›3 Reasons You’ll Want to Follow the Compassion Bloggers in Kenya
Nine years and 14 trips later, thousands of kids are now sponsored. Hundreds of stories are able to beam brightly from the dark shadows of the world. This Thursday, the Compassion Bloggers head to Kenya on trip number 15 and here are three reasons you’ll want to follow along!
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We’re Losing A Friend, A Part of Our Family
We adopted our son Sambhaji from India five years ago. He loves to read, pretend he’s Batman, and get mail from his friend Ranjith in the Compassion program in India. Compassion’s program in India will soon end. And my family’s relationship with Ranjith will end too. I’m struggling.
The Rock & Worship Roadshow 2015
The Rock & Worship Roadshow 2015 is entertainment for the entire family. No matter what kind of music you grew up listening to.
Tour a Church and Child Development Center in Guatemala
From Cristo Rey de Gloria Student Center (GU-970) in Guatemala. Shaun Groves takes you on a two-minute tour of the child development center and shows you what it looks and sounds like when the children are there.
What Limits Your Perspective?
Perspective is in low supply here in the States. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way. It’s just a fact. We live sheltered. We don’t live without heartache. We don’t live without pain. We just live with limited perspective.
Shaun Groves on Third World Symphony and Keeping Jesus the Main Thing
Catching up with Shaun Groves is a thrill ride of deep emotion, spontaneous wisecracks and purposeful passion. Shaun is on a journey to keep Jesus at the center of his life and to change the face of poverty.
Sponsor a Singing Bunny!
Apparently, a singing bunny has made its way into our child sponsorship program in El Salvador. The Compassion Bloggers saw it.
Sponsor a singing bunny in El Salvador.
Thanks for the video Patricia.
A Smart Risk
Shaun Groves wrote this post. It’s been approved by the powers-that-be.
Be careful going around having ideas and talking about them. You might just get put to work. That’s what happened to me.
About a year ago, I think it was, I started talking to the folks at Compassion about a crazy new idea. I wondered if they could spread the word about their ministry to children through bloggers the way the Compassion message has been spread through artists and speakers for decades. I proposed Compassion take bloggers on a trip to see the ministry for themselves and, of course, ask them to blog about what they see.
When the powers-that-be decided the idea was worth trying out, a small team went to work finding the right bloggers to travel to Uganda. Then we took a very long flight to Africa together back in February, deplaned and played with children, and learned about the needs of Ugandans and how Compassion and sponsors are partnering to meet them. And we blogged. With very slow connection speeds, we blogged.
We posted pictures, stories, videos and lots of links to compassion.com. Thousands read along daily. Hundreds of children were released from poverty and hundreds of Americans were released from wealth as a result. And the Web lit up with applause.
My favorite online compliment came from a fund-raising expert who wrote:
“Looked at with old economy eyes, Compassion is taking a huge risk, letting go of its marketing to 15 different near-strangers who might do anything. Looked at with modern eyes, Compassion is smart: willing to give up control in favor of being talked about by real people.”
In other words, some institutions would call this kind of idea crazy but it worked: People are talking about children, about loving them, about perspective and grace and kindness and Jesus.
Now, when I’m not singing or speaking (or blogging), I’m working part time these days for Compassion – developing more and better relationships with bloggers.
We just launched CompassionBloggers.com where anyone can read the best posts from our blogging trips, and where bloggers can go to grab widgets and banners, apply to go on a blogging trip with us, or sign up to receive a monthly blogging assignment from Compassion.
Our ranks are growing. There are now a few hundred bloggers scattered around the world blogging on behalf of Compassion every month.
What’s next? We’re taking a bunch of bloggers to the Dominican Republic Nov. 2-7, so read along that week and pray that we assemble the right gifted team for the trip, that we’re safe and healthy while overseas, that readers are inspired and mobilized to act, and that the blogosphere is filled with talk of children and Jesus once again.
