Compassion is organizing a day of prayer and fasting for the global food crisis on June 25th. That’s Wednesday.

It breaks my heart to hear about the current global food crisis and how it affects children and their families. Rice, beans, corn and other food staples have become dramatically more costly in recent months, creating extreme hardship and suffering. This need cannot be overstated. For families earning just $2 per day or less, there is just no margin. The impact is truly devastating.

There’s a lot I don’t understand about the world. I don’t understand why I have everything I need and then some. I don’t understand why the world that had so little food before has even less now. I don’t understand why I have to run on the treadmill to burn off extra calories when the rest of the world is literally dying for those calories. Especially though, I don’t understand how we can sit back and do nothing. This thing is real. It affects real people with real families and real lives.

C’mon now - Take action: pray, then give.
Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past several years, I have fallen more in love with Compassion International.  Yesterday I wrote about being a poor sponsor the last couple of months, and today I received an unrelated phone call from the GMC.  One of my kids has moved and is no longer in a Compassion-assisted area of Honduras.

I’ve got to admit that I’m sad that I can no longer correspond with Elfre.  It has been a real joy to watch him grow up.  I have sponsored him for about 5 years, and I would have loved to see him graduate high school, go to college, and be a catalyst for change Central America.

This one phone call from Mary at Compassion made me fall more in love with Compassion for several reasons:

1. The news was important enough to generate a phone call.  They could have e-mailed or written me about this, but Compassion went the extra step to deliver the news with a human touch.
2. The call was recorded - I love it when Christian ministries care enough about their purpose to spot check the process.
3. Mary gave me an overview of the child’s involvement with Compassion, including the fact that “during his time in the project, Elfre made a profession of faith in Jesus.”  How many organizations care prioritize that?
4. This was not a sales call.  Mary called to give me the news about Elfre, not to get me to sponsor another child.

This is one more interaction with Compassion that shows me that they are committed to integrity and are honestly Christ-centered.

So, as one of the world’s richest people, what’s holding you back from releasing a child from poverty?

Well, I’m not exactly a parent, but I do sponsor three kids with Compassion (you should too, by the way).  I realized that I’m a bad “parent” today.  See, I was walking down the street and the iPhone told me that it was my day to write them a letter.  I’ve been pretty poor about doing this lately.  The past few times, I’ve gone to Compassion.com and “e-mailed” them, but you know, it’s just not the same to the kids as receiving an honest-to-goodness letter.

I was trying to figure out what changed.  Why have I gone downhill in this area that I used to excel in.  Do I have too much on my plate?  Am I over-committed? The truth is, I’ve been too absorbed in my life to care about theirs.  That’s a pretty bitter realization, a hard pill to swallow.

As I began pondering this more and more, I kept thinking about that old adage, that “anything worth doing is worth doing well.”  I don’t want to half-heartedly do anything.  So, do I have too much on my plate?  Do you have too much on yours?

Well, as it turns out, I have allowed my work to overpower everything else.  God has called me to release children from poverty, but I have allowed my job to steal that.  Notice that the blame is placed firmly on me.  I’m not working more because it’s expected of me - it’s just because I do.  I have set firm boundaries in the amount of time I spend at the office, never more than 40 hours a week unless a major emergency comes up.  However, with computers, the office comes easily to my living room.  So, I’m actually working 60-80 hour weeks.

Here’s my recommendation to myself, and to you.  Leave work at work and don’t spend too much time there.  Meet and exceed the requirements of the job, but realize that you’re no good to anyone if you burn out.  If you’re single, like myself, consider this time preparation time for having a family.  The habits you form now will most likely stick with you.

Last night I met with a group of our Houston-area Compassion advocates.  Even though I’m not a Houston-area resident, I’m working with the Houston team.  We met last night to share about ways that God is working in our ministries with Compassion.  Each of us work to spread the message of Compassion and God’s heart for poverty within our spheres of influence.  This was a GREAT opportunity to connect with some very passionate people.

The first three days of this week were Revival services at my alma matter.  I am an advocate with Compassion International, and I was able to work their table at the event.  Jeremy Kingsley was the revival speaker, and he told a story about visiting India and serving lunch to a group of kids.  They had a lunch assembly line set up and he was on chicken duty.  The bowl would be passed to him, full of rice, and he’d put the chicken in.  He came to a point when he was running out of chicken pieces and all that was left was the claw, and the teacher at the school was saying that he needed to give the claw to the child.  He talked about how he just couldn’t bear to do it.

The point is simple - we walk into KFC and we get meaty, tender thighs and legs.  These kids are fortunate to receive the claw of the chicken.  There’s no meat, but it’s better than what the other kids in the neighborhood get.  We have to work to burn off calories because we’ve eaten too much.  The developing world longs for those extra calories that we essentially wasted.

So, what are you going to do about it?  What are you doing about it?  We know that God has called us to respond.  How are you responding?  I encourage you to sponsor a child with Compassion.  It’s not the only way to impact people living in abject poverty, but it’s one of the best ways that I know.

Compassion is Christ-centered, child focused, church based, and committed to integrity.  They know that God is working through the church, and as such they have joined Him where He is working - by partnering with evangelical churches in 25 countries around the world.  Every child in Compassion’s ministry receives assistance from the local church that runs their Child Development Center.  Last year, over 100,000 of them made first time decisions for Christ.  So, they get services that can save them physically and spiritually.

Won’t you join me and speak up for these kids who cannot speak up for themselves?