I am more convinced than ever!
Satish Kumar started the day by telling his story. What you don't see in the video is that his whole family converts from Hinduism to Christianity by visiting the Compassion programs, he starts a business in India and hires 6 Compassion grads, he is marrying a girl he met.....in the Compassion program.
But, what really got me was when he said, "When you sponsor a kid, it gives them a chance to be a kid! Without Compassion, I would have been selling vegetables since I was four!"
"I flew around the world as an Air Force pilot, but I never really saw the world
until I started working with the poor." - Mark Gehri
Later, we Skyped with Bolivia! Actual kids from an actual program. They really do love those letters - one girl had handfuls of them. As they talked about what they did in the program, and the guy on our side said, "We're proud of you!" and we clapped a lot - you could see the look of pride on their faces. PEOPLE LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY 1951 = 52% 2014 = 21% WE CAN DO THIS! WE CAN END EXTREME POVERTY! SOON! We learned about letter writing, how we can impact churches to sponsor Compassion kids, how you can have people experience poverty without having to travel to Africa, and met some of the most other- focused volunteers that you'll ever meet. And then it was time for the clincher.
This guy named Scott Todd was a college student and saw a poster on a tree to change a kids life. As he tells it, he argued with that poster until he eventually sponsored a kid from the D.R. Long story short, that college kid graduates, becomes an award winning scientist, has a family, sponsors another kid, and then decides he wants to volunteer with Compassion.
After a long process, he becomes a volunteer. Six months later, they ask him to work for Compassion. His wife loves the idea, they move the family, he changes jobs and shortly after is on the way to the D.R.
Scott mentions that he used to sponsor a kid from there, but he's out of the program. They don't think he can see him. No big deal.
He gets there and gets message that his old sponsee has become a Christian. Not even sure he can see him, who gets off the bus with all the other Compassion kids? When Scott asks him what happened the day before that he became a Christian, the young man responds, "When you sponsored me I asked God to have you come visit. You never did. But, when I heard you were coming, I put my faith in Christ."
Sponsoring a child changed the child's life, Scott's life, his families life and all who would read any of his books!
That's what is cool about Compassion International! Not only are they ranked in the top 1% of charities for effectiveness. Not only are researchers blown away by what happens to kids in their program. Not only do they build from within and solve poverty the right way. Not only do they work on the whole child. But, they change lives - sponsors, kids, families, and whole communities.
This works! I asked a lot of questions, and I am more convinced than ever that this is the greatest thing you could do to help end world poverty!
If I told you that for $38 a month, you'd have a Satish or Scott experience, wouldn't you take that? What if I told you for $38 a month, a child who might have been selling vegetables would have a beautiful wife, job and church family, wouldn't you take that? If I told you that, if enough of us gave $38, we could end extreme poverty, wouldn't you do it?
www.compassion.com
No comments:
Post a Comment