Why I believe in Compassion (International)

Compassion International seems as much a part of my childhood as Lite Brite and Mr. Potato Head. (Those were great days.) My mother was the Compassion advocate at our church for years. She facilitated Compassion Sunday and, as the director of the preschool and elementary ministry, led the children in the corporate sponsorship of a Compassion child.

Sponsorship is simply something the Widmarks do. The last several years of my life have been highlighted by letters to my mother from beautiful little Grecia in South America.

Even though I have lived in Colorado Springs--headquarters to dozens of national and international ministries--for over a year, I am still particularly excited to pass the Compassion building on the way to the park or coffee shop. I shall soon be living less than five minutes from the office complex, and I relish the opportunity to be reminded in my daily passing that hope and life are yet to be ministered to hundreds and thousands of precious children around the world.

Because I pass the building so often--reading and rereading the sign that insists on "Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name"--I have been contemplating Compassion International quite a bit of late. I asked myself, "Why exactly do I believe in Compassion?"

I believe in Compassion because I believe in the local church. The local church is truly the hope of the world. Bands of faithful disciples fostering community, contending for sanctification and mercy, are what have and ever will advance the kingdom of God--city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood, and heart by heart.

The local church is relational. It can be messy and difficult, because people are messy and difficult. One of the most simple ways our enemy can keep us from activating justice in our lives is by discouraging us with the clamor of this kingdom. It may be cliche to mention this, but we do often say within ourselves, "Ah, but I am only one person."

The beautiful reality is that being the only one of whoever you are is the human experience. It is as true of you as it has been of every other individual who has ever inhaled in this atmosphere.

But though there is only one Mama Widmark, there is also only one little Grecia. And if my mother commits herself to pouring her resources and prayers into Grecia's life, then poverty, need, and injustice can be forever ended in Grecia's world. It is absolutely possible for us to end poverty on the earth, and we do it by ending poverty one little world at a time.

This is why my heart smiles at the thought of Compassion. For years, faith in the one-to-one dynamic of the Church has spurred men and women to faithfully advocate the systematic overturn of impoverishment among the children of the planet. As heartbreaking and unjust as it is to see the hundreds and thousands who have been coerced into human trafficking, enslaved to addictions, or exterminated by disease and hunger, only Heaven can fully comprehend the number of children who have been rescued from these fates by gatherings of the citizens of eternity who resolutely speak out, "No more," to affliction.

This kingdom is advancing. One child at a time.

Have you sponsored a child through an organization like Compassion? Why do you do it? What have you learned?