Facebook Ministry (Part 1) - The Beginnings

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

Social networking is a fairly new phenomena in the scheme of things. First there was instant messaging, then MySpace, then Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Two years ago I could not have begun to explain these things to anyone but now I am an avid Facebook person and Twitterer. (Ok not to the extent that some of you are but still active). I even have my own blogs.

Interestingly enough my love of these sites was not from being a computer person but rather from my love of Compassion and wanting to share my ministry. In 2005 I began exploring the use of forums as part of my playing online Disney games but that is another story. I think in late 2008 I thought it would be cool to have a Facebook account. I am not really sure when I activated my account or what I really originally did with it. I certainly did not spend a lot of time with it.

Then in Spring of 2009 my wife and I decided to return to Honduras for another Compassion Sponsor tour. This time I thought it would be cool to post updates on Facebook as well as start a blog as a reminder of the trip and to share my ministry. Thus two sites were born Sharing Compassion and Showing Compassion. If you go to Sharing Compassion back to the very beginning you can follow the daily adventures of our trip. Rather than journaling it serves as a great reminder of my experiences. From that trip my growth in social networking has grown exponentially. For the past year I have used FaceBook, my blogs and twitter as a means to promote Compassion and encourage others within the ministry. From that point I have also discovered new friends, new contacts and have even had some great opportunities by using these sites.

Around the same time a lot of my fellow advocates started using Facebook as a tool also for the ministry. We discovered that we could use the site to post child packets and encourage sponsorships of that child. What a novel idea! One of my friends can easily account for over twenty five children sponsored just by using this means.

Another advocate posts Compassion's daily prayer requests which opens up a whole new venue of people praying that otherwise may not have happened. We use Facebook also as advertising to let others know about events or even to seek opportunities to speak. Compassion itself has its own page to further the ministry. Now we follow each other as we work events and even as people go on trips.

I remember the days of waiting for people to get back home and develop pictures and share memories. Now we follow them as the trip progresses and can even see daily pictures.  In fact I recently became friends with two fellow Compassion Sponsors from Maryland because of daily postings. Last month there was another sponsor tour to Honduras and I was following it through one of our previous translators from Honduras who I was friends with on Facebook. Through some of the comments that were made and some of the photo tags I discovered that Jan and Karla were from Maryland and were on their first sponsor tour. We have become friends and I recently met them at a Compassion event.

Over the next few articles I would like to offer some of the postive and negative aspects of social networking and the viability of using these mediums as a ministry tool. Until then you know where you can find me.

Chuck is a Christian husband and father who has served in part-time ministry for 17 years, and is a deacon at his church. He has been a Compassion International Advocate/Area Coordinator for several years, finding families to sponsor Compassion children throughout the world. His passion is letting others know how important it is to release children from poverty. Be sure to check out his blog, Sharing Compassion.

Comments

[MAD21]

I love that Facebook has made the world so much smaller for things like this. I pray it continues to be so successful for Compassion and other ministries.