08.25.08 From Screamo To Cowboys To Colorado
After the screamo festival I headed to Texas to spend a day with my family and play/speak at a cowboy church in Athens. That’s right - from skinny jeans to Wranglers, tattoos to cowboy hats. I’ve got cultural whiplash. That, my friends, is a diverse weekend.
Now I’m in the DFW airport about to board a flight to Colorado Springs. I’m spending a good part of this week at Compassion‘s mother ship filming a DVD that will be used to train other speakers and artists on how to communicate about Compassion, and having a lot of meetings with marketing and IT folks about the present and future of Compassion Bloggers.
While I’m there I’ll also make the final decision on who’s going with us to the Dominican Republic in November so I’ll let you guys be the first to know when that’s all done. And I may have time to shoot some video and get answers to any questions you guys might have about Compassion International too. If I do, what would you like to ask? What would you like to see?

said:
I don’t know if this is the sort of question you are looking for about Compassion, but I would like to know more about their work with the global food crisis. What is the best way we as sponsors can help them in this work?
Derek Chalfant said:
Shaun, After all this talk these last few days about screamo music can we expect at least one screamo song on your next recording or at least a scremo version of one of your songs at your shows?
said:
I would like to see how and where our sponsor letters are processed. Communication with our sponsored children is such a blessing!
Beth
Thomas said:
I have a couple of questions.
1)How do they decided what the greatest need is when you make a one time family gift donation?
2)Where can I get some documentation on how the sponsor money is dived up. When I talk to someone about compassion it seams that one of the questions always asked is “How much of each dollar is going to the child and where is the rest of the money going?”
Thomas
Denny Milbourn said:
Shaun,
I have signed up to blog for Compassion and receive monthly blog assignments. I have received one and blogged on the world food crisis. Have there been any others? I have had some problems with my e-mail and was wandering if I had missed any.
Thanks,
Denny
said:
Same question here Shaun. I signed up too but have only received two assignments thus far and none recently.
Beth
Shaun Groves said:
Yep, that’s something I’m here in Colorado to figure out. We’ve had a hard time getting the monthly assignment thing off the ground. I had the global food crisis and malaria net campaigns in my head before the first blogger signed up to get assignments each month. But coming up with monthly campaigns after those two (for reasons way complicated and boring and logistical) has been impossible. I had two great meetings today though that are gonna speed that process up. We’re planning out the monthly blog assignment for the next year and then the web site guys will build any banners, site pages and widgets we need for those assignments.
Thanks for your patience.
Perhaps I should send out an e-mail just to let folks know we haven’t forgotten about them. Probably a good idea. Thanks for asking the question.
said:
Hi,
I would like to know how I (as a sponsor) could get to know my child’s culture better. Or what life is really like for him day to day. What are the typical values of his society, my child’s family’s point of view in life, things of that nature. If that makes any sense! Are there any good resources available to help me with that?
Thanks,
Andrea
said:
From the time the child is selected and the photo is taken, what happens? Are there any provisions or assistance given during the waiting period? Or are they already in the system, taken care of with general funds until the sponsor signs up?
Also, I would love to see a blogger trip in the future with Father/Son or Mother/Daughter blogging teams. The kids would have to be teenagers, likely, but it would be wonderful to gain their perspectives, too.