Fig 4.5. Systems developed in the 1950s endure today, as evident in the mailroom at Compassion’s Colorado Springs headquarters. All U.S. letters transit through this central location, where employees check them to remove addresses, offensive comments, or bulky gifts. They are then sent overseas to be transla

Fig 5.1A and 5.1B. A screen shot of Compassion’s website in 2019.

Fig 5.3. Page from sponsor Elmer Rund’s scrapbook, c. 1960. He requested that the two boys he supported in Korea hold his family’s photo for a photo. Oh Hak Son, on the left, was found by his father shortly afterward, who then sent Rund another photo of himself and his son, also holding the Rund family portr

Fig 6.3. June in Westfield, Massachusetts, with photos of Firomsa in Ethiopia, spread out on her table to show his progress. Firomsa had recently and abruptly left Compassion’s program. As we looked at the photos, June said, “His smile gave me the feeling that he was progressing quite well, although his acad

Fig 7.1A and 7.1B. Silent screams and a chorus of harmonized voices. A WV advertising campaign in Christianity Today , March 1957, compared to the Korean Orphan Choir in one of WV’s “pictorial” pamphlets for sponsors, c. 1966–67. Courtesy of World Vision International.

Fig 7.2A–F. Screenshots from OMF’s video of a global hymn. It begins with U.S. evangelical singer Kristyn Getty and it ends with a children’s choir in New Zealand. Top right: between each shot, the images blend together to heighten a sense of simultaneity.

Fig 7.4. Church meeting room in New Hampshire with wall-sized map showing the locations of the missionaries the congregation supports. Another wall (not pictured) displays sponsored children’s photos. The table in the foreground is set up for the annual gathering when each sponsor writes a Christmas card to

Fig 7.5. A detail from the “Joyful Songs” section of Compassion’s website. Participatory techniques are now integrated online, combining visual images, embedded video, and sound files. On the left are links to recipes so parents and their children can taste foods similar to those the sponsored child eats (co