Well, hello, everyone. It's nice to be here.
Good afternoon. I think it is now.
And yeah, I've not come too far. I'm Bradford.
So glamorous, isn't it? The places we're getting, the
places we're from. But yeah, my name is Bethan.
And I am married to Mark. We've been married for it was
actually just 24 years and we both forgot our anniversary,
which was brilliant. It's always too soon after
Christmas. But we have two kids, so we
have, I have Sienna and she's 13 and Jonah just turned 16.
So pray for us because we have teenagers, but by the grace of
God they're doing good. And so that's us, that's our
family. And I've grown up in church,
it's all I've ever known. And my husband, I met him at
Hillsong Church actually in Sydney in 1999.
And so he's a worship leader, and so I'll leave the singing to
him. And yeah.
So that's me in a nutshell. That's us in a nutshell.
But yeah, really great to be with you today.
And I've been with Compassion. I've been working alongside
Compassion. Me and my husband have sponsored
children for, oh, gosh, over 20 years.
But I started working with Compassion.
It'll be going on six years. And they're amazing.
They're amazing. It's very much a ministry, yes,
we're charity, an organisation, but very much a ministry and
very incredible to work alongside.
So it's a privilege to be here and talk about compassion.
And I know that compassion is already close to the heart of
the church and so that's fantastic.
But yeah, you're doing amazing work here already with
compassion. And let me just ask, is there
anyone here who is maybe not familiar with compassion?
Put a hand up for me if you're not great.
So I will explain anyway, all about who compassion are and
what we do. But we're child development
ministry and we exist to release children who are living in
extreme poverty in Jesus name. And that's really important in
Jesus name. And so we're a global community
of Christians who see the devastating reality of poverty
and choose to respond as Jesus word.
Amen. So at the heart of Compassion's
ministry are three core pillars and we are very much Christ
centred. Jesus is our model and we move
with compassion because he did. And everything we do is rooted
in Christ. Our desire is to introduce
children to the hope, the identity and the transformation
that is found in Christ. And we are child focused.
Poverty is not part of God's plan, is it?
It leaves scars that last a lifetime.
And so we believe very much in early intervention.
That's everything that compassion's ministry is about.
We're nurturing the child in their mind, in their body, in
their spirit. So the whole child, this is
holistic care. And as we know, children are
very close to the heart of God. If you want to know what he
cares about, one of the ways in which you know that is by
looking at the children. So how do we solve a problem
like poverty? You begin with a child and you
begin to rewrite their story. And we are very much church
driven. We love the local church and
currently partner with over 9000 churches across the world,
across the developing world. And every compassion project is
based out of a church. And so the local church knows
it's community best, just as we would do here.
And so the local church would know it's community's struggles,
it's community's strengths and is therefore placed do bring
lasting change in their communities through
relationships and local solutions.
And so that's how we work through the local church in the
developing world and the projects that are coming out of
the local church. They provide education,
healthcare, nourishment, life skills and support for building
healthy relationships, which is so important.
Basically, we say to the church out in the developing world that
we partner with. We say you take the lead and we
will come alongside you, we will partner with you.
You don't always see children running around in Compassion
T-shirts because it's about us championing the local church and
what they are already doing in their community.
So yeah, we work across 29 different countries in different
parts of Africa, Asia, Central and South America.
And this is all done through a 1 to 1 sponsorship model.
And so a child from a desperately called background is
linked with a loving sponsor from a local church, which
brings me here today as well. It's part of what brings me
here. Let me show you actually a
couple of pictures. So if you show a picture for me
of the projects, it says picture 1 and picture 2.
And so if you want to put one of the photographs up, there you
go. That's one picture.
So that's just gives you an example of what the projects
look like. So that's outside one of the
local churches, and I think that one is Zambia.
That's in Zambia. And then if you want to show the
other picture, there you go. That's a good one.
That's a really nice example of a local church out in the
developing world. And there's the children from
the project, which is fantastic, that is in Malawi, I think in
Southeast Africa. And actually we didn't have
these pictures until more recently.
And I was like, I must use them because it helps.
