Aren’t they guys?

See?

You should really listen to them.

GO HERE NOW!

Everybody’s doing it.

Here I am.  Come on over.

You can find it here.

But please make the move with me.

I’ll miss you so much if you don’t.

I can now be found here.

chriskinsley.com

See how simple and easy that is?

I sometimes wonder who is a hero to Luis, Akena or Mey. I used to wonder partly because I figured they didn’t have all the options we have from our over-pop-cultured society, but I now know they actually do. This was revealed to me when I was in a poor African village and some of the kids called my friend Graham “Lex Luthor” because he looks the guy from Smallville.

I now wonder because I know they are surrounded by so many great options.

I’ve mentioned before the LDP graduates I’ve gotten to meet and spend time with. They are now my heroes. They have faced innumerojs challenges and obstacles and have persevered and overcome. They are strong and courageous in the purest since of the words. They are living unselfish lives that exemplify hope for all those around them.

I know that within Compassion’s program the children are able to see alumni and LDP students and hai. A clear picture of what their future might look like that stands in complete contrast to how meaningless things around them might seem.

So, on behalf of Luis, Akena, Mey and all the rest of us I’d like to say thanks to Lois, James, Dennis, Prim, Moses, Peace, Rafonzel, Keewi, Nice, Mishel, Dan, Michelle, Patti, and Jeff. I’m proud of you guys. You’re heroes.

To sponsor a future hero go to compassion.com, click the banner on the right, or I e of the links in the posts below. To read more of my writings about Compassion click on the “compassion” category.

Thanks.

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to include some of my thoughts from when we were in the Philippines with Compassion last Spring. For those of you who read this regularly (thanks, Liza), I apologize for the re-read.

Today was our last day to really see any of the Compassion stuff. As I mentioned, we had a lot of filming left to do. Well, we rock-n-rolled and, despite the torrential downpour we experienced at one point, we made it happen.

To start the day we headed to yet another Compassion project, and this one was, of course, fantastic. We were greeted again by some of the children. The hung homemade ribbon necklaces around our necks and escorted us individually to seats for a program. The little girl who escorted me wasn’t much for conversation, but she was super-cute.

If you remember, this is one of the first visits Davao has ever had from Compassion advocated, so they really pulled out all the stops. There were a lot of greetings, a number of musical performances and a chance to build and paint the wall of a classroom, which our fearless event directors were more than gracious to undertake.

This was our first day to spend with Rafonselle, the one LDP student who has already been granted a visa for the summer. So we spent a good bit of time filming her with some of the children. I told her that we just wanted some shots of her talking to them or singing with them or playing with them or whatever really. She was awesome. She jumped right in, and you could definitely tell that she knew what it was like to be where they are now, and she looks at them differently than we do. No pity. No worry. No appreciation. No Fancy. She looks at them with hope.

After lunch we drove out to the middle of nowhere through some beautiful country. We haven’t seen much of rural Philippines, but we did today and there were moments where it could really be breathtaking. Our destination was some rice fields where we were planning on shooting Rafonselle’s interview. Through a lot of waiting for motorcycles to pass, we were able to get most of it done, until it started sprinkling. I should mention that before this occurred our van driver realized one of the tires was flat and left us out there to go take care of it. Roger was convinced that it would pass after a little while. It didn’t. Right as the bottom dropped out, our heroic chauffer comes bounding down the road to rescue us. We ditched the rest and came back to the hotel. Luckily we were able to finish it there.

With regards to Rafonselle, let me just say that our students this summer are in for a treat. She gets it. She really wants to meet Chris Tomlin, but as Taylor has said more than once, ol’ Tomlin “should be so lucky to get to meet her.”

After dinner tonight (we had pizza; can you believe it?) we spent a good bit of time just kinda debriefing our week. So, I feel like I might share a bit of it here.

