Twelve Days of Compassion Christmas

Are you looking for a way to incorporate the Compassion Gift Catalog into your Christmas?

I kind of threw this together and have a few more ideas of expanding it, but I wanted to share this with all of you now.

Here is what you need to get started:

1. Compassion's Gift Catalog (either a physical copy or access it online)
2. Empty jar
3. Dollar bills and coins
4. Scissors
5. Small clothespins
6. Twelve Days of Compassion Christmas printable
7. Twelve Days of Compassion Christmas printable ornaments

Once you have gathered all of the supplies, cut out the small ornaments. Attach them to your Christmas tree with the clothespins or create a banner with them somewhere in your home where everyone in your family can see them.

Pick twelve days in December. Mark these on your calendar.

On each of these twelve days, read the fact from the Twelve Days of Compassion Christmas printable, look up the item in the gift catalog, have some discussion, and put the money you collected for each day in your jar.

After you have completed the tasks for all twelve days, add up how much money is in your jar. Select an item from Compassion's Gift Catalog. You can place your order online, by mail (if you have a physical copy of the catalog), or by phone.

Your gift will help a child growing up in extreme poverty!

This may be the best gift your family has ever purchased!

If you give this a try or have some feedback, let you know!

Compassion and The Great Commission

There are a lot of non-profit organizations doing a lot of good things in our world. 

Our world needs people doing good things.

But just doing good things is not enough.

The reason I continue to support Compassion International is because of their commitment to partner with local churches in the 25 countries where they are working to release children from poverty in Jesus' name.

A couple of years ago, I read a book called Mission Drift by Chris Horst and Peter Greer. There are many non-profit organizations that started as Christian organizations. But over the years, many have drifted from their initial mission to become more 'politically correct'.

This is unfortunate.

Any organization can go somewhere and give people clothing, food, clean water, etc.

But without the hope of Jesus, people have no eternal hope.

If a Compassion child leaves the program, the local church is still there.

If Compassion has to pull its resources from a particular project, the local church is still there.

If Compassion has to pull its resources from a country, the local churches are still there.

The local church is a pivotal part of a sponsored child's participation in Compassion's program.

We have had children leave the program.

We have had children at centers that have had to close.

We have had children in India where Compassion had to stop working.

In each of these cases, I have found comfort knowing that the local church is still there, sharing the Gospel with each and every child, family member, and community member.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." - Matthew 28:19-20

Will you share the hope of Jesus by sponsoring a child today?

Making Time to Speak Up

Last night, for some reason, I was thinking about our Compassion trip to Mexico my daughter and I took in January. 

And then, when I started checking Facebook this morning, I saw reports of an earthquake that hit off the coast of southern Mexico last night.

I immediately starting thinking about Alfredo and his family, and the many other Compassion children and their families that live in Chiapas.

In 2014, my son and I were on our first trip with Compassion. And where did we go? Chiapas. The most southern state in the country of Mexico. 

See that pink building in the photo above? That is the church in this community. The church had no glass in the windows, and the restroom? Basically an outhouse with no roof out behind the church.

Do you think this building is up to earthquake standards? I am sure no building inspector has even seen this place, let alone ever traveled to a location like this.

Why am I sharing this with you?

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know." _ William Wilberforce

Recently, I finished reading 'Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery' by Eric Metaxas.

I have seen extreme poverty and I have to speak up about it. I know that we live in the most prosperous nation on earth.

I know that there are families in other countries living with next to nothing. They do not have the resources we have to rebuild when everything around them is destroyed.

We cannot sit back and do nothing.

If you can and are willing, Compassion has a fund set up to help families in disasters. You can visit this link to make a donation today.

Short and Sweet

When was the last time you received a note in the mail? In and amongst the junk mail and bills, our mail boxes rarely are filled with notes and letters from friends and relatives. We live in a world where encouragement and praise can be received on a daily basis by those who we live life with.

But imagine you live in a world where you have no mail box.

Imagine you live in a world where there are no house numbers and street names.

Imagine you live in a world where no one gives you encouragement and praise.

Many of our Compassion sponsored children live in areas where it is very rare for them to receive mail of any kind.

But you can change all that!

Just yesterday, reading the Compassion blog, I was reminded how simple it is for me to set aside time to write a short and sweet note to the children we sponsor.

Here is what I wrote to Lina yesterday:

Hello Lina, 

I hope you are doing well! I was thinking about you today, so I decided to write to you to remind you how special you are to God. He loves you and is always watching over you.

Here is a question for you: If you could invent one thing to make life easier, what would it be?

I encourage you to spend time reading your Bible every day, learning more about God and His plan for you. Matthew 5:16 would be a good verse to read.

Love and hugs to you!

Short and sweet, and it didn't take much time for me to write this to her either.

Since I know the kids love receiving photos, I included this with the letter:

Click on the link here to download and add this image to your next letter

So what are you waiting for? Will you write a short and sweet letter to your Compassion children right now?

Book List for Compassion Sponsors

Over the past five and a half years, books on my reading list have changed quite a bit. I have always loved to read, but the topic of global poverty and the injustices of this world have made their way into my list of books that I now read on a regular basis. It all started when I became more involved as a Compassion International volunteer.

The first book I read in this area was "Too Small to Ignore" by Wess Stafford. At the time I read this book, Wess Stafford was still the CEO and President of Compassion International. The book shares a lot of his childhood growing up in Africa as a child of missionary parents. Wess is a champion to millions of children around the world, and this book shares his heart for children. He encourages adults to invest in children, be available for them, and love them.

Since reading that book, I have read many others that encourage me to continue being an advocate for Compassion children.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World by Kristen Welch
• The 4/14 Window by Luis Bush
• When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
• Mission Drift by Peter Greer and Chris Horst
• Small Matters by Greg Nettle and Jimmy Mellado
• One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda
• Just a Minute by Wess Stafford
• The Locust Effect by Gary Haugen

What books have you read on this topic that you would add to this list?