Youth "Get It" ~ Responding With Their Hearts

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

The past two weekends I had the privilege to represent Compassion at Youth Encounter's Quake Conference in Hunt Valley, MD.  This was a new partnership for Compassion and my involvement is interesting. We had signed up last fall to work the table for sponsorships. Late last year the event dropped off our list of events to work and it was explained to us that they would be doing their own staffing due to the long periods of downtime. With my job situation I felt that it was for the best as I did not know what my schedule would be. Fast forward to the second week of January and I got a call from Colorado asking if I would be willing to do the event. They actually wanted someone who would be willing to work the table for the weekend and if I wanted to then perhaps be available to speak to the youth.  Still not employed I certainly had the time and those that know me know I would never pass up a chance to speak on behalf of Compassion.

Week 1~ we were told to be there Saturday morning early for the day and then back on Sunday. When I got there I met with the Jen Miller (Quake director) and of course asked if I would have the opportunity to share. With a quizzical look she told me she thought I would be speaking on behalf of Compassion right after lunch. It had been worked into the schedule. Not a problem! Using their conference theme of Do, Love, Walk I shared with them how Compassion was "doing" by releasing children from poverty through sponsorship.  We could join in by "loving" and sponsoring a child. Finally we could "walk" by building a relationship with that child and helping them grow. Now these were 6th to 9th graders and of course sponsoring may be tough since most of them did not work. I encouraged them to speak with their parents and maybe even consider joining together (small groups/bible studies) and sponsor a child as a group rather than as individuals. Attendance was around 750 to 800 teens and I really did not know what to expect. We walked out of that event with five children sponsored which really was great! Five children sponsored that were not before.

Week 2~ Same type of event/same location with a group of about 350. This was the week of the Haiti earthquake so my heart was heavy but "on fire" for what we could do. I decided to go ahead and have the table set up Friday for the opening session through Sunday morning. Jen would allow me to speak Friday night just to encourage them, my presentation on Saturday, and then a wrap up on Sunday morning. Compassion had also given us permission to solicit donations for Disaster Relief in Haiti. I have donation buckets that I have used before so we had a nice display set up. With half the audience of the prior week I could only hope for the best. I decided Friday night to issue them a challenge. After briefly discussing Compassion I gave them my "Five & One "challenge. I encouraged them to meet the prior week's sponsorship total of 5. Half the kids and retain the same results seemed reasonable. I also encouraged each of them to give $1.00 and we could raise over $300 for Haiti.

>>>Let me state that personally I love working Youth events and concerts. It is never about asking a lot of questions. Do not get me wrong. I have no problem speaking to adults at the table about Compassion's mission, integrity or how the programs work. It is just with youth they respond straight with their hearts. To them it is more about doing and figuring out the how. I sat at the table and watched the teens drop $5 bills into the bucket. I saw little kids dig through their wallets for change.  It amazed me…..but then I should not have been surprised at how God could work through these teens.

Final count for the weekend was twelve children sponsored and $800 raised for Haiti. They not only hit the challenge they more than doubled it. Sunday morning I could only speak to them with tears in my eyes at the love they had shown. In these tough times when every dollar seems to count and sometimes we wonder if we "should" rather than just doing, they proved, that no matter what God will provide.

The situation in Haiti is not over and help will be needed for a long time. Children in 25 different countries still need sponsorship and some have been waiting for longer than six months. I encourage you to Do!Love!Walk! by going to either Here or Here and making a difference.