In transferring posts from my old Xanga to this blog, I found one I had written a few years ago basically whining about how frustrated I was that my current ministry was to middle-class, suburban, white American kids. This made me think about how there was some moment during the last year-and-a-half that I just made a decision that I was no longer going to feel guilty about that. If God has proved anything throughout history and in my own life, it’s that He knows exactly what He’s doing. He’s not just making it up as he goes along. So, while I believe that He is big enough to handle me questioning Him, I can certainly try to realize when those questions and complaints are purely selfish in nature. My post about ministering to middle-class, suburban, white American kids was/is selfish. So, what has that led to?

Callie and I were talking earlier this week about what we do in response to everything we’re seeing. I said that one of the things I’ve realized is that there’s only so much I can do. That might sound simple, but for many of us I think it can actually be somewhat profound. It was for me. Here’s why…

There are a lot of problems in the world, a lot of injustices. As a Christian I have a responsibility to do something about this. It is incumbent upon me to give to the poor, care for the sick, feed the hungry, provide for the needy, make disciples of the world, care for widows and orphans, and basically, look after the “least-of-these.” But you know what? I don’t bear the burden of giving to every poor person, caring for every sick person, feeding all the hungry, providing for everyone in need, making sure every person hears the Gospel, caring for every widow and every orphan and ensuring that anyone who might be considered “the least of these” is looked after. Because that’s your responsibility too. We share that. If I tried to make a difference in the world by giving to every relief organization I come in contact with, going on every mission trip I hear about, promoting every awareness video or event, reading every book on how to heal the world’s ills, and jumping on every social-justice bandwagon that comes my way, I would utterly, miserably, and completely fail. So, what do I do?

I become obedient to that which God calls me, and I get other people on board as much as possible to fill in the gaps. This for me is what it means to be an advocate.

This past year I received an email from Compassion saying they were looking for more people for their advocates network. Now, I already do a lot with and for Compassion, but it’s all through Student Life, which, though a ministry, is also my job. So, I became an advocate to be a part of something outside of my work. It’s something I really believe in and something that works. That advocacy for me leads to action, as I hope it will for others. Advocacy is about action, not awareness. If I constantly talk to people about Compassion, but it never leads to them sponsoring, then what am I doing?

The other thing my refutation of guilt has lead to is a new and different outlook on what I experience overseas in developing countries. I don’t feel a lot of pity anymore. I actually feel a great deal of respect. This makes me uneasy because it seems such an unnatural reaction to seeing what we see on these types of trips or in the squatter camps of South Africa, but that makes me feel like it might be right. The Kingdom of God is unnatural. In fact, it’s supernatural in the purest sense of the word. God has such great affection for these people, for all people, and when I can catch just a glimmer of that, it changes the way I can relate to other people completely. I can be a voice for them, and when that voice, the way I tell their story, comes from a place of respect rather than pity or guilt, I believe it is more honoring to them and to the work that God is accomplishing in their lives.

Lastly, my decision has changed the way I feel about those middle-class, suburban, white American kids. They’re a product of their culture just like these Compassion children are. Neither are at fault for where they find themselves. For whatever reason that’s just where they are. So I can’t get upset with them. I can’t fault them. I have to be just as patient and compassionate with them as I would be with others.

I live for the moment that a student gets it. This is my purpose in life. God manifests that purpose in me in a variety of ways, and being an advocate and sponsor with Compassion is just one of them. I look forward to a lifetime of discovering all the others.

Tomorrow we visit a market to… well, you know… shop (nothing like finishing what I just wrote and then typing that sentence to test my resolve to not feel guilty). We then fly back to Manila for a final meal with some of the Compassion country staff before catching a few hours of sleep and then flying Japan for 24 hours in Tokyo and then back to the ‘Ham by way of Detroit.

Not sure if this will be the last post before then or not. If it is, I’ll be sure to post any more reactions I might have once I get back in the U.S. Until then…

Thanks to all of you who read this for journeying along with us.

Signing off.

To sponsor a child with Compassion, just click here.

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday I told you a little bit about the various programs Compassion uses to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. If you remember, one of those was the LDP program. If you don’t remember, just scroll below.

