Sponsors of needy children help Springs ministry reach milestone

If 1 million children stood hand to hand along a highway, the line would stretch 753 miles. To speak the names of 1 million children, it would take 23 days.

In other words, 1 million children is a lot.

On June 12, Colorado Springs-based Compassion International, a faith-based nonprofit that helps disadvantaged children around the world, reached the milestone of having 1 million children within its sponsorship program at one time. Today, state Sen. Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs will honor Compassion's achievement with a ceremony at its headquarters.

"I am absolutely overjoyed," said Wess Stafford, CEO and president of Compassion since 1993. "A million children is a hard figure to put your head around."

For $38 a month, people sponsor a child through Compassion, which partners with more than 5,000 churches worldwide to help the organization assist needy children. Since its founding in 1952, Compassion has helped more than 2 million children in 25 countries.

"We are the tools that make it happen," Stafford said, "but the real heroes are the sponsors."

Stafford said Compassion is growing at a phenomenal rate, and he predicts it will take only five years for it to have 2 million children concurrently in its program.

"Maybe we can't change the whole world," Stafford said Tuesday, "but we can change the whole world for one child."

For more information, go to www.compassion.com.

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Call the writer at 636-0367.