​Our summer interview series is going great so far. Between our three guests—an atheist, a Catholic, and an Orthodox Jew—we’ve had over 500 questions come in, generating all kinds of interesting conversations on the blog and in the comment section. I’m hoping to continue the series through August, so let me know if you have any suggestions. (Looks like I've got a Mormon and a Mennonite lined up. Now to find a Muslim!) 

Today I want to do something a little different.  As you know, I’ll be visiting Bolivia at the end of the month to get a first-hand look at how child sponsorships are changing lives there. When I tell people about the trip, they often have questions about purpose and logistics of child sponsorship that I don’t know how to answer. 

Carla Gawthrop has worked for World Vision for ten years — in copywriting, international communications, and now, web content for the World Vision website. She's traveled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Thailand, and the United States covering World Vision's work in disaster response, community development, and child sponsorship. She is a mother of two preschoolers and lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Clint. Together, they sponsor four children from Thailand, Romania, Dominican Republic and Ethiopia. Carla is a part of the Bolivia Team, which means I’ll get the chance to meet her in person in a couple of weeks! 

I hope you will take advantage of her availability to ask whatever questions you have about child sponsorship and how humanitarian organizations like World Vision operate. (If Carla can’t answer, we’ll find someone who can.) Be honest, and feel free to pose that nagging question that always comes to mind when you see advertisements asking you to support children in need.

As usual, we’ll take questions in the comment section today and then post Carla’s responses to the most popular on Tuesday. Please take advantage of the “like” feature so that we can get a sense of what questions are of most interest to readers. 

Ask away!