Beauty and Elegance in Colorado Springs for 35 Years

Beauty and Elegance in Colorado Springs for 35 Years

Even though I first met Rich Schell nearly a decade ago, I still remember the day well. He’s that kind of person, who leaves that kind of impression. I was on a flight from Denver to Atlanta for a girls’ weekend where I planned to drink lots of wine. He was on his way to the Atlanta Home Show where he planned to drink in lots of ideas.

What I remember most about Rich was how polished he looked. Tweed jacket, fashionable jeans, and impeccably shined shoes. He had a deep baritone and smelled like leather and sophistication. You wouldn’t have thought we would have had much, if anything, in common. But, as we chatted, we realized we both lived in Colorado Springs. We both grew up in hometowns that we knew we’d one day need to leave for something different if we wanted to fully become who we were destined to be. We were both creative — he as an interior designer and florist, and me as a writer.

And, if that wasn’t enough, we had the same birthday, exactly 20 years apart! That was the part that delighted us, for some reason. As we landed in Atlanta, he asked if we could take a selfie for him to send to his partner, Greg Wragge.

“He isn’t going to believe this!” he said. We put our heads together and he snapped the photo. He invited me to his store, Richi Designs Home, and the annual Christmas Open House, and I put him in my phone as “Rich the Birthday Twin.”

That’s the name that popped up on my phone in September of 2020 when Rich and I were catching up and I interviewed him for this article…

Read the full article here.

Haiti in Realtime: What Defines ‘Non-Violent’? (Blog)

Haiti in Realtime: What Defines ‘Non-Violent’? (Blog)

Last night was much quieter than the night before. Every few minutes I would hear “phantom riots.” 

Was that chanting? Was that shouting? Were those gunshots?

Each time, I would tiptoe to the door and slowly open it a few inches. And each time, I was met by deafening silence. The only sounds I actually heard last night were a pack of dogs, the rattling air conditioner and a demented rooster at 3 a.m. 

This morning dawned muggy and gray. If Port-au-Prince was smoldering yesterday, it’s soggy today. I walked on the freshly mopped tiles to breakfast, past a deflated Santa and Rudolph playing golf in front of the hotel. 

We ordered breakfast, and our eggs and pancakes came in waves. Some mornings there is syrup. Others there is not. These are the things that occupy our time. We chatted with some geologists who are here to make seismic maps to help with building codes. Talked to a few guys from a non-governmental organization (NGO) in England. Begged the waitress for more coffee. We are all bored and restless.

Phones began buzzing at 7:30. The news changed every five minutes. You can go. You have to stay. Maybe you’ll go. Maybe you’ll stay. By 9:30, the “official” word came in. Sit tight. Again. We all understand. The situation can change in a moment. Peaceful protesters this morning can turn violent by this afternoon. Political rallies are scheduled today, and nobody knows what they will bring. The presidential candidates are doing little to diffuse the situation. 

“Non-violent protests are the people’s right,” one candidate says. 

But how do you define “non-violent?”

Read more on the Compassion Blog.

Poverty Stops With Alice (Editorial Guidelines)

Poverty Stops With Alice (Editorial Guidelines)

Alice, a 20-year-old student in Mombasa, Kenya, has a quiet voice and loud dreams. When she speaks, you lean in. Hang onto each word. She whispers of trauma – of death and loss and fear. But her eyes sparkle when she talks of the future – of education and advocacy and wholeness.

The threads of healthy body, strong mind and confident voice weave throughout Alice’s story. They can be highlighted separately, or combined to show that when children like Alice are healthy and whole, they can impact their family, church, community and country for good.

Alice’s family was called cursed by her aunts and uncles. They had no real home, just sticks, rope and tarp. She watched her older sisters marry as teens. She saw a younger brother die after being exposed to the wet night air. But Jesus turns broken beginnings into restored endings. He calls each of us to participate in this redemptive work and empowers us to respond.

Jesus promised us wholeness and we’re chasing down that promise for children in poverty.

Read the full piece, created for Compassion International.

Accountability Report Email (Marketing Email)

Accountability Report Email (Marketing Email)

Brandy, your giving has an IMPACT!

Dear Brandy,

If there’s one that that inspires child advocates like you, it’s knowing that giving has an IMPACT! That’s why we wanted to share with you Compassion’s latest accountability report. It’s a transparent look at how we operate and deliver impact as a ministry

In this report, you’ll find abundant resources about who Compassion is, how we work and even some exciting news about how we’re expanding to serve more children. Each page is a result of the generous support of friends like you!

Read the full email here, from Compassion International.

The Remarkable Boy With More Than One Heart (Feature/Blog)

The Remarkable Boy With More Than One Heart (Feature/Blog)

Once upon a time, on the coast of Ghana, Noah’s heart broke.

This wasn’t a metaphorical heartbreak. As a little boy, Noah grew tired quickly. He couldn’t keep up with his friends. Sometimes he even blacked out.

“It felt like my chest was ripping,” remembers Noah.

When Noah was 8, he joined at a Compassion center in his neighborhood. At his first medical checkup, Noah’s mother Gladys was told she needed to take her little boy to a cardiologist. There, she found out the devastating news that Noah had a hole in his heart and needed open-heart surgery.