It helps, doesn't it, to be able to see the context that I'm
talking about. And so I will be giving you the
opportunity to sponsor a child today, by the way, guys.
So heads up on that. And I have children with me
today what we call child profiles.
But Christchurch currently have a project that I'm aware of
based out of City of Grace Church in Ho in Ghana.
I actually go to Ghana on Sunday.
This, I'll be on a plane this, I'm not going to the specific
project that you guys sponsor in, but I'll be seeing the
projects out there. So I'm really excited about
that. And but the project that you
guys support led by Michael and Mabel Arcotia and Christ
Central's Apostolic team, it's amazing.
And actually I have a clip specifically of that project.
So we have a little media clip of the kids at Christmas in the
project that a lot of the Christ Central church is sponsoring.
Here we go. Go ahead.
None. Love that.
That's fine. You can stop it there.
I love that. How fantastic is that?
I actually asked our team, I said is there anything I can
like show of the projects? And there's actually we have a
clip from Christmas. So that was just lovely.
And it's again, it's great to see the projects and obviously
the children who are part of the projects, they're having so much
fun. But yeah, so over 205 children
have actually been registered so far at this specific project in
HO. And these children are, they're
not actually just sponsored by Christ Central churches, but
they're also sponsored by lots of different people individually
around the world as well. But Christ Central have a lot of
children in that specific project, but there was two
children left available for sponsorship in the HO project,
which I have with me today. But I also have other children
with me who need a sponsor, which I spoke to Ben is like, of
course, absolutely. And they, they live in all
different corners of the world because no matter where they
are, they're in need, Amen. And they all need a loving
sponsor. So that's that today.
And so yeah, that's really great that have those children with
me. And so I have 12 children with
me, 12 child profiles with me today and their ages 2 to 13
years old, like I said, from all over the world.
And so that's brilliant, actually 13, what a brilliant
age to receive a sponsor, a really vulnerable time in a
child's life, a young teen. And so I always, a lot of people
think I want to sponsor a little one, but it's amazing to sponsor
a child of that age. And you get to communicate with
your child by writing to them. I do that on the Compassion app
now. It's very easy and you get to
encourage them, which is amazing.
So actually just to say, if you already sponsor A Compassion
child, please do come and let me know because I don't think
compassionate, fully aware of every of everyone that already
sponsors. And just a quick scan of AQR
code, we can make sure we match your sponsorship up with the
church here. It may be that you sponsored A
compassion child at a conference somewhere years ago, but we can
match that up with the Christ Central Church here.
And that would be a great thing to do so that when we come back
and celebrate the legacy of the church and what you're doing, we
have a good account of where everyone's sponsoring.
So come and see me if that's the case.
We love to work by relationship and come back and celebrate the
work that the church is doing every year.
But you know, church, it's £32.00 a month to sponsor a
child and if it helps, that's about a pound a day.
And actually it's challenging, it's challenging right now and
it can be a difficult thing to do, but it is a pound a day.
And I often say it's like the cost of a takeaway isn't it, if
that helps a little bit. But you get to write to your
child of as, as I have said, and you get to encourage them.
And so that's a brilliant thing to be able to do.
You know, we're talking about the kind of poverty here that is
life or death now, where people can't even go to the toilet in
dignity and where children are often being brought up living on
rubbish dumps. That kind of poverty, extreme
poverty and extreme poverty is defined as a family living off
less than £2.20 per person per day.
So there's no welfare, no benefits, no Universal Credit,
and we actually have the power, therefore, to AA household's
income through what we do. And I do believe that God will
put, you know, his resource where his heart lies.
And if we care about what God cares about and he'll care for
our needs. Amen.
We often see the physical effects of poverty, but we don't
see the emotional ones and poverty speaking into these
children's lives on a daily basis.
And it's saying things to them through their environment like,
you know, give up. You don't matter.
You know, life can never change for you.
You know, what you see in the project there is completely
different to the reality of the children who are living on the
outside of that project and who have not been fortunate enough
to be taken into the project because there's only so many
places at any given time available for them.
