Compassion Comes Home: Child Ministry Partners With Country Where It All Began
by Allie Martin
November 14, 2003
(AgapePress) - A ministry that helps children in developing nations is returning to the country where it began more than 50 years ago. But now the organization that has grown into a worldwide child development program is taking on a whole new role in South Korea.Back in 1952, Pastor Everett Swanson began an outreach program to provide for 35 children in South Korea who had been orphaned by the Korean War. That program eventually became Compassion International, a ministry that serves more than half a million children worldwide.
Compassion continued its work in South Korea for 40 years through church partners, bringing opportunities for better education, health, skills training, and the gospel to children in need. Then, in 1993, the ministry discontinued its programs in South Korea because that country had become a major economic power.
Now South Korea has become a partner country with Compassion International. That means its citizens now have the opportunity to join with the international Christian ministry in providing assistance to children in need in developing countries around the globe. Today South Korea is one of ten countries with sponsors individually providing support to Compassion children in other parts of the world.
| | 
Dr. Wess Stafford |
Compassion International president Dr. Wess Stafford says Christians in South Korea have wanted the ministry to return for ten years so they could take part in reaching out to those in need in other nations. He says these Christians are anxious to help make a difference not only for the sake of poor children, but also for the sake of their own privileged grandchildren.According to Stafford, many South Koreans are saying that "Grandpa fought the war, and daddy rebuilt the nation, and what we are now most concerned about is the grandchildren."
The CEO of Compassion says South Korean Christians want their own younger generations to benefit from this partnership, and are saying these young people "have grown up in a developed country and they've become self-centered. We need Compassion to come back in order for our grandchildren to learn how to reach out to others."
Stafford notes that South Korea's Church has exuberantly embraced the gospel and has been faithfully and actively involved in promoting the Christian faith throughout the world, second only to the U.S. in sending out missionaries. Still, he says some of the partners say they feel their nation has been focusing so much on its own needs that its Christians have "never come to grips with our obligation as men and women of God in this hurting world to live out our faith by reaching out to the poor outside our own borders."
Compassion International provides spiritual and material support for children in 21 developing countries worldwide. The ministry's motto is "Rescuing children from poverty in the name of Jesus."
