Passions of the Soul

The problem isn't going away; it's getting worse.

Compassion continues to appeal for more funds for the Global Food Crisis Fund, for very good reasons.  From a letter just received from Wess Stafford, President and CEO of Compassion.  While the global staff continues to try to get a handle on what, exactly, is needed, the reports they get from the field look bleaker and bleaker.  Some examples:

- Thousands of children registered in Compassion-assisted projects "in at least six countries are in immediate need of relief.
- Every Compassion-assisted child in Haiti is affected.
- "Rice, a staple at every meal, has doubled in price.  For many of the 11,000 children we help [in Bangladesh], the only meal they receive each day comes from the Compassion-assisted church."
- Compassion predicts "this crisis will spread to each country where we work and has the potential to affect millions of children and families."  This is not sensationalism.  After all, every country where Compassion works is a developing nation; that means many of the people live in abject poverty.
-"In Haiti, a gift of $13 can feed a child for about one month."  Multiply that out to however much money you can contribute to the Global Food Crisis Fund.

Please remember:  The opposite of poverty is not wealth; it is enough.  Most of us have more than enough, even if we don't think we do--and I lived in a "notch group" for a few years.  The issue is what we spend our money on.  Can we do without a couple of Starbucks double lattes a month?  Buy one DVD fewer?  Rent fewer movies?

I know we're all feeling the pinch, and I know most of us are tightening our own belts.  Every division, every department at Compassion's Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs is tightening budgets even further in order to free up as much money as possible for this gigantic need.  Compassion International is a ministry you can trust.  (Check 'em out with Charity Navigator or other charity watchdog organizations.)  In fact, you can't make a better investment, anywhere, than to sponsor a child or to contribute financially to Compassion.

More on the Global Food Crisis

This is a link to the Compassion Blog.  It's written by Dr. Wess Stafford, the president and CEO of Compassion, about the Global Food Crisis.

Then, if you and your family have enough, please urgently consider contributing to Compassion's Global Food Crisis Fund.  You can never find another organization that will handle your gifts with more integrity; Compassion's integrity is absolute:  Your money will always be used for the purpose you designate, and Compassion is a 501(c)(3) organization meaning your gift is tax-deductible.

Please.  People are dying for want of food or money with which to buy it.  We feel the pinch of the rising prices; they feel it in the extreme, in their stomachs.  Some of Compassion's children feel something that must be akin to "survival guilt," as they eat one meal each time they are at their Compassion-assisted student center, or project.  They know everyone else in their family is not even getting that much.  Please help!

It's never enough!

I've been conversing, by e-mail, with a new Compassion friend, Kees (pron. "case") about helping to find sponsors for more children.  We've agreed that, no matter how many sponsorships we help to bring about, it's never enough.

While millions of children are still hungry, foraging in garbage dumps for food, drinking filthy water and getting sick from largely preventable illnesses, it isn't enough.  It's never enough, when so many people are so very hungry, many of them starving to death, that some of the children served by Compassion feel guilty for eating the meal they receive at the project, because they know their families are hungry.  It's never enough, when many Haitians eat cookies made of dirt, vegetable oil and salt, in order to "fool" their stomachs into thinking they're not hungry.  It's never enough, when that is so common that those who can afford to buy the bags of soil, make the cookies not only to eat and to feed their own children, but to sell to others!  And it certainly isn't enough, when the cost of the bag of soil rises so much that fewer and fewer people can afford to buy . . . DIRT!

If I were to find (pick a number) 75 sponsors every year, by my own efforts, that wouldn't be enough--and I'm not even close to that.  There is no number that would be enough!!

Maybe you can't afford to make a $32/month commitment to sponsor a child.  Could you contribute to the Global Food Crisis Fund?  I won't ask if you did, because it's none of my business.  Increasing the awareness of the needs, however, is my business.

