The ministry of the Compassion International Club began this year.
Eric Walter, president of the club, as well as other Eastern students, had a vision: to reach out to the children of the world in the name of Jesus.
With the fall semester already in full swing, the club is attempting to get themselves and their presence established on campus.
According to their official mission statement, “Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.” (www.compassion.com)
According to senior Debbie Pearce, the Compassion Club on Eastern’s campus is starting to do community service days as an outreach to the community.
Their first service day was early in November, during which they did some painting for member of the community.
This summer, the club hopes to go to Mexico to meet the child they have sponsored,do some projects down there and give testimony, Pierce said.
Pearce, the missions coordinator of the campus chapter, believes that sponsorship can be a community thing; God doesn’t just call individuals but groups as well.
Plans for the spring, according to Pearce, are to visit churches, tell them about the ministry through many different means: drama, arts and reading of letters from sponsored children.
Pearce sponsors a 16-year-old girl in Uganda named Ajiambo Joyce.
“It’s amazing to see how, through letters, I have come to have another sister… part of me is fuller when I’m in this role,” she said. “We are connecting our worlds together through prayer.”
Many of the Compassion Club members sponsor children around the world, and as Pearce said, this is a very rewarding experience.
“I’m invested in a life, a life God is going to use and bless,” Pearce said.
Compassion International, as well as the club on campus, not only provides opportunities to sponsor children monetarily, but also to make a more profound difference in a child’s life.
That is the vision of this campus chapter of Compassion, according to Pearce. The chapter wants to work not just individually but as a college community towards the bettering of children’s lives.
“God enables you through your funds,” Pearce said.
Where do you start? Compassion is defined on dictionary.com as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.”
The question many of us need to ask ourselves is if we have that desire, and if so, what are we willing to do about it, according to Pearce.
If you would like to be involved with Eastern’s campus chapter of Compassion International, contact Debbie Pearce at dpearce@eastern.edu.
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter 
Jayme Fisher