When Kate was about 4 or 5 years old, I started thinking about sponsoring a child that was about her age. Since I knew her life was going to be so blessed, I wanted to do something to make a difference in the life of a child in another country that was about her age. I looked at Compassion International and WorldVision mostly since they are the ones I'd heard most Christian artists promote. I don't remember why, but I never signed up to do this. I have again had a huge burden on my heart these last couple of months to do this, so I've been trying to research the child sponsorship organizations that are out there. I don't really know anything about any of them and don't personally know anyone who has sponsored children this way, so I was wondering if anyone in blogland has any advice, insight or experience with any of these organizations. I've looked at WorldVision, Compassion International and a couple of others, but I just don't know which way to go. I want to be sure to pick one that offers Christian guidance and benefit as well and I haven't seen that listed on a couple of the sights I've checked, so I know this is something that I need to stay mindful to look for and not just get wrapped up in the pictures and stories. Also, as cute as the little ones are, I am feeling compelled to sponsor an older child.....I heard a radio-sponsorship thing going on one time talking about how the older ones sometimes feel overlooked when the younger ones are getting sponsored. That thought just breaks my heart. I still may go for one about Kate's age...13...I just need to get something in the works.
Also, if you have any thoughts about things I need to consider that I may not be thinking about, I'd appreciate your help on that too....just let me know.
Thanks!
4 comments:
I know that Compassion International is an organization that many, many Christian singers and our local Christian radio station promote. That's the main one I have heard about, but I have never actually researched what all they do with the children. How wonderful for you to have a heart for something like this, Dianne.
Dianne,
You may find this blog post helpful.
http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/the_difference_between_world_vision_and_compassion_international/
It addresses the difference between Compassion and World Vision and mentions one of Compassion's distinctives - partnering with the local church.
This link from the Compassion website addresses the other distinctives, and the first one is Christ-centered. Compassion's tagline is releaseing children from poverty in Jesus' name. No other child sponsorship organization emphasizes Jesus like Compassion does.
http://www.compassion.com/about/how/default.htm
You can also learn about Compassion, from some of these bloggers. They experienced Compassion's ministry first-hand in Uganda last month.
http://boomama.net/?cat=33
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/compassion_international/index.html
You can learn more at the Compassion blog too.
http://blog.compassion.com
This series of interviews may be enlightening. The one with Mark Peters is about Compassion's child sponsorship program. All of the articles deal with Compassion's holistic child development model.
http://blog.compassion.com/tag/10-questions/
Dianne
Eric and Angela went to college with Carlos. His blog is - http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/ - if you look on his sidebar under My Catergories, you'll be able to get to his post about Compassion International. Carlos works for Buckhead Church in Atlanta (Andy Stanley. His wife Heather has a blog too -http://whittakerwoman.typepad.com/ I know she wrote some posts about their Compassion visit to Africa. (Eric and Angela kept their girls while they were gone, so you might have read about that on Angela's blog.) Hope this helps you. It's a wonderful organization and a great cause.
Hugs!
Kat
Dianne,
We give to Holt International. It is an organization that finds homes for children in other countries...most of which suffer from some form of disability. We found out about Holt when we went to a NewSong concert a couple of years ago.
It really is a blessing to give like this.
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