Well, this past year I had the great honor of being able to travel to the Philippines to produce a video with Taylor and Eric for us to use at the Student Life events this past summer to try to recruit sponsors. One of the graduates we got to meet was Rafonzel. She, like all LDP students and graduates, is absolutely awesome. I’ll be giving you more details about them later, but right now I wanted you to see the video we ended up making.

Enjoy.

To sponsor (you know what to do) just click here.

Merry Christmas!

I wanna make sure you guys have a decent idea of what Compassion does.  For the purpose of this post I’m going to focus on the three main areas.  They do a bunch of other things, too, that I might talk about in another post, but this is the bulk of it.

First, there’s the CDSP.  That stands for Child Development through Sponsorship Program.  This is the part of Compassion that I’ve been hounding you all about getting involved in.  Compassion partners with a local church that already has a ministry to children.  They help enhance that ministry and provide the church with resources and training that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.  Once they have a church with which to work, they begin to recruit children for that particular project.  Typically, they don’t take more than one or two children from any one family.  The reason is that by helping one child they really do end up helping the whole family (for example, if you give a kid a toothbrush, now the whole family has a toothbrush to use; once it’s used up, the kid gets a new one).  So, by limiting the amount in a family they’re able to affect more families and better affect a whole community.  They also try to make sure that the family is stable and will be active participants in the project.  Once a child is registered with a project they get their picture taken and become part of a packet that someone just like you can pick up.  Once you decide to sponsor that child, you are the only sponsor for them (unless you stop sponsoring them; then they go back into the system so they can find another sponsor).  You are the one directly affecting their lives and their future… for only $32.00 a month.  How great of a deal is that?  Plus, it’s super simple.  Click here and you’ll find out just how easy it is.

The second program Compassion has is the CSP.  This is the Child Survival Program.  The CDSP is for children around 3-4 years of age up until their aroudn 18-22, depending on each particular country and culture.  The CSP, however, is for children from pre-birth to 3-years-old and their mothers.  That’s right.  I said “pre-birth.”  Here’s what I’m talking about.  Developing countries and poverty-stricken areas in particular (regardless of where they are) have high infant mortality rates.  Well, since the best medicine is prevention, Compassion begins working with mothers when they’re pregnant and then continues to work with them once their child is born so they know how to take care of themselves and their children.  This program is primarily funded through the giving of major donors, but you can give to it, too, if you want.  Just visit Compassion‘s site to find out how.

The third, and currently final, program that Compassion has is the LDP.  This stands for the Leadership Development Program.  This isn’t quite in every country in which Compassion works for various reasons.  One is that the Compassion program is so young in some countries that they don’t have any who qualify.  You see, this program is for older students (not even sure they can be called children anymore).  These are people who have finished all of their primary education.  The ones who truly excel and desire to go to university can apply to be a part of the LDP.  If accepted, they once again are partnered with a sponsor.  This might be the same sponsor that has been with them through CDSP or it might be a new one, because it’s more expensive to sponsor someone through LDP (like, $300.00 a month).  This pays for all of their schooling plus their living expenses.  They’re partnered with a mentor in their country who works in their field of study.  They also periodically give back to local Compassion projects to work with the children who are in the same place they were at one time.  I’ve gotten to spend a decent amount of time with some LDP students and graduates (a good number of them end up working at projects or with their country’s home office).  They’re awesome.  I’ll be talking more about some of them in a future post.  If you would want to sponsor an LDP students and can afford it, please do.  Seriously.  It can be tough enough to get people to shell out $32.00, much less $300.00.  You can click here to do it.

That’s just a real rough overview of the stuff they’ve got going on, but I want to make sure you hear me about this one point.  It works.  It really does.  I’m not just saying that.  I’ve seen it first hand.  Compassion began by working with children in South Korea following the Korean war.  Now, they don’t work in South Korea anymore.  They don’t have to.  The church and government there can take care of their own poor and do it extremely well.  It’s become one of the largest sending countries with regards to Christian missionaries.  The place they send most of thos missionaries to?  The U.S.A.  Anyway, when I’ve asked older Compassion students (like the ones in the LDP program) what their hope is for their country, I repeatedly hear something to the effect of, “We will one day be like South Korea.”  You see, now instead of children there being sponsored, individuals in South Korea sponsor children in other countries.

