Episode 275: Compassion Sunday | +Quigg Lawrence, Kim Motley, & others

So I'd like to ask all our compassion sponsors to come forward. As they're coming forward, I want to root our time together in scripture as we always like to do.

This is an unusual Sunday because we're not going to have a twenty-five minute Bible teaching. But I think the Lord's absolutely fine with that. We're going to have about a three minute Bible teaching, but then we're going to have testimonies—testimonies of actually how to walk out faith, and particularly in regards to compassion.

Let's look at the scripture which gives us a good reason why we would do these things. Why would we sponsor children? Why would we write to children? Why would we visit our children? Here's what the Lord said in Matthew 25:

When the son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. And before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. And then the king will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me."

Then look at this verse. It says:

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" And the king will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me." — Matthew 25:31-40

A Personal Story

I grew up in a home where we had money and then we didn't. That's a long story. But I remember my mom always having us pray at dinner and pray for all the starving kids in Africa. And that sounds a little odd in these days, sounds a little white privilege, but at least my mother had a heart to pray for kids that were hungry.

Even with our kids and grandkids, we're like, "Lord, how can we do this? There's so many kids that hunger is terrible." I fasted a few times in my life. I actually hate it. I hate fasting. I know it's good spiritually, but going without food is terrible. Having a cracked tooth and not be able to have it fixed is terrible. Having a broken bone and not having the money or resources to have that fixed is terrible. Having chiggers in your feet is terrible.

So this is just one very practical way. If God's put that love in your heart to help give a hand up to some of the least of these, his brothers, this is a very tangible and quality way to do it.

Annette and I sponsored a young girl. We don't adopt—they have their own parents—but we sponsor a young girl. We went to meet her. I met her in Rwanda and she was great. And then about three months later, Compassion calls us and I'm like, "Why are they calling me? This could not be good." She died a few months after we met her because she lived in a remote village and she had appendicitis. Her appendix burst. They don't have a car, they don't have money. So we were heartbroken.

We called Compassion and we said, "Hey, we are heartbroken. Does she have any siblings? Because we were just starting to get to know this girl." They're like, "Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. She has a couple that are older, but she has a younger brother. He's about five. And his packet is out with some Christian rock band."

Well, I don't know if you know me well, but I am a fighter by nature. I do not give up easily. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'm not the smartest guy, but I don't quit easily. And I'm like, "Well, I appreciate those Christian rockers have this package. I want it."

"Oh sir, I don't know if that's going to be possible."

"Oh, it's possible. It's possible."

About three days later, we got introduced to Nizi Yamana Eric. Little five or six year old boy. We saw him. Now he's taller than me. He WhatsApps me, and I love the kid. I love him as my own son.

So anyway, that's just one story. Kim, I'm going to hand it to you. I'm going to go sit down and listen to you guys.

Compassion Sunday Update

Well, hello everyone. I'm Kim Motley and can you believe this is our—Quig, this is our fourteenth Compassion Sunday?

Yeah, we started sixteen years ago. Had to skip a couple Sundays there due to COVID and something else. But anyway, just so excited at all God has done through all of you over the past sixteen years. This church currently sponsors around 700 children.

Yes. Glory to God.

Glory to God for that. Yes. And today, we have something special planned for you. We have three sponsors up here who want to share with you what their experience has been like sponsoring children. And we are going to start with Andy Fetzer here.

Hi, Kim. Hi, Andy. You doing okay? Yes. Good. Just wanna ask, so how many children do you and Becky sponsor?

We sponsor three presently. We just had one that aged out, Pascaline. We have Julianne, Theodoncey, and Habba McGishu Charles.

Wonderful. So before you started sponsoring, did you guys have any hesitancy at all or reservations about doing it?

Yes. I had a lot of them. Mostly financial because I'm pretty cheap. Just generally. Yeah. Like if we go out to lunch, I won't have my wallet for some reason, so you'll end up paying for it. I'll be prepared. But yes, we did have some hesitancy because working for a nonprofit, you do know that there is room for misappropriation of funds and you wonder if the money that you're spending is going to where you want it to go or if it's going to some admin in Idaho somewhere sitting behind a computer. And I always wondered about that for sure.

Okay. Well, then you did decide to do it anyway.

We ended up doing it. Yeah. And you actually got to go to Rwanda and meet one of your sponsored children.

Yeah. Quig set up a group of folks that went over there. We were building some churches in memory of Kendall Bain and had the opportunity to meet Habba McGishu Charles who's on Combo Island.

