“Why just now?” asks Pastor Joel. “Where was Compassion when I was just a child who had all the potential but did not have the money to go to school or to eat three square meals a day?”

Pastor Joel grew up on the remote island of Siquijor in the Philippines, which has long been known for magic and witchcraft, but Compassion in the Philippines only began partnering with churches in Siquijor this year.

Although Compassion reached the Philippines in the 1970s, we finally landed in the isolated island after 30 years!

In 2004, we began regularly updating our strategy map to identify the poorest and neediest provinces in the country with the fewest number of evangelical churches, and the list included Siquijor. (more…)

Seven years ago, Nicaragua’s National Assembly made it official that the last Sunday of September would be dedicated to celebrating the translation of the Bible from Greek to Spanish.Throughout the national territory we celebrate. Sunday, Sept. 27, was the 440th anniversary.

In every department and/or town, churches from different denominations get together to celebrate.

Flowers, palm leaves and banners decorate trucks, and children dress in Bible costumes during the parade in celebration of the Day of the Bible.

Compassion Nicaragua understands the importance of the Word of God in the lives of children. That’s why in an effort to release children from their spiritual poverty, Bibles are given to every Compassion-registered child. The children receive Bibles that are appropriate for their age.

This year, 9,663 Bibles have been distributed. (more…)

As birds sing morning songs to begin their days, Eugene Bahire, in charge of Tours and Visits at Compassion’s Rwanda office, starts his day with a morning prayer at 5:30 and prepares himself for work.

He leaves home at 6:30 a.m. and takes 45 minutes to reach his office.

After morning devotions with all Compassion Rwanda staff, which normally start at 8 a.m. and last an hour, he shifts his focus to Tours and Visits communications.

“I make sure that I have enough relevant information about the child before confirming a visit date for a sponsor or a tour.

“Having gotten the news that a child will be visited on a certain date, the student center social worker visits the child’s home ahead of time to prepare the family members or guardians living with the child, and of course some preparations are made at the student center as well.”

Eugene enjoys his job, which he longed for even while he was still at the university.

“Ever since my university time, my ambitions were to work for a Christian organization, and so this is an absolute answer of prayer to me.

“I am always happy and motivated to advocate for people in times of need, and I enjoy learning about different cultural values.”

Gifted with cultural diversity, mostly resulting from his country’s (Rwanda) history, Eugene was born in Uganda in 1976, where he had his primary education. He later moved to join his brother who was living in Kenya, and from there had his junior secondary education. (more…)

“One day, we will see a formerly sponsored child lead our nation.” This is the dream that fills the hearts of the Compassion El Salvador staff.

What started in 1977 in El Salvador with the implementation of the child sponsorship program, is now taking a step closer toward that dream.

A few months ago, after a long wait, the Leadership Development Program (LDP) started to take shape in El Salvador.

At Compassion El Salvador, we always have known there is potential in our future men and women to lead this nation. With the Leadership Development Program in our country, we can work hard to further develop those future leaders. (more…)

Veerachai Nimmitthamrongkul, more commonly called Bee, was sponsored by Compassion when he was growing up. But now Bee has been working as a Partnership Facilitator (PF) for Compassion Thailand for six years.

Bee still recalls the letters he received from his sponsor from Canada. The letters always encouraged him to keep on studying and stressed the significance of education.

The support and letters of encouragement from his sponsor enabled Bee to break free from the chains of poverty.

Now Bee has been blessed with the opportunity to serve the Lord in ministry.

Bee’s life was radically transformed because of his sponsorship, and he now gladly serves as a bridge between sponsors and children.

He hopes that each sponsor can make a difference in a child’s life in the same way that his sponsor dramatically transformed his.

A typical day for Bee starts at 6:30. He wakes up and spends about an hour getting ready for the day.

At 7:30 he leaves the quiet and tranquility of his room and heads to his busy and activity-filled job at Compassion.

Every morning Bee starts work with a time of devotions with fellow staff from 8 to 8:40.

Then he begins work. Bee juggles many tasks as a PF. (more…)

Allen Charles Graham is single, but he understands the meaning of the word “commitment.” He started sponsoring children in 1989 when he lived in the United States, working at a TV network. Currently, he lives in Ecuador and is the Training Director at HCJB Global Voice radio station.

“This was something I always wanted to do ever since I looked at the advertising spaces in some magazines.”

Allen had the opportunity to take a closer look to the blessing of sponsoring children when he came to Ecuador for the first time back in 1989 as a “working visitor” for HCJB. He was assigned a prayer partner, who happened to sponsor an Ecuadorian child.

When the prayer partner visited his sponsored child at the coastal city of Guayaquil (260 miles from Quito), he came back and he showed pictures to Allen and shared about that experience.

That was when Allen received that special motivation and knew he was going to commit to sponsor a child as soon as he went back to the United States.

Actually, that was one of the first things Allen did when he was back home. He looked for a Compassion ad in a magazine, cut the invitation to sponsor a child, filled it out, and sent it including this note: “I prefer an Ecuadorian child.”

“In September 1989 I received a package with the information of a boy, Marcos from Guayaquil.”

This boy, the first child he sponsored, was 10 years old.

Surprisingly, a couple of months later in 1990, Allen received an invitation to give some lectures at the English Fellowship Church in Quito. Of course, he took the opportunity to visit Marcos.

So in July of that year, Allen met Marcos in Guayaquil. Marcos was 11 years old by that time, and he just talked and talked all the time.

“I didn’t speak Spanish and Álvaro, the translator, couldn’t translate fast enough all the things Marcos said.”

Sign language and, most of all, the language of love … hugs, tickles and smiles, let Allen and Marcos establish a strong friendship bond. When they were saying their good-byes at the airport, Marcos said, “I will pray a lot for you to come back to my country.” … And God did answer his prayer!

Allen was called by God to move to Ecuador as a missionary. In March 1992, HCJB accepted his application and later that year he traveled to Costa Rica to learn Spanish.

August 19, 1993, is a day Allen will never forget since it was the day he arrived in Ecuador after a special call by God. He was not just willing to be a missionary with HCJB, but was yearning to see little Marcos again, for Marcos had stolen his heart, and God had listened to Marcos’ innocent prayer.

Since that time, Allen has sponsored a half dozen children. He is currently sponsoring two children – a girl in Ecuador, Mariuxi, and a boy in Bolivia, Pedro.

From all those children, Marcos is the one who left a very deep imprint in the life of this communicator highly committed to children.

At the present time, Marcos is 30, and this sponsor/sponsored-child relationship has evolved almost into a father-son relationship. (more…)

Every year from June until September, the people in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, have celebrated a traditional thanksgiving holiday from generation to generation, called Pengucapan. It is the way the people of Minahasa express their gratitude to God for the blessings of the previous year.

The Pengucapan tradition started when the people in this remote area of Indonesia still worshiped gods. They expressed their gratitude to the ultimate god or the highest god, known as opo wanatas empung walian empung rengan-rengan.

After the harvest, Minahasa people held a kuman kan weru ceremony to eat their harvest for the first time and express their gratitude though song and praise to their gods for fertility, good weather, harvest and health. They would  bring their crops as an offering to their gods.

Christianity came to Minahasa in the 1800s, and Minahasa now has one of the highest rates of Christianity in all of Indonesia.

Pastor Philep, who works with a Compassion child development center in Wiaulapi, explained that after Christianity’s arrival, the Church rejected all forms of worshiping gods as part of animism. But the Church at that time saw the expression of gratitude that Minahasa people had in this tradition and allowed them to continue it through churches.

With the presence of the Church, the form of kuman kan weru changed. (more…)