A Little Compassion

April 19, 2018

If you are reading this on a smartphone or a computer, you are among the rich of the world.

If you had enough to eat today and more than one meal, you are among the rich of the world. If you have multiple pairs of shoes, if you have heat in your house or apartment, if you have access to a car or even own a bicycle, you are very rich by any global standard.

With few exceptions, we’re rich, okay?! I’m a pastor, and I’m rich, too!

This truth can be hard to accept because all of us know others who have more and better stuff than we do. That is a spiritually dangerous observation, however. When we compare ourselves to the SUPER rich, it kills our compassion. When our eyes are focused in the direction of more, we forget how essential it is to serve those who have less.

This coming weekend at Elmhurst CRC is all about encouraging our capacity for compassion through collaboration with Compassion International. Compassion is one of the world’s leaders in helping first-world Christians share from their abundance of resources to help provide for the basic needs of kids from desperately under-resourced parts of the world.

Here are a few ways to get on board:

  • “The Compassion Experience” will be parked in our south lot through Monday evening. You and your family can come and literally walk in the shoes of kids who are growing up in circumstances that look nothing like ours in the Western Suburbs.
  • In our Sunday morning worship services, a woman named Cecilia Nyamwandha will be sharing her testimony growing up in Kenya as child whose life was changed through Compassion’s sponsorship. You can read more about Ceclia HERE.
  • You’ll have the opportunity to make a difference and sponsor a child through Compassion International.

Compassion International is not the only great player when it comes to sponsoring kids. My family has sponsored children through World Vision over the last 20 years. Our Children’s ministry does the same for a girl named Harriet. Many folks from our community have partnered with All God’s Children in Honduras to help boys and girls from that amazing orphanage.

In a beautiful illustration that God’s Kingdom is very big and that we’re all on the same team, the following paragraph comes from Dina and Alli Zeilstra about how they met their Compassion child, Moises (see picture), through an All God’s Children service trip!

Allison and I had the privilege of going to Honduras to serve at Hogar de Ninos with All God’s Children in January 2015 with the Renew trip from Timothy Christian High School. We had also been sponsoring a child in Honduras through Compassion International, and we were able to set up sponsor visit during our time in Honduras. Moises arrived with his mother, the director of his Compassion center and a Compassion representative who also served as our interpreter. We spent an amazing day together and did not want to leave each other when it was time for Moises to return home. It was incredible to be able to hug this child we had previously only known through pictures and letters. I was humbled to hear his sweet mother say she had been praying for us to come. This experience was one of the most meaningful of my life.

This is how it’s supposed to be! Help, support, and prayers flowing in all directions. I recently came across this thought, “Faith is not something that is meant to be just passed down, but to be passed around.” Amen. Praying for lots of this passing around to happen this weekend.

Peace,
Pastor Gregg

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