Grace Global Outreach: Compassion Journey

It was 12 years ago when I visited a Compassion child center for the first time. Our group went to the outskirts of Lima, Peru to serve a Compassion church in whatever way we could. Grace Fellowship had been partnering with Compassion International for four years by that point, and we were finally able to take a team to our focus country of Peru.

The experience showed us what Compassion on-the-ground looked like as we immersed ourselves that week. We painted walls, prepared lunches, played street volleyball, laid tile, and swung hula hoops – and fell in love with the warmth of our host church and culture. As God gave us unexpected opportunities to share his love, our own hearts grew. Finding ourselves in a place of weakness – of shifting plans and foreign languages and hard hotel pillows – his grace was available when we needed it.

This is the way of a mission trip – we cross cultural barriers to see how we may encourage the work God is already doing around the world, praying that our weakness is his strength. Most of us who have gone on one of the 17 Compassion mission trips from Grace are child sponsors. Being financially able to sponsor or travel doesn’t make us any wiser than those we visit, or any closer to God. But the opportunity we have lets us be a part of something bigger than we are.

For an indefinite season, we cannot travel to support child development centers, nor visit sponsored children. Local churches are hard at work using these uncertain times to serve their communities and share the gospel to hurting families. Compassion center volunteers continue to care for the children. And our sponsorship dollars keep supporting the work of the church in a broken and vulnerable world. Thank you, to the hundreds of you who are quietly making a difference month after month through financial sponsorship and personal letters.

If you’re not one of the 85+ GFC members that have visited a child development center first hand, there is a virtual experience available now that gives a closer look at the story of one special girl. The Compassion Journey tells you about Patience, from Uganda, and shows the difference that her experience with Compassion made for her. And really, more than the difference that Compassion made, it’s the difference that Jesus made, using local volunteers in a church willing to reach its community for Christ. That’s why Compassion talks about releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. I invite you to sit down for a bit and listen to her story, and consider if there’s a place for you to be a part of someone’s story yourself.

 

Lois Martin
Outreach Director

 

If you would like information on child sponsorship opportunities from GFC’s Global Outreach focus countries of Peru, Mexico, and Rwanda, click here or text GFC to 83393.

* The above referenced Compassion Journey video is available to watch through May 21, 2021.