It does work.  It changes lives, familes, communities and countries.

Don’t you want to be a part of that?

Click here if you do.

If you alread are, thanks.

Merry Christmas.

I’d like you to meet Luis. That’s him right over there, beside these words you’re reading. Luis lives in Riobamba, Ecuador, which is pretty much right in the middle of the country. He just turned eight-years-old last month. His dad works as a mechanic and his mom sometimes works as a maid. He’s got four other siblings.

Luis is the first child that Liza and I began sponsoring with Compassion. We’ve been sponsoring him for over three years now (I think). There’s various reasons why we chose each of the children that we sponsor. We basically chose Luis because he likes cars. I know. It’s not the most noble or deep reason, but that’s the reason. I like cars. Well, more specifically, I like Volkswagens, but I thought that was somethign that Luis and I would have in common. Plus, he was really young when we began sponsoring him. We wanted a child who was young so that we could sponsor him for a long time. Plus, we were sitting together on our couch on the Compasison website looking through various pictures of kids wondering how in the world we were supposed to decide. I mean, how do you pick the one that you’re going to sponsor, that you’re going to get to help? How do you pick the one kid that’s going to have their future completely changed because of the work of God in their lives because of Compassion? It seems like an impossible choice to make because when you’re thinking about it you’re considering all of the other children’s pictures that you’re looking at that need a sponsor that you’re going to say “no” to. But then you stop thinking about it. You notice one. He or she just jumps out at you for some reason (maybe it’s a yellow jacket). And you know that you’re going to pick him. You’re no longer focused on any child you’re not going to get to help. Instead, you’re completely overwhelmed with the honor that you’re going to get to be a small part of this kid’s life and that it’s going to be better because of you.

That’s a pretty great feeling.

So, there we were, looking over all the pictures, and we picked Luis. I was also happy that he was living in Ecuador because we at Student Life and Servant Life work with Steve Thompson and Camp Chacauco down there. So, I thought if I ever visited there I might could meet Luis. About a year-and-a-half ago I got to go to Ecuador, but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to arrange to meet Luis. That’s cool, though. I hope to take Liza there with me sometime so that we can both meet him.

Luis and I do get to write letters to each other, though (all sponsors and their children write back and forth; in fact, it’s one of the most important things you can do as a sponsor). Luis is better at writing letters and more faithful at it than I am, I’m ashamed to say. He’s really smart, advanced in his class, and his letters are always full of lots of questions about me and what I like to do and what it’s like in America and everything like that. He speaks and writes in Spanish, obviously. So, it also gives me a chance to practice my meager language skills.

One of the best bonds that Luis and I share is prayer. Whenever we write to each other we always let each other know what we are praying for one another and ask if there’s anything we can pray specificaly about. It’s awesome for both of us to know that somewhere on a different continent in a different hemisphere is someone that cares about us deeply and is always praying for us.

That’s about as good as it gets.

There’s any number of reasons you might choose a specific child to sponsor. Be as picky as you want. You might want to sponsor one in a country you’ve visited before so that you know something about the culture. You might want to sponsor a kid in a country you want to visit so that you might have the opportunity to meet them one day. You might want to sponsor a young child so you might track with them longer or you might pick one of the older kids because they’re the ones less likely to be picked in the first place. You might want to sponsor a child who’s the same age and gender of you’re own child or children so that they can correspond with someone like them that lives completely different from them. Whatever the reason, I promise the problem won’t be knowing which one you want to sponsor. It will be stopping at just one.

So why stop?

To find a child like Luis right now, go ahead and click here. There will be pictures of a bunch of kids. You can hit refresh to find more or use the tabs on the left to search for one more specifically.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

For the first post, I’m just going to present the letter we included with our card. At the bottom is the picture we put on the card.

