Living Font: Compassion Sunday

 

Compassion Sunday 2012

 

One week from today I’ll be preparing to travel with Compassion International to Tanzania where I will visit Child Development Centers with a team of bloggers.  Each day we will share our experiences, our thoughts, our feelings.  I expect to be heartbroken by the poverty in which so many children must grow up.  I hope to be inspired by the work Compassion is doing to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.  And I pray that I will move readers take a look at their own lives, their own hearts, and find a way that they can join Compassion in their work.

Today is Compassion Sunday and therefore feels like the right time to begin introducing Compassion International to those of you who are not familiar with the organization.  There are millions living in poverty around the world today, but Compassion gives you the opportunity to change the story for one child.  For my family, that has meant sponsoring Meke, a now nearly 16 year old boy in Ethiopia, as well as contributing to a group sponsorship of a little girl in Tanzania named Jamila.  I look forward to sponsoring another child in Tanzania beginning next month, and I will share my story of meeting that child during my trip.

Some staggering statistics…

  • More than 9 million children under age 5 die each year.  Two-thirds of these deaths – more than 6 million every year – are preventable.
  • Over 1.4 billion people in the developing world live below the poverty line [U.S. $1.25 per day].
  • In developing countries, approximately 130 million children and teens – age 17 or under – have lost one or both parents.

Sources: www.unicef.org, www.undp.org, www.worldbank.org, www.who.int, www.freeworldacademy.com, www.un.org, www.timesofindia.com

To help put this into perspective personally, I keep a poster next to my desk that leads me to this site: WhoAreTheJoneses.org.

Compassion sponsored children receive services through a local church.  They are provided with health services, education assistance, and supplemental food and also hear the Word of God.  They are not required to be Christian, and families who are not Christian are not refused services.

If you feel called to today, I ask you to take a moment and visit Compassion International‘s site and learn more about how you can change the story for one child in need.  And I ask you to follow my journey next month as I visit Tanzania and see the work that God is doing through Compassion.

Compassion Tanzania

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3 Comments

  • What an amazing and yes heartwrenching trip….I can’t wait to hear all about it. We’ve started with our 4 yr old donating chickens and other necessary items to families in impoverished areas around the world.

  • That sounds so amazing and inspiring. I can’t wait to hear all about your trip and all the awesome Compassion can do for the world!

  • […] was the first day of my week long journey with Compassion International, traveling to Tanzania with a team of bloggers to learn more about what Compassion is doing to release children from […]