Weekend visitors to Crossway Church on U.S. 61 South had the opportunity to see how children in the Third World live.

Change the Story, a traveling exhibit sponsored by Compassion International of Colorado Springs, Colo., a non-profit Christian child sponsorship organization, was at the church offering the stories of two children who benefitted from the program by providing a glimpse of how they lived, and the difference the program made in their lives.

“The Compassion Experience is a tour of three teams that travel across the country to churches, schools and other locations to show people what we do,” said Eric Price, a Compassion International representative. “The stories are about real children who have been through the compassion program.”

When a family takes the 10-minute tour, he said, they receive headphones and an iPod and go through a series of rooms made to resemble the environment in which the children grew up.

In the case of the tour visiting Crossway, the stories involve Julian, a girl from Uganda, and Ruben, a boy from Bolivia.

As the visitors walk through the different spaces, a narrative played through the iPod describes the child’s life as they grow up in the country.

“This is just trying to show the poverty these children live in, the conditions they live in and how hard it is for them, and how much better it can get when they are sponsored through Compassion,” Price said.

He said a person can sponsor a child for $38 a month for as long as they wish. The money allows a child in a developing country to get an education, regular meals, clean water and a safe place for them to grow and develop. Price said Compassion International is helping more than 1.5 million children in 26 different countries.

He said the program focuses on a one-to-one relationship between the sponsor and the child and its family.

Crossway member Beverly Yearwood, who has been sponsoring two children since 2011 and is a volunteer advocate for Compassion International, said about 100 church members are sponsors under Compassion.

“Our church pastors went on a tour with Compassion to Guatemala and when they came back, they had a Compassion Sunday and we had the sponsors,” she said.

Yearwood, who has gone to Uganda and visited the two boys she sponsors, said she has been trying for two years to get the tour to Vicksburg.

“They usually don’t come to cities this small,” she said. “They usually go to larger cities. They were on their way to Clinton and they decided to stop here. This is something I’m very excited about. It’s the answer to a prayer.”