And many of these kids do not have the opportunity to be in a
project being educated everyday, medical cheques, being cared for
in that way. They're out on the streets being
forced from a young age to earn a living.
They're very vulnerable because they're not in a protected
environment. And so that reality is not the
reality for many, many children. And so their environment is
speaking to them on a daily basis.
Give up. You don't matter, you know.
But poverty is a liar, isn't it? And it is not part of God's plan
for these children's lives. I'm going to show you another
media clip now called Hope in La Rega.
And this is a brilliant story of a young lady who grew up through
the projects. Here we go.
I grew up in this place. I saw these things happen in my
community at the very young age. I am exposed to drug selling,
drug abuse and drug running. Lurega is a ring in the air.
If you say lurega then people will always associate you with
drug addiction, with prostitution.
Child protection is really one of the most important thing that
we partners of compassion can do to help the child.
I asked him what are the dreams and most of the mother cried.
So I changed the question and I said OK, if you don't have a
dream for yourself, what is your dream for your children and
decry more. And after talking to more than
200 parents, I can't sleep. I can't sleep because imagining
and thinking about I will. I will be ministering to this
place where people don't have real dreams.
When I was young, I don't have any hope, but then when I came
to know the Lord, it makes something new.
He moulded me. It's a beautiful one because of
the hope that He gave me. It's really my dream that they
can really be released from poverty in all aspects and can
be an influencer in their community.
I am now a teacher, so now I can teach more students, I can teach
more children, mothers, because God teach me.
And I want to use my life as a living testimony to those people
who don't know Christ yet. The region now is totally
different. Before urban taxi driver will
not come inside the Rena shooting every day.
The Regan now is totally open with the gospel.
I am here standing in front of you because I am one of those
children. My sponsor was from the US.
Through her, I am now a graduate student of the Bible.
School, I always dream with our children because their lives
have been giving hope in the community.
When other children will see them, it inspires others.
Compassion International the staff, the caseworker plays a
major role to instil into the child that there is hope in
spite of poverty and the region now is a is a better place than
before. I can say that God is my
Redeemer, God is my corner so and he has done beautiful things
in my life. I love that.
And that's just one story of one life change.
So it's fantastic. You know, what sets Compassion's
work apart is also discipleship. And that's why these lives are
so changed. And it was noticed that children
from many other programmes, you know, there's lots of wonderful
people do wonderful things. But one of our project leaders
observed that a lot of the kids, they will graduate a programme
in whatever form it's in, but then they will want to run from
poverty as soon as possible and pursue a life of comfort,
whatever that means for them. But he had observed that a lot
of the compassion children, because it's in Jesus name and
their hearts are different and their hearts have been
transformed and there is a real difference in that.
And many of them are wanting to stay behind and give back, which
is quite amazing. And I love that observation.
You know, only Christ can do that.
You know, this heart transformation comes from
ongoing church based discipleship and it's what
causes lasting change. You know, it's a place where
these young destinies can manifest, which is amazing.
You know, as followers of Christ, we are not only called
to see brokenness, the brokenness in the world, but we
are called to engage with that differently.
The systems that keep children trapped in poverty and not just
physical, but they're also all just economic, but they're also
spiritual, Amen. Like I said, it is not part of
God's plan that these children are born into poverty into these
circumstances. You know, as as God's Kingdom
people. We make a difference by
understanding that our battle is not fought just through resource
or strategy, but by transforming hearts and transforming minds,
taking captive thoughts and aligning them with the love and
the justice of Christ, which is why I love that.
What compassion do is in Jesus name, I'll often say we can do
everything holistically, physically, to clothe these
children and feed them, but if they don't have Christ, if
they're not taught how to align their mind with Christ, then
actually what have they got? What have they got?
The world and its problems would love to quench the hope and the
life within and weary our soul and cause us to be ineffective.
But my prayer is that we become masters of our hearts.
Because as this world deteriorates and my goodness,
there's chaos all around us, isn't there all the time.
But that we will continue to be the light, bringing hope and
restoration to those in great need.
