RACHEL GRESHAM | staff writer
THE CLAUSE What is the best thing about college so far?
TAYLOR BROUGHTON The best thing is all the new strong friends I’ve made.
TC How did you first hear about Compassion and what made you choose this organization?
KEN BURKEY My church at home sponsors 1,000 kids through Compassion. My family also supports 4 Compassion children. So I found out about the organization through my church and we decided it was the best one to use.
TC What brought on the whole idea of adopting a Compassion child on every hall in Trinity?
TB The whole idea started when we were having Sunday night worship on our hall. We were talking and this week the group was particularly small. We wanted to find a way to give back and the best way to love someone is giving someone hope who doesn’t have hope and giving them love when they don’t have love.
KB The reason you are in college is to prepare yourself for the future. But what about right now? I want to do things to help people right now.
MATT ATHA Fasting and other ideas are good by yourself, but its not something you do as a community. This way we established is not difficult to get a lot of people involved. We want to teach people to think about what others go through. By giving a small monthly sacrifice on everyone’s part, we can all come together and create something huge. Not everyone can go to Africa to give out malaria shots, so this is our way to give hope to people we’ve never seen. We want to change people’s mindset.
TC What is your vision for Trinity?
KB Well, our mission went from getting our hall to sponsor a child to influencing the whole dorm. Our goal is for not just all of Trinity to follow suit, but Engstrom, Adams and the apartments too. We are being the vocal box for Compassion so that we can change as many kids lives as possible.
TB Since we have started talking to the various halls in Trinity, two girls have decided to sponsor a kid on their own.
TC What is this vision going to look like?
MA We want every hall to adopt a Compassion child. It’s only $32 a month, so with more than 30 people on each hall, everyone can easily donate a dollar to send to their child. We also want a different room to write a letter each week so that the child can be showered in letters and really feel loved. Its not really about the money, but more about the relationship with the child and making them feel valued.
TB How we want it to work is for every hall to pass it down to the next year’s hall. They will have something like an initiation of passing the kid down. So this year’s hall will pass it to the next hall and the child will grow up through the hall.
KB We are having boys halls get boys and girls halls get girls. We thought it would be awesome if eventually when that girl or boy grows up, they could potentially come to school at APU and live in the hall that saved their life. We want to keep the kids in the hall instead of taking them with us next year so that one kid can make a bigger impact on even more people. Then later when everyone is in the professional world, if one person can remember Compassion they may decide to support a child. We just want to be the initial step to create an interest in anyone who can make a difference in a child’s life.
TC What progress has been made so far?
MA Three halls have taken action and started supporting a child. Second north already had a child from World Vision because Josh Ryan had the same idea, they also took on a child from Compassion.
TC Is it difficult to get a Compassion child?
KB Not really, you just go online to their website and you pick a country. Then pictures will show up with a story about their life and personality and you can pick a kid. Letters are the most important part of it. You type a letter to your kid and send it to Compassion. Then they translate it and send it as a letter to the child you support. The kids love the money but they get move excited about someone who cares about them and takes time to write them a letter.
TC Do you feel like Trinity is supporting you in your mission?
TB All the halls were really excited and wanted to support it, but the harder part is making it a reality. Even if a few parts of it fail, just getting the word out about Compassion will make it worthwhile. We have a volunteer representative on each hall, and we really want them to take charge of this so that they are the one’s collecting the money each month and getting the people on their hall excited about it. That way it feels more like a team thing.
TC What made you passionate about taking on the Compassion children? What are the motives behind it all?
MA For me, it was when I went to western China with my dad. I saw all the people living in horrible conditions: some with only two blankets between sticks. It was abysmal the way they’re treated. It’s not uncommon in the world for people to live in poverty. We wanted to take the Trinity theme “forget yourself” seriously and turn the theory into actually doing something. It’s a desire that God put on my heart.
TB My natural inclination is to hurt for these kids. Supporting Compassion children is a much more tangible theory to focus on: by giving love to kids who have no hope, prospects, or future. It is the most loving thing you could do just by showing that you care. I realized this when I was on a road trip in Seattle and I had no money, gas, food, or place to stay. I had to rely on my contacts that were in Seattle to give me a roof over my head and food to fill my stomach. There is nothing more loving than how they provided for me; I was completely reliant on them. This project is my way of saying, God you got me through this and now I want to do the same for as many kids as possible.
KB I have worked with kids on several missions trips, usually going to Mexico. I have the whole mind set that I need to help kids who are broken and unloved. I always say someday I’ll do that and go on living in my perfect little world. I’m not doing anything right now to help this world sitting in America. Compassion is my way of contributing right now and not living in the future. My main goal is to help influence others to do the same.
TC What is your biggest fear?
TB My worst fear is not finding something I am passionate to do with my life and working at a boring job.
KB I am so terrified of snakes, I cry like a baby.
MA Swimming in deep ocean water at night is my biggest fear.