Sweet. Well, tell us about that experience.

There was a Compassion representative that met me there and also a translator because I—that would have been really necessary. Yeah. We would have just been pointing to stuff. But we got onto a boat. I had to pick somebody from my group. I picked Joel Shepherd. Why wouldn't you? And we took a fifteen, twenty minute boat ride to an island—not Combo Island, it was an island that's near Combo Island. Is that correct?

Yep. Bogomera.

A very small island. We climbed up to the top of this island on the spine and we walked to Charles' house. And the parents greeted us. They were wearing their Sunday best and they invited us into their one room basically shanty. Dirt floor, no plumbing, no electricity. And there, we got to talk and to meet and it was really fun.

The Compassion representative pulled out a three ring binder. And in the binder was all of Charles' information—his health information, his feeding information, his education, his worksheets, the things that he was learning in school. And when they were going through it, I pointed to a page. I said, "What is that?" And they said, "Well, that's the chickens that you bought at Christmas time for them."

So we have an opportunity to go above and beyond sometimes and at Christmas time, you wanna do something fun and so we bought chickens. Well, I'm like, there's no way that me buying chickens is going to go 6,000 miles to some remote island in the middle of Africa. And I said, "Well, where are the chickens?" Not like a jerk, but I was like, "Where are the chickens?" And then the guy says in Rwanda—Kenyarwanda.

Yeah. Kenyarwanda.

And they laugh and then they point to the corner of this small little house where there's two chickens just kinda looking at you going, "What are we doing here?" And I was like, "That is the moment I was like, this is unbelievable. This is so surreal that you don't sometimes—you're like, gosh, is this real? Are these people real? Or is this—yes, they do." And the chickens were really there. It was so fantastic.

Yeah. The family also had our pictures and all of our letters and they cherish these things. It was so weird and awesome that my picture's in a shack on an island in Rwanda and they love it. They do love it. They cherish every photo.

So can we see some pictures now?

Yes, there we go. That's Charles, that's Howard McGishu. That's when I first met him. It was so surreal. It was the best. That's his dad and his mom. And when Joel and I got on the island, we were either aliens or rock stars or both. And that's how they treated us. The whole neighborhood came out. Everybody saw us. Everybody thought something was happening. And then Charles was the star because we got to give him a soccer ball and everybody was like, "Charles is the man because he now has a soccer ball," and it was so cool.

So tell me this, do you and Becky involve your own children in the sponsorship experience?

Yes, of course. We tried to pick kids that were around our kids' ages when they actually got to pick the kids out. So when they went to the table and they were little, they'd pick the kids out and we're like, "Alright, that's perfect." And then they're kinda like the pen pals. They draw pictures for them.

They write letters to them and it's a pretty cool experience for them to then receive the letter from them, answering the questions that they ask. That's great. Last question: of all the things you've done in your life, how would you rate meeting one of your Compassion children in person?

Yeah, top five. Easily top five. Meeting my crisis team, marriage, a couple of my kids' births, meeting Habom Gishu, and then the other kid's births. They're not here, so I could say that, Kim.

Yeah, I'm glad they're not here. Thanks for sharing with us.

Well, thank you so much for sharing, and we're gonna pass the mic now to Catherine Otterman. Did I call you Catherine Williams at the first service? I'm so sorry. She is married. I just knew her growing up as Catherine Williams.

Yes, she is Catherine Otterman. And Catherine, you met your child for the first time before she was registered with Compassion, when you were just over there in Rwanda on a trip. So tell us about that.

So I went for the first time in 2014 with a team with Bishop Quigg and Church of the Holy Spirit was building churches and schools so Compassion could then come in and start the programs. And when we went, there were just swarms of children that would gather there to meet you. And they would just follow you around the whole time. And this one little girl just clung to me, and she was on my hip for the next five days. Every day we would visit.

Finding Her in the Packets

So when you found out that our church, Church of the Holy Spirit, was going to be sponsoring children from Nacambo Island, what did you do?

So at this project, Compassion chooses only certain families to be sponsored. There's an income poverty line that they choose from, and on this project they can only choose one child per family. So there was no guarantee that she would even be chosen. She's one of seven children. So Kim called me and said, "Hey, the packets are here. You are welcome to come sift through them and see if you can find her." And I had her name and her picture, and I picked up a stack and started going through them. She was in the first stack. I found her within the first couple minutes.

That's so special. I love that. So then you had the really rare opportunity to get to really know your child and her family because you and Jake lived over there for two and a half years as missionaries. Tell us about that.

