Recent Posts

5 tips for encouraging your friends to sponsor a child

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Elizabeth Esther in Child Sponsorship

Tips for encouraging your friends to sponsor a child | World Vision Blog

From now through September 30, you can enter for a chance to win a trip to Peru with World Vision to see our work firsthand. It’s as simple as finding new sponsors for just five children. But we know very well that asking friends, family, or colleagues to sponsor a child isn’t easy. In fact, it can be difficult — even intimidating. That’s why we asked Elizabeth Esther, World Vision Bolivia blogger, for her tips as an experienced writer and child sponsorship advocate. Our Facebook fans had lots of tips to offer, too. * * * From Elizabeth Esther: When I first started asking my readers to sponsor a child, I was apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how people would...

Is Jesus more than a “sprinkle” blessing?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Guest blogger in Christian Witness

Is Jesus a sprinkle blessing? | World Vision blog

I’m excited to welcome Mark Hall — the lead singer and songwriter for Casting Crowns, a long-time World Vision artist — to the World Vision Blog. When I received this post from Mark, the source of the passion in his songwriting became immediately obvious. They’re words of experience and depth from his heart. Thanks, Mark, for guest-blogging today and for giving us a peek into Casting Crowns’ newest album. Don’t forget to order the pre-sale of the album online at FamilyChristian.com. —Lindsey Talerico-Hedren, managing editor, World Vision Blog When we went to adopt Hope and bring her home with us from China, she didn’t want me to hold her. I was told that usually when the orphaned children there see...

Rethinking America’s place in the world: How 9/11 changed me

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Rich Stearns in Conversations

Christianity Today asked me, as an evangelical leader, to reflect on how I’ve changed since 9/11. It was an appropriate question and one worth considering, as we approach the 10-year anniversary of that fateful day in which many lives were lost and many more were changed forever. * * * The September 11 attacks jolted Americans into realizing that our nation was no longer, and never again would be, an “island” protected from the senseless brutality of terrorism. The world became smaller that day, and the person who could not find Afghanistan and Pakistan on a map suddenly wanted to learn more about those and other Muslim countries. From the standpoint of international development, the attacks were a catalyst for...

Operation Seasweep: A 32-year story of God’s provision

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Eugene Lee, WV publications in Stories

Thirty-two years ago, World Vision reported the rescue story of Operation Seasweep, the boat Mr. Vinh Chung was on, in the August 1979 issue of World Vision Magazine. Mr. Chung recently retold his story at our headquarters office. I spoke with him afterward for a fuller picture of his life after Seasweep and the miracle of God’s provision for his family. Two very different parts of Vinh Chung’s life meet when he walks on a beach. In an instant, the smell of sea salt takes the 36-year-old skin cancer surgeon back to his 1979 exodus from Vietnam. Just four years old at the time, Vinh recalls fleeing the southern city of Ca Mau by boat from the Mekong River Delta...

Trafficking victims protection: Keeping a law that works

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Jesse Eaves in Advocacy

Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2011 | World Vision Blog

Debating the effectiveness of laws is a tradition as old as our nation itself. But I want to share a story that illustrates how one law is accomplishing exactly what it was passed to do. From 2003 to 2007, the owners of the U.S. company Global Horizons trafficked more than 600 Thai workers to U.S. soil. The company lured the men with promises of high-paying agricultural jobs. When the men arrived after having paid exorbitant recruitment fees, their passports and immigration papers were taken from them. Instead of receiving high-paying jobs, the men were forced to work on farms in Washington state and Hawaii to pay off the “debt” they were told they incurred. In 2007, the owners of the...