And one by one, our actions we become the answer to a suffering
world. I know that many of us are
carrying cares and burdens, and I'm sure that we're all feeling
the pressures of life in 2026. But all I can do is stand here
and say, you know, what is in your hand to do?
Is there something you can do? And what is in our capacity to
to do? Like I say, you know, God is in
this work and I believe He will bless our actions today, but we
are His hands and feet on this earth.
Amen. God gets things done through us.
You know, it's important, of course, to divert ourselves to
prayer that there's such world changing power in prayer
partnered with action. You know, it's like one of those
things they could often say, Oh God, you know, will you just
open the door? Will you just do this, that and
the other for me and God, sometimes I believe he's kind of
pushed the door. You're like, move, do something.
Give me something to work with here, guys.
I'm going to read from Isaiah 61.
I love this scripture because as well as applying this to our own
lives, I read it and think of the children and how it is for
them to receive a sponsor actually and the difference it
makes to their lives. I love it.
I'm going to just read from I think it's the passion
translation so no need to put it on screen.
The Spirit of the Lord guardians upon me because the Lord has
anointed and commissioned me to bring good news to the humble
and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the
broken hearted and to proclaim that the captives will be
released and the prisoners will be freed.
He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of Lord's
favour has come, and with it the day of God's anger against their
enemies. To strengthen those crushed by
despair who mourn in Zion. To give them a beautiful bouquet
in the place of ashes and the oil of bliss instead of tears,
the oil of joy instead of mourning, and the garment of
praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
So they will be called the trees of righteousness, strong and
magnificent, distinguished for integrity, justice and right.
Standing with God, planted by Yahweh as a living display of
His glory. They will rebuild the ancient
ruins. They will raise up and restore
the former desolations, and they will renew the ruined cities.
And another version of Scripture says that they will revive the
desolations of past generations. I love that in James 214 it
tells the story. Dear friends, do you think
you'll get anywhere in this life if you learn all the right words
but never do anything? It's hard hitting the scriptures
just straight down the line from the message version.
Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really
has it? For instance, you come upon an
old friend dressed in rags, half starved and say Good morning,
friend, be clothed in Christ, be filled with the Holy Spirit and
walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup.
Where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God talk
without God acts is outrageous nonsense.
It's true, right? It's just true.
You know, basically as Kingdom people, we are designed and we
are called to serve and love others.
We are heavenly ambassadors. We are heavenly ambassadors
working on his behalf. You know God is so in this work
because we know that He chose humble circumstances to birth
greatness just like these children.
When God wanted to reveal Himself as a man to humanity, He
took great delight in revealing Himself through Jesus Christ.
His arrival was marked by very lowly, very humble conditions.
As we know, God could have chosen His Son to come through a
royal lineage, or to be born through the rulers of the age of
the time. We all know God could have sent
his Son to solve the world hunger problem, could have had
Jesus go on tour filling amphitheatres and hippodromes,
impressing everyone with supernatural performances.
But he didn't. He could have set Jesus up to
take over the governance of the world, but he didn't.
He gave us the miracle of Jesus, of course, as a helpless infant.
And actually the Ephesians church I think was birthed in a
similar way. I'm sure those looking in were
like it's the unimportant, it's those that don't matter.
And it could seem ordinary to some, but I think that God
specialises in miracles undercover, Amen.
Miracles happening in the places where it's the powerless, the
vulnerable and who might be considered the unimportant.
I believe that is where God specialises and does his best
work. I heard it said again by one of
the compassion directors who works in Brazil actually.
And so wow, major gang issues in Brazil.
And he just said he hears so many stories, so many children's
stories. Absolutely heartbreaking stuff.
But in hearing one story after another, he just, he was just
talking to us and he just skipped over it.
