I was there, Chris - and I couldn't help but be both moved and yet feeling some of the same questions you raise. It was definitely a powerful thing to witness, but it felt like something I shouldn't be seeing. It's a "do the ends justify the means?" scenario - and I'm all about presenting a compelling story - but Jimmy didn't get a choice to have this reunion happen in front of so many people. I'm not being very articulate - but let me summarize - it was both powerful and unsettling in how it was handled.

I debated on commenting on this for a while. To be totally up-front, I work at Compassion International. So maybe I'm biased.

But here's my thoughts on why this was done the way it was done. A lot of Compassion sponsors, myself included a few years ago, have somewhat of a disconnect with their sponsored children. Every month I would send off my check, feeling like I had done something good for someone else.

But I didn't get the relationship aspect. I rarely wrote my sponsored child letters, because, to me, they didn't really matter. I knew I'd likely never meet her, so it didn't seem to matter that much.

Then, she started calling me her mother. And there was a crack in my understanding of what Compassion was about. And then I started working at Compassion, and my understanding was blown to smithereens. It is SO much more than $38/month. Sponsorship is about building a relationship with a precious child a world away. Showing them through letters that you care. Can you imagine what it's like for a child who has been beat down by poverty her whole life to feel like someone loves her, someone who she's never met, someone who is not her family? It's amazing, and life-changing.

So, here is the point of all of that. Most sponsors think like I used to think. And to see this reunion, this first-time meeting of a Compassion-assisted child and his sponsor, will forever alter that thinking. Will show sponsors and potential sponsors that deep impact of the relationship between a sponsor and a child. I think seeing that meeting will inspire current sponsors to be more involved sponsors. And will help people understand that it's not just a check sent every month.

I don't think the student felt exploited. Because I think he wants sponsors to understand. Yes, it was emotional. Yes, I do believe there was a purpose in this public meeting. But I do not think that purpose was to exploit a child in order to get more sponsors. I think the purpose was to show the reality of what a sponsor/child relationship can be.

The feeling was the same sitting in the arena. You couldn't tell if you were watching an infomercial or reality. I'm super skeptical and at times hard-hearted but, in defense of Compassion, there is truly no way to present this without it looking like a commercial. The truth is that I see so much scripted reality tv style moments and hear Ty say 'move that bus' so often that I'm afraid I sometimes mistake sincere life changing events for just another advertisement.

We've sponsored World Vision kids for 25 years. This is manipulation. Sure it uses a good thing to do so, but it's not the way we need to motivate compassion in the Kingdom. Oprahesque is right.

While I completely see your point, personally, I do not see it as manipulation or exploitation.

I have not yet sponsored a child through any organization until making that decision today. I have considered Compassion for a while as I know several people that do sponsor a child and promote them as musicians. It has been life changing for them.

Jimmy is a sharp, smart young man who is a sponsor himself now while a college student. How great is that! Maybe we should consider that perhaps Jimmy does not care where or how he met his sponsor, just that he met him. Perhaps Jimmy is happy that his moment occurred exactly the way it did.

Ever since the days of Alan Funt's Candid Camera, I have been uncomfortable at programs making use of someone's raw emotions for entertainment - be it fear, hate, love, or mourning. That these are good people makes it no more acceptable then if they were not so, for everone deserve privacy with their emotions. Saying that this moment might inspire others to become a sponsor is just another "the ends justify the means" argument. Isn't anything considered private any more?

Having recently returned from Kenya, I saw the poverty firsthand. The children cannot go to even a public school unless they can afford uniforms. Whether the video was appropriate or not, I cannot say, but GOD CAN DO ANYTHING, we just need to act out in faith and do it. There are a lot of human aid organizations out there, choose one and sponsor a child. IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES. I met children from two orphanages run by Empowering Lives International. The children knew one of their sponsors was sick, and every one of them prayed for her DAILY. She is now cancer-free. GOD WILL WORK THROUGH YOU AND THROUGH THESE CHILDREN!!

Having recently returned from Kenya, I saw the poverty firsthand. The children cannot go to even a public school unless they can afford uniforms. Whether the video was appropriate or not, I cannot say, but GOD CAN DO ANYTHING, we just need to act out in faith and do it. There are a lot of human aid organizations out there, choose one and sponsor a child. IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES. I met children from two orphanages run by Empowering Lives International. The children knew one of their sponsors was sick, and every one of them prayed for her DAILY. She is now cancer-free. GOD WILL WORK THROUGH YOU AND THROUGH THESE CHILDREN!!