Christianity in CO | Compassion International

Hello hello! Now that I have made my way through my first mini series, I decided I would start another one. This time, I though I would take a closer look around my home town, Colorado Springs, CO. For some reason, CO Springs has some awesome Christian organizations in our area so I thought that would be a great topic to focus on.

Today I’m gonna take a quick look at an organization that may be well known to you all, Compassion International. My family has been involved with Compassion for many years now and they are doing some awesome work all around the world. As it states on their website, Compassion is a “child-advocacy ministry pairing compassionate people with children living in extreme poverty to release the children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty.” In other words, Compassion seeks to release children from extreme poverty by pairing children with sponsors who help the kids financially as well as provide support via letters and communication.

Once children are sponsored through Compassion, they have education opportunities available to them and a resource at a local church. They received necessary medical care and supplements for malnutrition. Additionally, the kids get the chance to participate in activities and other such things provided by Compassion. Compassion partners with local churches across the globe in order to provide for these children and has child development centers at these churches “seeking to release these children from poverty in Jesus’ name.”

Compassion was started by Reverend Everett Swanson more than 65 years ago. Reverend Swanson went to South Korea as a part of his ministry to American troops during the Korean War and noticed the war orphans living in extreme poverty that had been “abandoned by society.” He wanted to change this and received a large amount of support from Christians through his revival meetings. He now had funds to purchase rice and fuel for the orphans, ready to change these children’s lives. This outpouring of support and funds was the catalyst for Compassion International and helped it grow into the impactful organization that it is today!

Anyways, I don’t want go on for much longer but I just wanted to highlight some really neat organizations that are outside of the PA area while still have lots of impact! Keep an eye out for the last 2 parts of this mini series on Christianity in CO! Happy Hump Day!