 

A different kind of tsunami

Please read about "The Silent Tsunami" Compassion's blog.  How much more would people in developing countries have, if the US government encouraged our farmers to produce all the crops they could, for food, rather than either paying farmers to limit their crops (I don't know if that's still done) or earmarking large quantities of some crops for use in creating bio-fuels.  So much of the world is starving, and we're using food crops to burn in our vehicles?

Have you followed that first link, above?  Did you read the post?  Did you notice this sentence:  Our children are feeling guilty for eating one meal a day.  Will you dare to let you heart be broken?

How many ways can you spend $32 in a month's time?  Could you give up a few little things, eat out one time fewer, to help one child in Bangladesh or Haiti?

Compassion International is not a new organization, having begun 55 years ago after the Korean War.  This organization is run with absolute integrity and works to develop a child in all areas of his or her life.  Your money is always used for its stated purpose.  CI is highly rated by several charity watchdog groups.  I've been to several student centers in one of the countries where we serve, and I can tell you that Compassion is helping to break the cycle of poverty for many, many children.

And yet, the current food crisis is taking a toll on even the children we serve.  If you cannot or don't wish to sponsor a child, but would like to do something to help, go to CI's website and look toward the bottom of your screen.  There you will see an invitation to donate to the Global food crisis fund.  Any amount will be welcome, any amount is needed, and it will be used as stated.  Thank you, and God bless you.

Global Day of Prayer

Until about four months ago, I had never heard of the Global Day of Prayer.  Yes, we have the National Day of Prayer, which occurred 10 days ago (May 1), but the GDOP began more recently.

I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but I know it began in Africa in 2000, spread to all 56 nations in Africa, and in 2004, an invitation went out to the rest of the world to partner together in prayer.  You can read the full history, as I intend to do, today.  The whole idea is based on one of my favorite verses of scripture, in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and seek my ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We need to do this in this country, for this country and for ourselves.  I need to do this, for the country and for myself.  And for the world.

Did you know that Christians in Africa pray for America?  They see our materialism, our consumerism, our arrogant self-reliance, the way our society is systematically shutting God out; they see our stressed-out lives, that we don't know peace within our borders or ourselves, and they pray for us.  Thank God.  Somebody needs to pray for us!  We need to pray for us!

You can learn more about the GDOP here, and here, and read the prayer which is being prayed for the world today, May 10, 2008, in any of 39 languages.  And elsewhere on the GDOP site, you can read about the 90 Days of Blessing which will start tomorrow.

Many Christians in Tucson have been building toward this day, probably since the GDOP last year, and began 10 days of prayer on May 1 (the NDP).  The Tucson event will be held tonight, in one of the city parks; I understand that about 3,000 people participated last year.  I cannot be there tonight, because our Compassion Sunday begins, tonight, at my church, and I need to be there.  But two of the advocates on our southern Arizona team will host a Compassion table at the event, which is really exciting for us, too!

So if you're a praying person, there is much to pray for, today.  Our world, our country, and we ourselves are broken, and we need to turn to the Great Healer, our God, our Lord.

Expelled

I've now seen Ben Stein's film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and I cannot recommend it strongly enough.  It is a documentary and does not showcase the famous Ben Stein sardonic humor.  It is serious, both in tone and in import.  See it.

Announcing...

First, my guest post is up at Compassion's own blog.  Reading it is not required, and there will be no quiz.  However, I have it on the authority of my friend Candy, at Compassion, that she laughed, and she cried, while reading it.  (One of my former graduate-school professors would have given me an A on it, simply because a reader was moved.)

Second, and very important, is a bulletin just in from Compassion:  April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Compassion's board policy states:

Concern for children is the cornerstone upon which Compassion International has been built.  We are opposed to all forms of child abuse and exploitation and will do everything within our power to ensure that no harm comes to any child registered in our program due to his or her involvement in the ministry of Compassion International.

