I didn't take a single picture of the table display or anything that was going on, but I'll still tell you what we did and how it went.
This was not our first time presenting a Compassion Sunday, but it was the first time for us at our current church. When we first approached our pastor he told us to pick a date and plan what we wanted.
Let me back up a bit....7 months ago (last October) I was asked to share my Compassion story at the women's retreat. This was really my first presentation to anyone in our church. No sponsorships resulted, but the story was shared.
One month later (November 2011), we showed the film 58: at our church and 7 children were quickly sponsored (several of the new sponsors had heard me share at the women's retreat). We began meeting monthly to encourage one another and write to our sponsored children.
Now, 6 months later, we were presenting Compassion to the entire church. While our worship service was starting, I headed downstairs to where the children in our church had gathered for their classes. The three classes came together and I read them a book I wrote called "Birthday Buddies" - about my daughter and the girl we sponsor in the DR who share the same birthday.
Then I headed back to the main worship service to hear my husband present the message on compassion and what it means to live outside ourselves. Although an experienced speaker when it comes to teaching, this was his first experience preaching and I think he did a fantastic job.
After the sermon our worship team played and sang "A New Hallelujah" by Michael W Smith and we had a slideshow of all the kids sponsored by those in our church. Each child's photo, name and country were shown and after every 5 or 6 photo, there would be a Bible verse.
Then we showed a video our pastor put together - he interviewed several of the people who sponsor children in our church and asked them to talk about their sponsored child. It was a great way to get more people involved in the presentation.
And finally I spoke about Compassion's ministry and about the opportunity to sponsor a child. I used the Compassion Sunday presentation outline and shared the stories of Judith (my first sponsored child in Kenya) and Dominic (our soon to graduated child in Kenya).
And then, because we have two services, we did it all again!
I love sharing the ministry of Compassion with others. It was such a wonderful opportunity and I'm so thankful that more children were sponsored yesterday. I love having fellow sponsors in my church body that I can connect with and encourage as they begin their journey.
Did you do a Compassion Sunday presentation? If so, I would love to hear how it went!
