Compassion International: My New Passion for Volunteering
Last night Adam and I attended our first Compassion International volunteer event, which was in Maple Grove at the Church of the Open Door. It was for The Struggle Tour concert featuring Rend Collective Experiment, Audrey Assad, and Tenth Avenue North. We met the other volunteers at 5:30 PM and got instructions from one of the band members of Rend Collective Experiment (Patrick Thompson....really nice guy with a great Irish accent). We then each took packets for about 20 different kids waiting for sponsorships and got the booth ready.
First up was Rend Collective Experiment and boy were they awesome! Their first few songs that I got to watch them perform were so great that later on we decided to get their newest CD: "Homemade Worship by Handmade People" (so far it is awesome and I'm only about 4 songs into it). I highly recommend checking them out.
Next up was Audrey Assad whom I had never heard of before but she had a very beautiful voice. She sang and played the piano. We also got her CD (since we got a CD trio pack of all 3 artists of the night), but I haven't had time to listen to it yet.
Once the first two acts were done, Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North got up on stage to do the plug for Compassion International. He is so full of love for the kids and this charity that it is very inspiring and made me want to sponsor even more kids. I was surprised by the show of hands of how many audience members were already sponsors for children in Compassion International, but was touched when a lot of people still raised their hands when asked who wanted a packet to sponsor a child that night. I quickly passed out my bunch of 20 kids and ran back to the table to get another stack. There was one really cute 3 year old girl from India that I would have sponsored if no one took her, but I made sure to hand her out in my initial pile of kids and I never saw anyone return her packet to the pile, so that made me excited for the child that someone wanted to sponsor her. I hope they stick with it and develop a close relationship with her over the years. All the kids are so sweet and precious. It was hard walking away without sponsoring any more (yet!).
Intermission was after Mike's talk and then the audience made the mad dash to the bands merchandise tables, as well as our Compassion table to sign up. Some people decided to sponsor the exact child we handed them, while others exchanged their child packet for a different child (from a certain country, boy/girl, a certain birthday, or whatnot). If they signed up and paid that night, we were also able to give them a free CD/DVD from Tenth Avenue North, so that was a good incentive! By the end of intermission we had about 88 children that were sponsored! Patrick from Rend Collective Experiment came up to us to check how things were going and was shocked by our numbers. So far on their tour the maximum they have gotten sponsored in a night was 55, so we were pumped! Once the crowds died out we went to the merchandise tables and got the CD trio pack that I talked about above, plus an awesome Tenth Avenue North t-shirt for me.....since it has a penguin on it! How perfect for me, the biggest penguin fanatic around. I'm even wearing it today already, with a zip up jacket over it since it's cold out!
Next up was Tenth Avenue North, and as always, they were wonderful. I love so many of their songs. During the show, a few more people came up to our booth to sign up for a child since it was easier to look through them when the rush of people was gone. After the show we got another bunch of people to sign up, so by the end of the night we had over 100 children sponsored (don't know the exact count since we just kept shoving the forms into the envelope). Very inspiring!
It was a late night (got out of there at about 10:30 PM) with an hour drive back home, but all in all it was a very successful night so we were pleased. It was our first time volunteering for Compassion International, but I know it won't be our last. We met lots of nice people volunteering and were able to make some nice connections with them. Today I wrote to our sponsored kids again, since I was inspired to make sure they received more letters to know how much they are loved.
Currently we sponsor the following kids:
Said: He just turned 6 and he is from Peru. We sponsored him at a Mercy Me concert back in January from an event similar to the one we helped at.
Priyanga: She is 12 years old from India. We are her correspondence sponsor (meaning we write to her because her sponsor who pays the monthly fee does not write to her, and we don't want any child to go without letters!).
Selemani: He is 19 years old from Tanzania. We are also his correspondence sponsor. He writes to us in Swahili, so thankfully they translate it to English for us. He is a great writer and seems to be a very nice young man.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you many have about Compassion International or about how to sign up to sponsor a child of your own. It is very rewarding!
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