The bulletin goes on to define some ways in which workers in the field "safeguard children in Church Partner activities from all forms of abuse and exploitation...:

• Providing a positive and save environment for children that enables them to fulfill their potential;
• Engaging the active commitment of caring adults who surround them, to care for children with dignity, respect and integrity at all times;
• Preventing and/or reducing the risks of the incidence of abuse through enforcing policies, strategies and procedures on child protection;
• Educating children on the limits of acceptable behavior as it relates to physical, sexual and verbal abuse.

"As child advocates, our mandate is to ensure that all children in our care as well as those we come into contact with every day enjoy safe, loving and well protected lives thus releasing them to achieve their ultimate potential."

And anyone who thinks this is just a nice-sounding board-room policy needs to read Too Small to Ignore:  Why the Least of These Matters Most, by Dr. Wess Stafford, President and CEO of Compassion International.

Children of the world

I haven't written a post quite like this in quite a while.  Today, I received the Prayer Partner Newsletter from Compassion, and several of the requests for April really struck me.  The Newsletter is set up with one prayer request or praise for each day of the month.  All are important, but some get between my ribs, so to speak.  I want to share some with you.  We're praying for:

six-year-old Dariana, in Guatemala.  Her mother was hit by a car and killed, after dropping Dariana off at the child development center;

hundreds of families in Ecuador who have been affected by severe flooding.  Besides the losses of many homes, hundreds of Compassion-assisted children have contracted dengue fever or rotavirus;

a child in Nicaragua who was recently diagnosed with HIV.  [In Africa, Compassion would be able to step in and provide treatment for him, and other help for the family to prevent the spread of the virus.]  Please pray that the office staff will be able to find appropriate help for this boy;

50,000-plus sponsored children in Tanzania, many of whom have lost their parents or guardians to AIDS.

Bequer, 7, in Peru, who suffered leg injuries in an auto accident in which his brother was killed.

April 13 is the official Compassion Sunday (Compassion Sundays can be held anytime during the year, however).  Pray that thousands of children all over the world will find sponsors who will love, encourage and nurture them as they are released from poverty in Jesus' name!

Pray for the family of two children in Bolivia, whose mother needs surgery for arthritis.  They face eviction, because she has no money.

Pastor Jose, in El Salvador, whose church runs a Compassion-assisted child-development center.  This pastor faces financial struggles and gang threats.

Many children in Kenya have been scarred by sights of looting, killings and angry people carrying machetes through streets and neighborhoods.

Ten-year-old Anthony, in Ecuador, suffered third-degree burns on his legs and may not walk again, unless God heals him.

A 12-year-old boy in Guatemala has been diagnosed with leukemia.

April 25 is World Malaria Day.  While we praise God for those who have supported Compassion's Malaria Intervention Fund, we also pray for help in combatting this deadly disease.  And please consider contributing to this fund:  $10 pays for an insecticide-treated bed net and other assistance.

Pray also for children in child development centers in Rwanda's western province; an earthquake there left more than 1000 families homeless.

And, of course, if you are interested in sponsoring a child in any of 24 countries, please go here!  All it takes is $32 per month, a caring heart and a willingness to pray for and correspond with a child in poverty, encouraging, nurturing and loving that child as she or he is released from poverty in Jesus' name.  I have seen the work of Compassion in the field, and I know it works!

As Kenya calms...

I'm about three weeks late with this reference, but--having looked over the list of prayer requests at this link--I believe every one of them is still needed.  Please continue to pray for Kenya, for all of God's work going on, over there, including Compassion's.  Pray also for all Kenyans who participated in the violence, that their hearts will be changed through Jesus Christ and they will participate in peaceful resolution, instead.

Praise!!--I have received a letter from Rebecca!  She and her family are okay, and she is continuing her studies at the university.  Thank you, Father!

Better news on Allie!

You can read about her latest venture out for a little fun.  My word, she's cute!  But she, Charity, Bryon and Susan still need our prayers--always.