“I was very sad, heartbroken,” says Gladys. “But I looked up to God and put my trust in God, that He would make a way for my boy.”

And God did make a way. Through the support of Compassion and the gifts of donors around the world Noah was able to have that heart surgery. His mother still remembers the fear she felt watching her little boy be wheeled away – and the joy she felt when he opened his eyes after surgery.

Read the full post here on the Compassion Blog.

Christmas Gift Ideas That Matter (SEO)

Christmas Gift Ideas That Matter (SEO)

Christmas is a time of giving. A time of celebrating the gift of Jesus. Which can make the process of finding the perfect gift even more complicated!

Deep down we want to give meaningful gifts that matter at the holidays. But too often we find ourselves wandering the aisles of Walmart on Black Friday or glued to our computers as we search Amazon wish lists.

At Compassion, we know how truly impactful gifts can be. Each child we serve receives a hand-selected Christmas gift. We also offer our supporters a Gift Catalog to purchase gifts for children and families assisted by Compassion, and these gifts that last forever can be given in a loved one’s honor.

Read more at compassion.com.

Teaching Her Father to Read (Feature)

Teaching Her Father to Read (Feature)

Every night, Enrique hunched over a worn Bible, running his fingers across the tissue-thin pages. It took him hours to read a chapter, and by the end his head ached from the effort.

From the corner of their small home, Blanca watched her father struggle.

It was this image of her father, barely literate, with just a third-grade education, that kept Blanca going. It was what she thought of when she overheard neighbors tell her parents that educating a daughter was pointless.

She remembered it when she watched her peers drop out of school to get jobs that enabled them to bring home milk and bread for their families.

Most of all, she remembered it every Sunday when her father stood before their church and preached from those verses he had labored over and memorized. His hard work and dedication inspired her to forge a path different from her friends’ lives.

In the small Guatemalan community where Blanca grew up, few girls were educated past elementary school.

“We did not have much at home,” remembers Blanca, “but my parents made sure I got an education. It was something that did not happen much. Since I was a girl, the popular belief was that instead of investing in my education, I should learn to cook and clean because the only thing I could aspire to was to be housewife, and all my schooling would have been in vain.”

Read more on compassion.com.

Give a Center Gift (Landing Page)

Give a Center Gift (Landing Page)

CENTER GIFT

Bless the Compassion Center That Is Blessing Your Child

Staff members at your child’s Compassion center are working hard to make sure that your child feels known, loved and protected. They have a shared passion with you for helping release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

And now you can partner directly with the tutors and staff at your child’s center and support their powerful ministry to children in poverty! By sending a center gift, you are telling a church ministering to children and families in desperate poverty, “I am here to help.”              

See the full page at Compassion International.

Forever Changed (Feature)

Forever Changed (Feature)

She captured my heart with her smile, and I am forever changed.Those are the first words you read on Laura “Lola” Zinger’s blog. Above that sentence floats a picture of Ruth, Lola’s sponsored child. The bearer of that life-changing smile. But to understand the story of Ruth and Lola, we must start at the beginning.

Lola says she can’t quite remember what first drew her to Compassion. Maybe it was a concert, or an event at church? Lola just remembers sitting with her husband and three sons at their computer and choosing an Ethiopian boy, Gosaye, who was the same age as her middle son.

“I don’t know that I really ‘bought into it’ at first,” says Lola. “It was really just making a card for his birthday, for Christmas, looking at his picture on the refrigerator. Initially I did it for my boys, but gradually I could feel God tapping me on the shoulder. Planting a desire to connect with him deeper. Accepting him as a fourth son into our family.”

One of those “promptings” Lola felt was to host a Compassion Sunday event at her church. That yes began a journey that Lola could never have imagined.

When Lola received the box of child packets for her event, she prayed over each child. But one of the packets made her stop. A young woman named Ruth, the oldest child in the group.

She seemed to radiate off the page and I wanted to know her, wrote Lola on her blog. But she shook her head and put Ruth’s packet back in the stack, focusing on getting the children sponsored – not sponsoring them herself!

Read more at the Compassion Blog.

Someone Take Care Of Me (Magazine Feature)

Someone Take Care Of Me (Magazine Feature)

It is morning, but Noelia Espinoza squeezes her eyes closed, pretending she’s still asleep. If she had a blanket, she would pull it over her head.

But there are no blankets.

In this crowded bedroom in Cochabamba, Bolivia, there are no pillows or furniture. Just a row of stained mattresses on the floor.

Six people sleep here. Bodies pressed tight. One child turns over, setting off a chain reaction. Knees curl into backs. It might be fun if it was just one night. But this is no sleepover. It’s every night. And 6-year-old Noelia is sleepy.

She hears her aunt, Maria, move in the next room. The sound of a spoon scraping against a pot is a good sign. Today, there will be breakfast. Slowly, the mound of children in the middle the floor untangle and boys and girls yawn and stretch.

Noelia and the five other children stumble into the next room where Maria stoops over a steaming pot of rice. She peels a few bruised banana and stirs them in with the rice. The rice was given by a kind neighbor. The nearly spoiled fruit brought cheap at the market. Even then, each child will only get a small scoop of food to eat. Maria knows in a few hours they will be hungry again.

Read more of this article from Relevant Magazine.