This spot is usually reserved to get Compassion Children sponsored, but today Scot, Shawn, Andy, Adam, Andrea and I would like to focus your attention Compassion’s Christian Disaster Relief.

The title of this post “Think Small” may seem unfitting on such a large scale disaster, but I think, sometimes, when we see a crisis of this level, we think it’s way too big for any help we give to make a difference.  I truly believe that couldn’t be further from the truth.  No, your donation isn’t going to cure all of the problems in Haiti, but in that regard…..Think Small.  If each of us had the thought of one child at a time, we will make a massive difference.

I urge you to stop what you’re doing and pray for these people.  I cannot fathom what they are going through…..kids searching for their Mommys….Parents searching for their babies.  Pray for comfort.  Pray for direction in how the Lord would have you help…..Then ACT.  Go to Compassion’s Disaster Relief site (<–click there) and they have made it fairly simple to understand and to give.

Give BIG…..Think small.

In Jesus Name.

It’s Thursday….Have some Compassion!

You know the rest…..

If, by some chance, you’ve snuck in here for the first time, click Damari’s picture and give her the best Christmas present EVER.

If you would like to browse more Compassion kids, click here.

Here’s a little about Damari:

Damari is 6 years old and she’s lives in Peru.  Damari lives with her father and her mother. She is responsible for running errands. Her father is sometimes employed and her mother maintains the home. There are 2 children in the family.

For fun, Damari enjoys art, playing with dolls and playing group games. She attends church activities and Bible class regularly and is in kindergarten where her performance is average.

Your love and support will help Damari to receive the assistance she needs to develop her potential. Please pray for her.

I may be able to bring myself to pray for his wife, his child, but for him???  Well, it’s safe to say that I’m not there yet.

Take away the billions of dollars and I was him once……lying, cheating, hurting, not a care in the world for anyone but me, kinda guy.  You’d say….”well, shouldn’t you, the born again, Christian man that you are, have a special connection and understanding for Tiger?” Yeah, maybe I should……but I DON’T!  That’s where the title of this post comes in……my progress in my Christian walk came to a halt the other day.  I wanted so bad to feel sorry for him, to be able to pray for him……couldn’t do it.  He’s a public figure…..I didn’t make him that…..you didn’t…..HE DID! Don’t whine to me about his privacy…..he doesn’t have any.  He, for darn sure, doesn’t have any more than you or I do.  Now, he can buy some privacy that you and I may never see, but as you now see, he may want a refund.  How many women?  1, 2, 3??  Texts, voicemails, etc.  IDIOT!

So yeah, I’m human…..have human feelings…..hey, maybe I need prayer…..just like Tiger, huh?  Yep, Tiger……man, golfer, athlete, machine, holier than thou, adulterer, cheater, liar.   I’ve been all of those things (well, maybe not athlete) and I sure as hell didn’t get away with it.  Definitely my biggest challenge in being a Christian is compassion.  I do not feel, in the least bit, sorry for this dude.  I feel horrible for his wife, his kid, but not for him.  I know it’s wrong and have been told so by many…..even my 18 year old nephew told me to mind my own business.  Well, knowing what’s right and doing what’s right are two completely different things.  I’ve struggled with that my entire adult life.

Anyway, there’s my mini-rant.  You can pray for Tiger……just makes you a stronger person than I am.  I have no problems admitting that.  I’ll get there one day, no doubt……just not there today.  Life is full of struggles…..for Christians, atheists, etc.  The struggles do not disappear, regardless of who you are.  Some are better at hiding them…..I’m not good at that either though.  We are all broken and maybe areas that I struggle in need light shined on them for me to take notice……Maybe, this time, Tiger is my light……who knows.

It’ll be Thanksgiving and we....you, me…..WE all have so much to be thankful for.

Sometimes I think we forget the second half of thanks....giving..…Sure, thank God and everyone else on the planet, but what about giving?  Oh no, that’s not what this day is about, right?  Well, I hate to burst bubbles, but Thanksgiving was to “thank” God for giving the pilgrims the ability to get through the brutal winter.  God GAVE…..we THANK Him.

