One Million Small and Growing

Fellow Blewussi Kpodo

Jang Mi-ran

It feels like yesterday. I was in a meeting at Compassion International for one of those regularly occurring leadership gatherings and noticed a rare feeling of excitement in the room. The buzz was about a major milestone we had reached - 500,000 sponsored children - and everyone was already envisioning the next big goal - 1 million sponsored children. Many in the room wondered if we could hit the next big goal by 2012 or maybe even 2011.

That was five years ago in 2004.

As I write this, all of Compassion is giving God the glory for His goodness and faithfulness because we now are celebrating the sponsorship of our 1 millionth child! Back in 2004, I knew that sponsoring 1 million children all at one time would be a huge challenge, a challenge only God could bring about, and I wondered how it would be done. However, even though I didn't know how the goal would be achieved, God showed that His kingdom would not be hindered because of my inability to grasp His vision for this ministry. We have many of you to thank as you heard and acted upon the call to help vulnerable children all over the world, making a difference one child at a time and literally affecting for Christ the lives of millions. Thank you, and may God bless you for joining this movement!

Looking back over my 30 years at Compassion, I can still recall when the ministry reached its 50,000th child and 100,000th child. Now, as we celebrate this important milestone, I want to take a moment to reflect on the history of Compassion, to look at how the ministry has grown over the years, and then look ahead as we move forward in faith toward the future. Like so many other Christian movements throughout our world history, Compassion didn't start out with big fanfare and celebration. Rather, it began with God stirring in one man the need for justice as he visited one of the darkest, most hopeless places on earth.

The year was 1952. The place was South Korea. The country was in the midst of a terrible war against its northern brother on the other side of the 38th parallel. The conflict had escalated to include major world powers as the United States sent troops to aid the South in its fight against the Communist North, which was supported by China and the Soviet Union. The ensuing fighting had turned countless Koreans on both sides into refugees.

In this setting an American evangelist, the Rev. Everett Swanson, saw firsthand the plight of Korean War orphans while on a preaching tour in South Korea. When Everett returned home, he received several donations designated "for Korea." He began speaking of the plight of the orphans at his evangelistic meetings in North America, and people soon began giving more to help the children.

As this movement to help the Korean orphans grew, Everett had a decision to make. He didn't feel, at first, that helping orphans was his calling. He was an evangelist at heart, and he could have used the money to further his evangelistic efforts. No one would have criticized him if he had done so. However, a small voice kept asking him what he was going to do about the orphaned children he saw.

Everett ultimately decided to obediently answer the call to help the poor children with the funds given him. In the basement of his Chicago home, he established the Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association through which caring people could, for a few dollars a month, sponsor Korean children in need. In turn, those children would be provided benefits, including food and clothing as needed, education, health care and Christian training. The ministry changed its name to Compassion Inc. in 1963, and Everett's values of financial stewardship and obedience to God continue to be the basic foundation for Compassion's one-to-one sponsorship program today.

One man's simple act of obedience to help 35 children is now changing the lives of more than 1 million children concurrently in 25 of the world's most impoverished countries. Although Compassion has sponsored more than 2 million children since its founding, we have never sponsored 1 million all at once. Praise God for His faithfulness!

To commemorate this important milestone in our history, Compassion decided to have the sponsor of our 1 millionth child come from South Korea, a country that has drastically changed for the better since 1952 and is now partnering with us by finding additional sponsors for children. That sponsor is Jang Mi-ran, a longtime supporter of Compassion, who is best known as the "world's strongest woman" after winning the gold medal in weightlifting in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Jang's sponsored child is Fellow Blewussi Kpodo from Togo. This West African nation was selected to be the home of our 1 millionth child because Togo is the newest of countries in which Compassion serves.

Fellow is one of four children who live with his father in Kelegougan, a community 10 kilometers northeast of Togo's capital city of Lomé. Although life has been difficult for Fellow and his family, their situation became more difficult when Fellow's mother was killed while saving one of his older sisters from an oncoming car. Following this tragic loss, Fellow's dedicated father continues to work hard as a driver to support his family.

But now, Fellow has a new sponsor to help him to become everything God intended him to be. Although his Korean sponsor can't replace his mother, we pray that as their relationship grows, Jang's support will encourage and support Fellow to grow spiritually and emotionally as well as intellectually. In fact, Fellow said that he now wants to be in the Olympics - in weightlifting!

How fitting that one of the world's strongest women sponsors one of the world's most vulnerable children!

As we look ahead to the next million children and the new countries we plan to serve, we take this moment to pause and thank our Lord for the great things He has done. I'm sure I'll be surprised like before when we hit our next million, but I really shouldn't be. If God continues to bless Compassion the way He has over the last five years, we very well could reach our 2 millionth concurrently sponsored child by 2015.

Compassion is God's tool. It is God who has blessed this ministry, and it is He who will continue to make this ministry grow.