Shaun Groves
Several thousands of you have now sponsored children because of a Compassion Bloggers trip. And many of you – thank you – are now wondering what else you can do to serve children and Compassion International. Thanks for asking! Here are a few suggestions. And please, if you have more ideas to add, tell us all in the comments!
Send A Child To College
Did you know that a select few Compassion children are sent to college and also receive mentoring and intense training in servant leadership through Compassion’s Leadership Development Program? The cost to sponsor one of these students is $300 per month – but you don’t have to do it alone! Your Sunday school class, Rotary Club, college fraternity, extended family, any group can combine resources to equip a future leader who could transform a developing nation. Go here to sponsor an LDP student. I do.
Become An Advocate
An advocate is a volunteer who serves alongside other volunteers and Compassion staff to spread the word about Compassion International in their own community. Advocates receive training, create ways to promote Compassion, staff sponsorship tables at local events like conferences and church services and concerts, and more. Go here to become a Compassion Advocate.
Join Compassion Bloggers
Use your on-line voice to speak about poverty and the ministry of Compassion International. Sign-up to receive monthly to quarterly e-mail “assignments” from me along with more than 900 other bloggers using their corner of cyberspace to provide mosquito nets to children, care for HIV/AIDS orphans, fund life-changing surgery for children, rebuild earthquake shattered Haiti and more. Sign up for these e-mails and be the first to know about Compassion’s greatest ministry needs and help meet them on-line. Or, sign up to be considered for participation in a future blogging trip. (Go here to read about how trip bloggers are selected.)
Visit Your Sponsored Child
Any adult sponsor (who passes a criminal background check) can meet their sponsored child. If you’re planning a visit to your child’s country, let Compassion know at least eight weeks in advance and staff will do everything possible to arrange a Compassion supervised visit with your child during your stay. Go here to learn more about this process.
Or, you can join other sponsors on a Sponsor Tour to your child’s country and spend a day with your sponsored child enjoying fun Compassion planned activities activities (eg. amusement park, zoo, etc). Go here to learn more about Sponsor Tours.
Grab A Banner Or Widget For Your Site
Compassion provides many banners and widgets for use on virtually any website. Go here to grab yours. Go here if you need banners for use on a Blogspot.com site.
Compassion On-line
- Twitter: Follow Compassion International on Twitter to get the latest info on all things Compassion. Follow Wess Stafford, Compassion’s President, for inspiration and a behind the scenes look at Compassion’s ministry.
- Compassion’s Blog: The official Compassion International blog offers stories from workers in the field, insight into exactly how the ministry operates and much more. Go there to subscribe or grab Compassion’s iPhone app to follow along as well.
- Facebook: “Like” Compassion on Facebook to spread the word about Compassion International.
- OurCompassion.org: Join Compassion’s experimental on-line community for sponsors (still in beta) called Our Compassion and meet other sponsors of children in your child’s country and even the same project.
- Link: It seems too small to make a big difference but it does. When you link to Compassion.com or Compassion’s sponsorship page from any web site, you’re helping Compassion show up more often in Google search results and that really does mean many more children being sponsored every year.
Help Me Help Compassion
At the risk of seeming self-serving…I speak and sing on behalf of Compassion International in about 100 cities every year at no charge and you could be a huge help with that. It’s easy! If you’d like me to come speak and/or sing at your college, church or other gathering, just go to shaungroves.com/booking and let us know you’re interested. We’ll be in touch soon!
It’s free! All I ask is that you provide me and my road manager with one cheap hotel room, one meal and that you do everything you can to promote the event so as many people as possible get to hear about Compassion and have the opportunity to join the more than 10,000 people who’ve sponsored kids at these events across North America and the UK.
Or invite another affordable Compassion artist by visiting ArtistsWithCompassion.com.
Have any more ideas for next steps? Have a question about anything else in this series? Leave a comment!
Michael Patterson says:
After returning from our first sponsor tour, and seeing that Compassion does so much more than we ever realized, we immediately signed up to sponsor more children. Eventually we realized we could not sponsor every child, so I investigated ways to volunteer for Compassion. That’s how I learned of the Child Advocacy Network. I soon realized that even though I cannot sponsor hundreds of children, I certainly could find sponsors for hundreds of children. The experience has been amazing, and I have developed many close friends through the Advocacy Network. I encourage others to check it out at: http://www.compassion.com/child-advocacy/default.htm
Michael Patterson says:
… and I got to meet Shaun Groves!
Michelle says:
I did, too! I consider it a huge bonus to my journey as a Compassion Advocate. I even got to be all geeky and “star struck” and ask him to pose for a picture with me! 😉
Michelle says:
I think the #1 step is to commit to write frequent letters to your child(ren). Many of the Guatemala bloggers’ posts spoke to the importance of letter writing. I often hear sponsors say that they don’t know what to write about, so I have made it a point to post letter writing ideas on my blog. Feel free to hop on over and check out the links in my sidebar.
Your letters are not just words on paper, they are a physical manifestation of your love and encouragement.
Heather says:
I recently found out about “Correspondence Children”. These are children who are sponsored, but have no one writing to them. So while some may not be able to add additional sponsorships to their budgets, it’s a great way to continue to reach out and be involved.
We just received our latest packet…and oh, what a joy, what an honor, to be a part of his life. Wilmer has no idea what’s headed his way!
~Heather
Sherron says:
@Heather, I just did that, too! I couldn’t afford to sponsor another child, but I added two correspondence kids, and they are such a joy! I got a letter from the Phillipines before I was even able to complete my sponsor info and send it to him. That little boy is a fantastic letter-writer. It’s going to be so much fun getting to know him!
Mrs. J. Luciano says:
Shaun,
I have been following Ann Voskamp’s blog for a while now and have been reading about your trip to Guatemala City. I watched you on her youtube post today about Project GU 888 child development center. I noticed you said they had a room where they taught the children a trade and had many sewing machines. I would love to donate and try to get donations of fabric for the children to use. I am just not sure how to get it there. If this is possible and is needed I would be thrilled to send it. If you could email me with any information or a contact with an address I would appreciate it.
Mrs. Luciano