So we lived on the mainland, and I actually worked on the island some with some women's groups. I would jump on a little moto and drive thirty minutes through the village, and then take public transportation—just a little dinghy, literally a wooden kayak with all the other people—across to the lake. I would walk past her house every day when I went to the island. I would pass her dad on the streets. I would see her sisters. I know where she goes to school. I know her principal. And through being there, I really got to know her family. She came to my house. I went to her house. I have her phone number. I know that she wants to be a pilot when she grows up.

All those kids on packets out there, they're real kids with real aspirations. And you spending $38 a month gives your child a chance at education. You're sending them to school, you're providing nutrition and health checkups. You are giving them a direct line of sight to a real future with just $38 a month. And I am super humbled that I got the chance to live near her and be her friend. But you guys can have that same experience through writing letters to your kids. And I think that's such a special thing through Compassion.

A Family Album

Did she—before you moved there—did you notice if she had saved any of your letters?

Yeah, so when we actually went there, she has like a family photo album. And she ran inside and grabbed it and brought it out. There are all their family pictures, and then we're just in there too. So we have become a part of their family, and they were so excited.

I think something that shifted my view of gratitude towards the Lord. It's totally shifted off of their gratitude towards me and their gratitude towards the Lord. I was there just three weeks ago visiting. This was us three weeks ago with her mom. Her mom was literally on her hands and knees praising God for putting us in their lives. And the gratitude that they show just towards God, having basically nothing. But through your partnership of $38 a month, it drastically changes their whole entire family's lives.

That, I just love all you have to share because she's been there, seen it up close. She's seen Compassion's work up close, and she can tell you, this is legit. Yes, this really does make a difference. So lastly, I want to tag on something you said about a family gift, you know, and ripple effect and all that.

So Ben and I have been to Rwanda a few times and met our sponsored kids. One of them is from the Nicombo Island, and I had the opportunity to meet her older brother on one of our trips. He spoke good English, and I found out he had the ability to go to college. I'm like, how did that happen? They have no money, the family. So I asked him, how is it you speak such good English and were able to go to university? He said, "Oh, it is a miracle. It is a miracle." He got so excited and said that Ben and I sent money one year as a family gift—we do it at Christmas time—just like you sent money for chickens. One Christmas, we sent money for them to buy a cow.

Well, the cow had a baby calf. At that time, the family had no money to send him to secondary school, which is sixth through twelfth grade over there. The school fees cover supplies and uniform—that's it. But they had no money to do that. When his father sold the baby calf, they used the money to pay his secondary school fees. Well, he scored so high on his national exams that the government paid for him to go to college. That's just such a powerful example of the ripple effect. Our sponsorship wasn't just helping the child we sponsor—it was helping her whole family.

Anyways, Jessica, we're gonna move on to you. Jessica Tuggle has never met her children in person like these two have, but she is such a passionate sponsor. Jessica, tell me how many children do you sponsor?

We currently sponsor three children. We have a 15-year-old girl in Rwanda. She's not part of the Bugamera or Kombo Island projects, but she, her nine siblings, mom and dad are farmers and they live just north of Kigali. And then we have two little boys in Honduras—one is 13 and one is 5. And you have a really cool story to share. Tell us about that.

Sure. Benjamin is our 13-year-old sponsored child in Honduras. We've sponsored him since 2014. In 2017, I received a letter from Benjamin letting us know that his mom was pregnant. At that time, he lived with mom, dad, grandparents, and he was super excited. He said he didn't care whether it was a boy or a girl, but he was excited that he was gonna be a big brother. And would I pray for the pregnancy and the birth. So I was happy to do so.

Fast forward a few months later in that year—we get another letter that the baby's born. It was a little boy named Gustavo. Everybody's happy and healthy and thanked us for praying for him. That was that. Could hear the joy in his words in that letter—he was excited for his little brother.

As time goes on, and I pray for my compassion children much like I pray for my own children, I would remember to pray for Gustavo, the little brother, but not as often as I prayed for the other children. But for some reason, on one morning in 2020, I was doing my quiet time and praying for my compassion children, and I felt compelled—Gustavo was laid on my heart. I thought, I'm gonna pray for him. I'm gonna follow this. And I prayed for that little boy that morning to be protected, blessed, kept safe, provided for, and that he would grow up in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That was that. I went on with my day.