Thanks.

There’s something very childlike about Christmastime. Many things just seem to be brighter. More vibrant. Cheerful. Full of life. Joyful. Innocent. Hopeful.

Of course, it makes perfect sense that this would be the case. After all, in the midst of the focus on children’s toys and who gets said toys based on that infamous naughty-and-nice list, this is the time of year that we celebrate the birth of a child. Jesus Christ. The Son of God. Savior. Emmanuel. God with us. In a swaddled baby in a manger we find the fulfillment of all the divine promises ever made and the source of everything that is good and right and true in the universe. The completely unconditional love that so many of us yearningly search for and experience in the most unexpected ways is perfectly personified when that one, sacred newborn opens his eyes and looks upon his parents for the very first time. And as cliché as it might sound, the greatest gift of all is that the opportunity to know that love personally is offered to each and every one of us regardless and in spite of who we are and what we might have done. I can think of nothing that is more hopeful.

Liza and I have sometimes found it to be near impossible to cling to that hope. In our struggles to have children of our own, there were times we wanted to give up, where we cried and screamed at each other and at God about whether or not we would ever have the joy and responsibility of being able to parent a child of our own. However, on July 17 this year our prayers were answered and our hope renewed. Despite the failures of practices and procedures, our God proved faithful. And this year as we celebrate Jesus’ birth we look forward to Story’s. I could never have anticipated how much this has already changed us, how much it has deepened our love for each other, how much it has strengthened our faith, how much it scares us to death. But I know that it is right. I know that God alone deserves credit. And I know that any naysayers about the miraculous in this world can never convince me that they are the enlightened ones.

Through this journey I’ve learned a lot. One of those being that, though our story turned out the way we wanted, that’s not always the case. We live in a fallen world, where for many people “hope” can seem as distant as the farthest star or as fanciful as a unicorn’s ivory. I’ve had the honor to travel a decent amount in parts of the developing world. I’ve seen firsthand how the lies of the enemy can destroy the spirit of people. But everywhere I go, I’ve also seen the light of God shining brighter than all its surroundings and expelling any hint of darkness. In this time of year that is so often about children and God and lights and hope, I’d like to ask you to play a role in some of that work around the world.

Part of my travel has been in partnership with Compassion International, a child advocacy agency that is currently working with over 1 million children in 25 countries. Through the sponsorship of people like us, they provide these children with help in all aspects of their life, social, educational, physical, mental, and spiritual. Liza and I believe in what they do wholeheartedly. I have personally seen their work first-hand at 14 projects in four of their countries. I’ve talked with scores of children in the program as well as alumni who tell me that out of all of the food, clothes, and medical help they received from Compassion, the two most important things it has provided has been introducing them to Jesus and giving them hope: for their future, the future of their family, the future of their city, and the future of their country. My relationship with Luis, Akena and Mey (the three children we sponsor) has also provided me with hope for a future in which people step out of their world to change that of another.

I’ve been an advocate for Compassion since I first became aware of them, before I ever sponsored a child myself or went on a trip to see their work. Now, I’m an advocate more than ever. That’s why in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis during the most financially-draining season of the year, I’m asking you to commit $32.00 a month to change the life of a child, to provide them with hope, to introduce them to the reason that Christmas gets celebrated in the first place. You can find out how by visiting www.compassion.com and can read more of my stories with Compassion by visiting my blog at chriskinsley.wordpress.com. Rest assured that the only benefit I stand to gain from this is the joy I take in knowing another child is going to be okay.

Each of you are special to Liza and me. We are so excited to be able to celebrate this season with you, to share our excitement and anticipation about Story’s impending birth, and to challenge you to sacrifice just a little for a reward that cannot be measured and that might remain unknown to you ‘til we pass from this world to the next. This might be innocent and naïve and idealistic of us, but if it is, so be it. It’s Christmastime, after all, and like I said, there’s something very childlike about it.

Merry Christmas and God Bless,

Chris and Liza Kinsley

Merry Christmas!