Amazing Places, Amazing People

It's only taken three days to get me addicted to Pinterest. My friend Jennifer, who used to live in Davis and work with the SPCA, now lives in Colorado and she joined around the same time I did. She and I have been busy filling up pin boards with things like Favorite Restaurants, Products I Love, Bucket List, Fun Foods, Animals I like, etc. (some of those are hers, some of those are mine).

So today, when the site has been spotty it has been very difficult. Every time I thought of another thing I wanted to "pin," I would rush to find a photo and then try to pin it to one of my boards and get that dreaded 404 error message.

Fortunately, at the same time, Pinterest was leaving messages of apology in Facebook. People would hear that the site was back up and running again and I assume we'd all rush to pin something new and then it would go down again.

This may be suffering Twitter syndrome, with more people knowing about it, it may be overwhelmed with new users, like me.

However, in the times when I was able to access the board, I put together a list of "Amazing Places I've Visited" and when I look at it it makes me feel good...I've been to a really impressive number of places in the world (everything from the Great Wall in China to the Beer Can House in Houston!). There are those who have traveled a lot more than I have (I'll never go to Petropavlovsk, for example) but I'm no slouch in the "amazing places" department any more.

I also have a board of "Places I Still Want to See," most of which I never will, but it's nice to dream. If you'd like to check out all my boards, this is the link. You click on a photo inside the board you're interested in and it brings up all the photos in that board. If you want to see things in larger size, then click on a specific picture. There are lots more things I want to add to these boards and more boards I want to create, but it's just entirely too much fun. And some of the people, like "OhJoy" and Mary Beth Burrell (who has GREAT board names!) have absolutely fabulous boards. Check 'em out!

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In other, more serious and more meaningful words, the Compassion Philippines bloggers have returned from their week in the Philippines, all of them profoundly changed by the experience.

Stefanie went home with a renewed sense of content that the money of Compassion is being well spent, that this was a good financial investment, and human investment.

Every dollar is audited on at least 3 levels, including an external audit by KPMG. For example, when you give a gift to your child they record it in their books, keep a copy of the receipt (which the child signs), and a picture is taken of the child with their gift.

I've learned that Compassion has quite the reputation for the financial integrity. They are held up by non-profit watch dogs like Charity Navigator as a standard of integrity.

Lindsay, who made this trip at 30 weeks pregnant says,

There is no doubt in my heart that this is a good work. The eternal difference made by sending our resources on ahead to our eternal home by loving on little children. It’s beautiful. The transforming affect of the gospel is taking place through the ministry of Compassion and the power of Jesus’ love.

Tsh writes,

I found it hard to tell my story in the Philippines. The pixel-formed words you saw on this blog didn’t adequately infuse the smell of the slums we puddled through, the eerie green glow of the water growing in the neighborhoods instead of grass. We all returned from our days in order to write to you, and by 11 p.m. or so, when I finally hit “publish,” I was beat.

It’s important to tell an important story well. There’s an injustice, I feel, when something as hauntingly wrong as poverty goes untold to those immersed in wealth. (That’s one of the reasons these Compassion blogger trips happen — so that more people know, and then hopefully take action.)

Michelle sums it up:

I desperately pray that the stories from this trip have changed you in some way. That you’ll live differently now that you know.

The children we’ve met don’t need pity. Pity is worthless and doesn’t accomplish anything.
People in need…need people of action.

Maybe you’ll write a letter.
Maybe you’ll look at your budget.
Maybe you’ll download the Compassion Magazine and look at it with your family.
Maybe you’ll commit to pray for 5 minutes every day this week for the children.
Maybe you’ll eat rice one night a month and talk about those in need.

On the heels of all of this, I discovered that Pedro, my sponsored child in Brasil, has left the program and they are offering me a 4 year old Brasilian boy to take his place. I haven't seen his photo yet, and don't know if I will take him or take one of those >900 children in the Philippines waiting for sponsors.

The need is so great....