Around lunchtime, I logged in to my Compassion account online, which is awesome. You can pen letters and send physical pictures, but you can also do all of that online. You can see the history of the letters traded back and forth. You can see when they're in translation coming to you. You can learn about their compassion centers, their communities. They upload pictures of them, new pictures every few years. But for whatever reason, I logged on to that Compassion site that day, and the very first thing that I saw was a picture of a young mother with a little boy on her lap. And it said, "Your sponsored child's sibling, Gustavo, has been waiting for a sponsor today for 355 days. Would you share his photo to social media, friends and family in hopes to gain him a sponsor?"

And I could not believe that the prayer that I had just prayed six hours before, and this little boy who I had never laid eyes on, I see his precious face staring back at me on my computer screen. If that wasn't the quickest turnaround of prayer, I don't know. Of course, I wasn't gonna share that photo. That was for sure for me. I couldn't click "I will sponsor him" fast enough. At that point, I had no idea that you could sponsor siblings. I didn't think that Gustavo was even old enough to be sponsored.

And I had never been asked to sponsor or find a sponsor for one of Uweishima's nine siblings. So that was meant to be for sure.

Fast forward now, I have this beautiful relationship with this family. Unfortunately, over the years and recently, grandparents have died. Dad just left the family sadly not too long ago. So it's just mom, Jocelyn, and the two boys. And I can imagine, talk about ripple effects—the compassion sponsorship probably really helps her as a single mom now. But it's a beautiful relationship, and I can still see my prayers from that morning being answered today.

The last letter I got from Gustavo, which is really Jocelyn, the mom writing because he's too little, she says this: "He is a happy child. He loves to sing the bible songs that they teach at the compassion center, and he loves to learn stories about Jesus and wants to know what your favorite bible story about Jesus is." So those prayers are continuing to be answered. That is so cool.

Let's see a picture of these two little boys. Tell us about them. So, obviously, Gustavo on my left and Benjamin. That look, that's a family gift that we sent and they always write you a letter and tell you thank you for what you sent. Down to the item, they will tell you. So that looks like food items and then lumber because if I remember correctly, they were going to do repairs on the house. But they are good stewards of your money when they send it. The Compassion project knows your child and knows what the family needs. And they actually do the shopping with or for them. And you always know what you buy—cows, chickens, goats. We bought a stove one time. It's not much. Our currency goes a long way over there. So it's just such a blessing to know that you're helping with just a little bit of money.

So what would you say to anyone out there who may be considering sponsoring?

I would say there is nothing, and I would say you would be hard pressed to find anything tangible that you could purchase with $38 a month that would bring you the joy that sponsorship brings. No convenience, no thing, no experience would replace the joy that you receive from being a sponsor. You will see the effects of your sponsorship for sure. You'll see it in their smiles. You'll know how you help the family as they grow up and they're healthy. But there are results of your sponsorship that certainly I believe we won't know this side of heaven. And that's just a beautiful thing, and nothing worth $38 could replace that.

Well, thank you guys so much for sharing. Let's give them a big hand.

The Impact of Sponsorship

So now I have a question for all of you. If you currently sponsor one or more children, would you please stand up? I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you sponsors out there.

And for those of you who are new to Compassion International, they've already told you it's $38 a month, and they told you a lot of what that money goes toward. But one thing that they didn't mention, or maybe not as much, is the spiritual development of the child. Compassion partners with the local church. So these children, every time they go to their project, they are hearing the gospel. They are learning worship songs. They are getting bible stories. They are definitely being trained spiritually. And oftentimes, whole families will come to Christ because that one child is being sponsored. So again, the ripple effect that it has.

But perhaps the most life-changing part of your sponsorship could be in the letters that you write. Children in poverty don't believe they matter. But in your letters, you can say, "I love you. You are special. I believe in you. You can do it." Just those phrases in a letter are huge to a child living in poverty.

So if you would like to sponsor a child today, we have children from the Bougamira and Nakambo Island projects, but we also have from two other Rwandan projects. And you can go to the North after the service and select a child of your own.

Lastly, I just want to say the impact of sponsorship is truly immeasurable. You just can't measure it. Some of you may remember Nora. She spoke at our Compassion Sunday two years ago. She herself was a formerly sponsored child. When she was here, she shared with me that one of her deepest desires was to be able to meet her sponsors in person. She said she lives in America now and she looked for them but wasn't able to find them. So we prayed. We asked the Lord to please help her find her sponsors. And right after that, Compassion was able to locate her sponsors for her, and they arranged a surprise visit. The video you are going to see during the offering today is of that surprise meeting.

And hopefully, you'll see the impact for yourself of just what a difference sponsorship in the life of a child of poverty can make. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys.