Southwest Las Vegas church exhibit tells stories of poor children overseas

Steve Spriggs is experiencing poverty — from afar.

After attending a church service in Colorado, he decided to financially sponsor an impovershed 9-year-old boy in Kenya through a religious child-development organization called Compassion International.

The boy, Wilson, lives in a rural western area of the country with his grandparents, his sister and her children. His parents died when he was young due to complications from AIDS.

Spriggs and his family have kept in contact with Wilson by writing letters. They hear from him a few times a year.

“It’s weird because he just turned 16 this month,” Spriggs said. “We’ve journeyed with him since he was 9 … It’s been a great experience personally for me and our whole family.”

Four years ago, Spriggs was able to meet Wilson when he traveled to Kenya on a business trip. Spriggs said he was humbled to see Wilson’s home, where he went to school and what his life was like.

Not everyone is able to take such trips to see how children are affected by poverty, an issue that affects nearly 700 million young people who live on less than $2 a day (USD), according to World Bank.

That’s what inspired Compassion International to develop the Compassion Experience, an interactive exhibit that shows the experiences of children living in poverty for the past four years.

“We tried to bring the developing world into an American context for people who wouldn’t have the chance to travel there themselves,” said Spriggs, the community marketing director for Compassion Experience. He has been working with Compassion International for six years.

The Compassion Experience takes eight trucks around the U.S. and Canada and holds nearly 280 events, Spriggs said. The self-guided exhibit will be held at The Crossing Church in southwest Las Vegas from Jan. 13-16.

Visitors will walk through an exhibit, divided into five rooms, that displays elements of the lives of two children — one from the Philippines and the other from Uganda. Participants are given headphones to hear the children who will guide them by telling their story.

Each of the rooms represents a chapter in the child’s life, starting when they were living in poverty. The rooms are miniature replicas of the children’s homes, schools and environments. The rooms also feature artifacts from their homes.

Spriggs says Compassion Experience designers “go to painstaking efforts to be creative,” often using the same paint color and wall texture as the child’s room overseas.

Compassion Experience has visited Las Vegas churches within the past couple of years.

Josiah Philip, Crossing Church communications pastor, said he is excited about this month’s experience, adding, “it’s really impactful and they do a really good job with the audio.”

To reach View intern reporter Kailyn Brown, email kbrown@viewnews.com or call 702-387-5233. Find her on Twitter: KailynHype.