UPDATE: I just read that a hurricane hit El Salvador over the weekend, killing 91 people and certainly affecting the Compassion Bloggers trip. Please pray.

On Monday, Compassion is taking four bloggers to El Salvador, where they will witness firsthand the ministry that Compassion International has in the tiny Central American country. You can travel with them through stories, pictures and videos on their blogs.

But wait! Before you click over and subscribe to these blogs, you should know that reading about this trip might just break your heart. It might even change you forever. But if you think you can handle it, head on over to join their journey. I guarantee you will not regret it.

Heather Whittaker (from Whittaker Woman)
Kelly Stamps (from Kelly’s Korner)
Molly Piper (from The Pipers)
Shaun Groves (from, well, himself)

Why are they doing this, anyway? While I don’t know each of their individual reasons, I imagine at least part of the rationale for leaving the comfort of home for the great discomfort of a foreign land and incredible poverty is the same reason I sponsor a child and why many of you do, too.

When you sponsor a child, you are linked with one particular child who will know your name, write to you and treasure the thought that you care. He or she will pray for you often and write to you. Your tax-deductible contribution of just $38 a month connects your child with a loving, church-based child sponsorship program that provides food and clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, life-skills training, and most important of all, your sponsored child will hear about Jesus Christ and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God.*

Wanna help? Here’s how:

1. Pray.

• To see the names and faces of the bloggers going, visit the Compassion Bloggers Trip page.
• Pray for their families they’ll leave behind, their spiritual and physical and mental health/stamina, their ability to take in a lot of information quickly and experience a lot of emotions and find the words to write about it all.

2. Twitter.

• Please send your followers to the trip’s page using this link: http://bit.ly/CBElSalvador
• Tweet any specific posts you’d like to pass along using the hashtag #cbes
• If you ask your followers to sponsor a child, please use this link: http://bit.ly/ESKids

3. Facebook.

• Shaun Groves created a widget for Facebook pages (works on Myspace and blogs too). It displays pictures, videos and posts from our trip as they become available.
• No need to know what the heck a widget is. Just go to http://bit.ly/4euihb and click “Facebook” to add this widget to your Facebook wall.
• Or hit the “share” button above and choose “Facebook” from the options.

Do you sponsor a child with Compassion or any other organization? Would you like to get involved today?

*From Compassion.com.