Clear & Simple Media worked with Compassion International for the first time nearly twenty years ago.

The country director of Compassion Ecuador was given a copy of Simple Truths for the New Believer in Spanish. After reading it and discussing it with his colleagues, Compassion Ecuador decided to create a Compassion version of the book. With a new introduction and cover, they were printed and distributed to select projects near Quito and a few remote locations.

Since that time, we have supported Compassion projects with small initiatives when a particular school or tutoring program needed a tool to strengthen biblical literacy or reinforce a Christian worldview.

Over the past three months, that connection with Compassion has intensified, this time in both Kenya and Burkina Faso. At the initiative of two of our African Champions, Dieudonné Somé and Marwa Mwikwabe, more than 1,300 copies of Simple Truths for the New Believer have been distributed to Compassion Projects in both countries.

The initial connection was in Burkina Faso. One of Compassion Burkina Faso’s national leaders attended a regional Youth Conference where more than 2,000 books were distributed to all attendees. He spoke to Dieudonné after the conference. He said that he believed that “all of our projects need this book.” So, to act on that request, Dieudonné provided the first 300 books to a project as a trial. Within three weeks of that distribution, we received this note:

The leaders of this Compassion school project said they are doing competition with the book. All children must learn the book. And they will do a test on it and reward those who will have good results. I will be back with the number of other Compassion projects who are interested after this experience.

Dieudonné estimates that providing books for all projects for students who might benefit from them could result in a distribution request of up to 40,000 books.

For those unfamiliar with Compassion International, here is a brief excerpt from the Compassion Burkina website (translated from French).

Child and Youth Development activities take place at the Child and Youth Development Centers for children and young people aged 6 to 22. The ultimate goal is to enable each participant to maintain their physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, and spiritual well-being by offering them the opportunity to develop their full potential and become an agent of change who contributes to the growth of their community, or even their nation.

Compassion’s holistic child and youth development program,
through a network of Child and Youth Development Centers (CDEJ), supports over 118,000 children and young people, and over 5,000 mothers and infants in 16 regions of the country. The program focuses on four key areas:

• Physical: medical monitoring, nutrition, vaccination, access to water and hygiene.
• Socio-emotional: training in self-respect and respect for others, development of civic sense and responsibility.
• Spiritual: biblical teaching adapted to each age.
• Cognitive: academic support, scholarships, vocational and technical training.

Within days of receiving that report, we received similar news from Marwa regarding Compassion Kenya’s interest in the books. Marwa believed the potential impact was significant enough that he donated 1,000 books to the Compassion Projects in Western Kenya to conduct a similar trial. Compassion Kenya has been a leader in holistic child and youth development since 1980 and currently serves close to 140,000 children and youth across 31 regions, partnering with over 470 churches from various denominations.

While we do not yet know the results of these trials, we are preparing for significant requests from both countries.

We are humbled and grateful for the opportunities that continue to come our way to serve God’s people in places that we would never have anticipated 20 years ago.

To those who have faithfully supported Clear & Simple Media’s work over the years, THANK YOU!

We hope that you will continue to help us extend our reach. And, if you have the opportunity and are so inclined, tell someone else who has a heart for missions about Clear & Simple Media. One never knows where those conversations may lead.

If you would like to add your financial support to these projects, visit our website HERE and follow the prompts you find there.