But I loved he just said about the, the reverence and the awe
of the work of Christ and the work he's doing in these
children's lives and, and the vehicle for the vehicle of
compassion. He said, sometimes I feel as
though I'm stood on holy ground. And I thought, gosh, like their
stories are so humbling. It's like I just feel like I'm
stood on holy ground. And This is why God specialises
in in the unseen through this work church, you're leaving a
legacy and you've began a legacy through those children that
you're already sponsoring in the whole project, or maybe it's in
another project. And so that is a legacy that the
that the church has. And I hope to help you continue
today. But just in closing, God's glory
means God's beauty on display, and you are bringing God's
beauty to display. So often I think that we box the
word glory into an external moment and the glory of God's
often wrapped up in I think very earthly actually and very normal
circumstances. And like I've said, we just need
to look at Jesus life to see that.
In fact, I think that the glory of God in our lives can often
look like pain. So many of these children have
been born through no fault of their own into circumstances of
pain. Jesus mission was immersed in
pain, started in pain, and it ended in pain on the cross and
it looked like anything but the glory of God.
But there is something about the pain of a life's journey that
displays the glory of God. I think quite often as the
evangelical church, we celebrate, you know, the outward
manifestations. Somebody might fall in a prayer
line or and that's all wonderful and that is the power of God.
But I think we can easily overlook, like I say, the
miracle undercover the ordinary, you know, the daily been able to
conquer the day. And you know, the glory of God
is wrapped up in so many different ways.
And there's real power in that. You know, God sees the beauty of
that completely of ordinary circumstances and he uses that.
He uses that. It looks like anything but the
glory of God sometimes, but he uses these things and these
young lives to show his power. I read in Lectio 365.
I don't know if any of you know the daily devotional app, but I
love this. It said the anointing of the
Spirit rests upon Jesus for the sake of the poor, the
imprisoned, the disabled, and the oppressed.
His mission has a clear bias to the poor.
One theologian said every sixth line in Luke's gospel is about
the physically poor and our call to respond.
Later on, Jesus even identifies his own presence with the poor
and tells us that ultimately, how we treat the poor is how we
treat God. This has revolutionary
implications for us today. It means that whenever I pray,
come Holy Spirit, I'm not necessarily asking for
comforting feelings and a bit more peace.
I may well be asking for uncomfortable feelings and a few
more tears. I pray, come, Holy Spirit.
To pray come Holy Spirit is to open my entire life, my heart,
my schedule, and even my bank account to a disruptive
realignment of my spiritual, political and financial
priorities away from myself and towards those people in the
margins. That's great isn't it?
If the church lose her identity, we just become a social club, no
different to any other gathering that happens down the road.
The Church must not lose its life changing power.
The Church has the power, the power to actually change the
world. One word, 1 movement, one
decision at a time. And I think we forget that so
easily. Like I said, we are Kingdom
ambassadors and my prayer is that we will continue to be that
as His Church and continue to rise up, continue to say yes.
We must never arrive at a place where the value of a human soul
is diminished. The cries of humanity must never
just become statistics. And in the modern world, when
we're absorbing things on a regular basis from around the
world, I'm not sure we're always built to absorb it, everything
in the way in which we do. But we live in a time when the
anguish of a child and the suffering of a mother and the
despair of a man are not always met with reverence or with
mercy, But what belongs to the sacred realm of compassion must
never be diminished. Let's always ask, how can we
love? How can we care for one another?
Let's just close in prayer if that's OK, and I'll hand back to
them. Thank you Jesus, thank you
Father for the opportunity of being here with your church
today and being able to represent this amazing work and
speak on behalf of these children who cannot speak for
themselves. Holy Spirit, mobilise me in
mission, anoint me to do what you do, let my life reflect your
Kingdom. Thank you Jesus, disrupt us,
realign our lives so we can move with your heart for the least,
for the lost and for the lonely. Thank you, Father, that we get
to take action on your behalf. Thank you, Lord, that as long as
we have breath in our bodies, we can say yes.
And what a privilege, what a privilege is to be a part of
your plan. And so thank you, Father, for
the opportunity to keep moving forward as your ambassadors and
to care for what you care about God.
And so I want to thank you. Thank you for your church.
Thank you for the legacy of what you are already doing here.
And thank you for every single person who loves you, who
engages with you, who walks forward with you, and who cares
as you care. So thank you, Father, we love
you so much. Thank you, Lord.