Making Room In My Heart

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

So if you have been following my musings around here you know the following:

1. I am an advocate for Compassion after meeting my first sponsored child in Honduras and seeing how well the ministry works.

2. I love children especially those considered "the least of these." I believe that children should have an opportunity and it is my ministry to try and make that happen.

3. My heart is in Honduras~ all of my sponsored children are there though I encourage others to seek sponsorships in any of Compassion's 26 countries.

As of January 11th my wife and I made a conscious decision to make one of those statements false. Obviously for statements 1 and 2 to become false would require a complete change in my faith and ministry. The world would be turned upside down for those that know me. However for statement 3 to become false would require a change in my heart and direction. Easily said but not easily done. My wife and I had made a decision to sponsor all of our children in Honduras. We had fallen in love with the Country and many of the people we met there. Having all our sponsored children in one place would make it easy to visit them. We have done this twice and are planning to see them all again this summer.

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Defining Moments

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

Here we are again at the start of a brand new year. Not only that but it is a start of a brand new decade. It seems really hard to believe that ten years have gone by that quickly. We started the decade worrying about the Y2K crisis. We saw 9/11 occur which impacted our lives in so many ways especially in the way we travel.We have watched an idea called Facebook grow and change the way we network and communicate.  Finally we have ended this decade going thorough one of the worst recessions in our lifetime. If you take a moment and sit down and reflect we all have been touched in one way or another by these defining moments. These are events that at the time we may not realize it but they are impacting us in ways that will change our lives and touch us in important ways.

Let me share with you personally how those three events have touched and changed me as a case in point. Travelling prior to 9/11 was easy. I used to work a job that required travelling. I could easily breeze through airports with no worries with what I was carrying or the time needed to get from one gate to another. Can I say that now? Facebook is now a major player in my life. I never used a MySpace or a blog but several years ago I began to Facebook (see even the terminology has changed), it has allowed me to connect with others in a ministry in a whole new way. Farmville aside it has proved to be a great ministry tool in connecting sponsors to children. The recession obviously caused me to be laid off for a period of four months and to find a lesser paying job (I'm still grateful though) and of course our investments became devalued. Each of these touched me in ways that I never anticipated.

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The Greatest Gift

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

I will be upfront and state that this article is directly tied into our current worship series at Fork Christian Church. We are doing a study called the Advent Conspiracy. In a nutshell we are trying to go against the tide of our culture and to make a difference this season. Rather than just buying to buy and giving to give we want to get back to basics and make it about relationships. It is about making a difference both locally and globally. Think back on that first Christmas. A simple birth changed history and lives. What if this season we tried to make Christmas another life changing event??

It has been said many times that the greatest gift ever given was the gift of Jesus Christ. God freely gave of himself, through his Son, to save us. God wanted a relationship that was free from sin with us. God wanted to love us fully and for us to love him back fully. God gave us his Son in order to accomplish this. Simply put Christmas is about love and relationships. That is the meaning of the first Christmas.

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Being "Mr. Lovewell"

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

We have been speaking about love over the past few posts. The study at my church has concluded and one thing I wish to leave you all with is that love is a verb. Love requires action. Love is never stagnant. If we say we love but our actions do not support it then we cannot truly be loving. God so loved us that he gave his son for us. Jesus so loved us that his entire ministry was an example of love in action. From birth to the cross everything he did was out of love. Often we say we love but do our actions support that?

Mercy Me, one of my favorite Christian artists, has a new album out. It is simply entitled "The Generous Mr. Lovewell." Many of the songs deal with love in one form or another. The title song is about a man named Mr. Lovewell. I would like to take a look at some of the lyrics with you and show you how they apply to what we have been talking about.

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Compassion Sunday

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

We are speaking about love!  As I mentioned in my previous post my church is doing a church-wide study called the "40 Days of Love." Basically we are examining the relationship principles that Jesus calls us to. Week two is about loving others as Jesus did. Jesus calls us to love the unloved, the widows and orphans and the poor. This is a perfect lead in for my ministry with Compassion.

Just a little background- Every advocate and sponsor that is involved with Compassion would love to have a Compassion Sunday at their church. This is a global event in which churches speak of Compassion's ministry and encourage child sponsorships. I have presented at several churches and have always be thankful for the opportunity. I guess the "Holy Grail" is being able to present at your own church. It is an opportunity to bring the ministry home. Over a year and half ago my pastor approached me about having a Compassion Sunday at our church. Needless to say I was thrilled but it took awhile to nail things down. Last spring we discussed doing it during the summer or as part of this study. God's timing is perfect! The message for week two would be the ideal tie-in. Loving others as Jesus loved us. Even better they wanted to tape an interview with me and then follow up "live" on stage with some final thoughts.

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