God set the standard.  You and I will never get to that level of giving, but that doesn’t mean we don’t strive for it.

See that lil guy to the left?  That’s Felahadin.  He lives in Ehtiopia and about a month ago became part of our family.  We sponsor him through Compassion International. As most of you know, a few of us bloggers get together every Thursday and try to get a Compassion child sponsored.  God and Felahadin were pulling on my heart and now we support him and we can say that Felahadin now has opportunities at life that he would not have had otherwise.

That’s a great feeling to help someone in need.  Even more so when it’s a child.  And even more than that, it’s awesome to know we are living  and giving as Christ commanded.

While I don’t have a specific child today or tomorrow, I would urge you…..all of you....to give.  CLICK HERE, and I promise you there will be no shortage of children for you to sponsor.  You CAN make a difference!

It will be awesome for my kids to grow up having another brother on the other side of the world.  They will write to him and they will grow up together.  Who know, one day maybe we’ll all eat dinner together.

Awesome lessons for your kids…..Awesome lessons for us…..Awesome living out what we preach and blog about.

Happy ThanksGIVING!

Joining in with a few bloggers where every Thursday one of us will highlight children from Compassion who have been waiting for 6 months or longer without a sponsor.

This week we’re going to get Valeria sponsored.

Meet Valeria:

Click to make her part of your family

Valeria is 4 years old and needs YOUR help!

In her home, Valeria helps by running errands and cleaning. She lives with her father and her mother. Her father is employed as a laborer and her mother maintains the home. There are 2 children in the family.

Valeria is not attending school because she is too young. Singing, playing with dolls and hide-and-seek are her favorite activities. She also attends Bible class regularly.

To give Valeria the help she needs and deserves, click her picture and welcome her to your family.  If you would like to browse other Compassion children, CLICK HERE.

After you sponsor Valeria, let me know in the comment section, the contact me page or shoot me an email.

Whatever you decide, pray for Valeria, will ya?  Pray for her, spread this message around on your social network sites, send it in an email, etc.  When sharing on Twitter, use the hashtag #CompassionThur.  Get involved and let us, together, improve the lives of deserving children…..One child at a time.

Don’t just send the money….send them your heart, so they know someone in the world cares.

Do you fail to stoop down because your arms are lifted so high?

I Am So Starving

By Brittany Birnbaum

Oh, my God, I am so starving. I swear, if I don’t get something to eat in like two minutes, I am going to die.

I cannot believe how completely famished I am. Why do we have to wait for Tyler to get home from soccer practice? I want to eat now. It’s almost 6:15.

I didn’t even get to eat lunch today. Erica and I had to sign up for kickline tryouts at noon. We got to the cafeteria way late, and we weren’t about to stand in line with the sophomores. All I had was a Twix and half a bag of Fritos. Plus, the stupid machine was out of Diet Coke.

No, I did not still have those carrot sticks left at lunch. I ate them all after second period. Duh.

Did you hear that? I can totally hear my stomach making these weird growling noises. I think I’m going to faint.

Please, please, please let me eat now so I can go up to my room–I have a ton of people to call tonight. It’s so lame how you make us all wait to eat dinner together. Erica always gets to eat by herself in the living room with the TV on.

If we’re going to wait this long for Tyler, he has to load the dishwasher. I did it last night, and it was totally nasty because you made that lasagna, and I had to scrape all the gunky cheese off the pan.

I am so totally starving. You know, it’s against the law to treat your kids like this. You could get thrown in jail by the social-services people for this kind of abuse.

Oh my God, what are you taking out of the oven? Is that, like, salisbury steak? I could seriously puke just looking at that. You actually expect me to eat that? Yeah, right. Like I’m really gonna put that in my mouth. I’ll be in my room if I get any phone calls.

Ugh. I swear, I could just die.

I Am So Starving

By Kitum Asosa

My God, I am starving. If I do not find something to eat soon, I will surely die.

Hunger consumes my life. My young body is hunched and weak, as if I were an old man. Some days, I pass the time by counting my bones.

I would walk 100 miles through the desert to reach a handful of millet. The sight of a sparrow carcass would make my mouth water, if only I were not too dehydrated to salivate. I have not eaten a full meal since the last rain, which caused a few precious patches of field grass to sprout. Soon, there will be none of us left.

I am so very, very hungry. I grow thinner and thinner, as my body starts to digest its very self. The last thing I ate was a small lizard. This was nine days ago. I gave half of it to my only remaining brother. I did this to return a favor: Last month, he discovered a piece of tree bark and shared his bounty with me. Unfortunately, my body was so unaccustomed to food, I was soon doubled over in pain, as a flood of liquid shot from my bowels. Ever since then, my rectum has protruded from my anus. My lower intestines have begun to push their way out, as well.

They say it is almost the new year, but I do not know if I will live to see it. My stomach is swollen as if I were pregnant. I joked with my brother about this yesterday, rubbing my bloated belly and calling it “my little one.” My brother did not laugh. He lowered his head and cried.

My legs are like sticks and my eyes nearly sightless. I am careful not to allow myself to daydream about the harvest feasts of my youth, for my weak heart might race and burst in my chest. Those who are still alive have taken to swallowing dirt and rocks in an attempt to stop the hunger pains. Oh, God, why are we made to suffer so?

My only distraction from the constant, gnawing hunger is the chill that runs through my bones. Even in the sweltering heat, I am cold. Perhaps I will soon die of pneumonia. This would finally quell the pangs of hunger. I long to live, but, even more, I long to die.

Why fast?  The idea is to take something you think that you need and replace it with prayer.  Tomorrow I will go to the Lord when I get hungry.  Now, I’m a big boy so I could be praying all day long, but that’s the point folks!  Now then, I don’t care if you’re fasting from food, internet, cigarettes, caffeine or sex…Just do without it for 24 hours and when ya feel the itch for it, PRAY.  Pray, and not for you, not for the strength to get through the day…Pray for those who have NOTHING.  Pray for those who aren’t eating today either, but they’re not fasting by choice.  Take “SELF” out of the picture for a day and lift those who are suffering up to the Lord.  Spend the day checking out any of the blogs in the list below, adopt a child through Compassion or any of the groups/organizations listed in those blogs.  Send them $10, $50, $100.  Do something!

Then Stop!  Click play and read the rest.

Remember this?  Man, it seems like a million years ago.  Nevermind what you think of Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, or anyone else in the video.  They were trying to make a difference.  What happened to that passion?  What happened to us?  Are we so caught up in playstation 3 and so selfish that we can’t stop for a minute and think of how truly blessed we all are?  The fact that you sit here, in front of a computer, tells me you have more than most.  It’s just as simple as the phrase repeated over and over in that song…WE, yes, you and I…We ARE the World!  We can make a brighter day for someone…Just you and me!  One person at a time people.  Start today! Start now! We’re saving our own lives!!

Check out these people, join the revolution, get involved.  Spread the word!

The 40DF Bloggers

*Click for full List

Learn more…

I am not invisible.  You don’t know me, but I do have a name.  We live worlds apart.  Today you complained about the price of gas going into your car.  Today I wondered if my kids and I would have anything to eat (again).  I work hard and survive on $1 a day.  You spend $5.00 on fancy coffee.  80% of what I make every day is going toward food.  I thought it was bad before, but it just keeps getting worse.

You and I are not so much different.  We are of the same race; human.  We laugh and cry.  We have ambitions and dreams.  Yet, we are world’s apart.  We believe in the same God.  You pray that your retirement account will do better in the economy.  I am praying for food.  I believe in God.  I just find it hard to believe in people who would let other people go hungry.  I work hard.  I’m not blaming you.  I might do the same thing in your shoes.  But I do wonder, could you at least pray for me?  I am not invisible.