Since the Healing Waters International water project opened at the Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church in 2006, church members have had more opportunities to decide on matters that can benefit the ministry and the community of Barrio Mexico in southern coastal town of San Pedro de Macorís in Dominican Republic.

The church’s leadership calls for periodic members’ meetings where all ministry managers update the assembly on their ministry. Since all the ministries overlap in some way, these reports help the church make the best decisions.

The ministries include Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, the Healing Waters International water project, a school and a community holistic vocational center.

These church meetings have become a forum at which the community, represented by the believers, can discuss the best ways to manage resources.

Milqueya is a mother of eight and grandma of seven. She and her husband still live with 11 children and grandchildren at home. Milqueya and her large family enjoy the benefits of the decisions she’s been helping her church make as a voting member. One important decision was the incorporation of the Healing Waters International water project.

In the past, even the least harmful water source wasn’t safe enough for Milqueya. She bought water from the trucks that drove past her home.

Miqueya paid only RD$20 for a 5-gallon water bottle, avoiding the RD$35 price at local stores. But the truck-bought water was making her and her family sick.

“The water caused us stomach diseases. But after we began to drink the water from the church, we are always healthy and we don’t have any stomach problems.”

After the Healing Waters International project began, the community’s health has improved. (more…)

Hey all, Aaron from Compassion Canada here.

We recently asked Pastor Tim Bailey of Hillside Church in London, ON, the question “What is compassion?” We liked his answer so much that we wanted to share it with all of you. Enjoy!

Her bottom lip quivered as her fingers nervously played with her hair band. Her eyes glanced quickly from side to side, as if expecting to run at any moment. Her knee bounced to the beat of her heart as she listened passively to my questions.

She was a Restavek child from the depths of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and without the knowledge of her owners, she was meeting with us to tell her story.

It was the story of a concrete mattress, early morning chores and constant abuse. It was a story of an uncle who was using her as his own personal slave. (more…)

1985 was the year that Eastenders first appeared on our televisions, Live Aid rocked the world, and Cristiano Ronaldo was born.

But for 50 Filipino children it was the year they were registered into God’s Special Gift Student Centre, run in partnership with Abkasa Baptist Church in Bacolod City, the Philippines.

More than two decades on, some of those students reflect on how their registration in the Compassion child development centre transformed their lives.

• Click on the image below to view a slideshow of the students’ reflections.

Download the entire Compassion UK magazine, October 2008 (pdf) containing this feature.

My car recently got stolen (1990 Ford Laser). I received a call at 1 a.m. on a Sunday and heard Constable Burgess ask me when and where I last saw my car.

It was meant to be sitting on the street next to my block of units. It was found abandoned in a ditch at a neighbouring suburb – hot wired, head lights on, and engine running.

I felt violated. It had been broken into the weekend before. I thought they’d taken what they wanted and would leave it alone. Not so.

This experience brings to life for me that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

No, I’m not surprised that the Enemy hates me. But I’m ever more conscious of his sentiments towards me in the midst of the “inconveniences” he’s caused … (something I refer to it as “the effects of evil entering into the hearts of men”).

Thankfully, Jesus has provided a way out for all of us:

“I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” –John 10:10b (The Message)

In light of my current situation, I find it especially challenging to hear stories like the family that can’t afford to buy a front door. (I have limited life experience and a finite mind.)

Even though I work at Compassion and even though I’ve visited Compassion children in their homes, these stories catch me off-guard every time. I have questions running through my mind:

• What does it feel like to be unable to afford what’s typically considered a basic means of security and protection in our culture?
• Do more things get stolen from this family because they’re unable to provide for themselves?
• Do they ever feel safe living in a trouble area without a door?

(more…)

As the Rwandan genocide unfolded 15 years ago, Dr. Laurent Mbanda followed the fighting lines of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to help administer aid to those who needed it most.

Mbanda is now Compassion’s Regional Vice President of the African region.

I was not in Rwanda. I arrived in May 1994 with Compassion to administer relief behind the RPF fighting lines. I was in Nairobi, Kenya, but before that I lived in the USA for 21 years. My parents left Rwanda, running for their lives, when I was 4.

2. How was Rwanda on the ground when you arrived?

Horrific! The country was on fire, it was in disarray, people were dying like flies; displaced people everywhere, bodies rotting everywhere. The military the RPF was trying to stop was visible. I could hear gunshots from where I was.

3. What were your impressions?

Horrible! Inhuman!

How could a human being do what the Hutu militia did to another human being? How could a government, a leadership of a country, turn against its people and butcher them?

I was angry. It was my people that were being butchered. I was scared for my life even as we went around administering relief where we could.

Initially, I was angry at some NGOs (nongovernment organizations). Many were coming in taking pictures and returning back to raise money. How could they have gone in empty-handed?

(more…)

At the time of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Gary Haugen, a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, was given an assignment to serve as the Officer in Charge of the U.N.’s genocide investigation in Rwanda. 

He had seen a lot of injustice in the past, working to combat human rights abuses around the world. And in Rwanda, he stood amid it. He led a team in gathering evidence against those who perpetrated the genocide. He didn’t just fight a legal battle from afar; he stood at the sites of mass murder and mass graves, and looked into the ugliness of this world. 

And his response to it was quite surprising to me. (more…)

I still can’t get over what we’ve experienced in producing Reflections of a Compassion Traveller. Until I turned 10 I lived in a culture that believed the existence of higher powers or gods inhabited carved figurines (plated with gold even) and were to be worshiped.

Now that I’ve come to know the Lord, I realise how heartbreaking it must be for Him to see His creation turn to other gods. I also realise just how loving, patient and faithful He is to have pursued me in spite of my past disobedience.

I find it difficult to imagine myself living in a world where I would be publicly persecuted for believing in or proclaiming the Truth. Paul states in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing would separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. I wholeheartedly believe that.

But it does make me wonder … If I knew Christ, only to enter into circumstances which threaten my expression of faith, would I shake hands with the convenient half-truths, the counterfeits, the prince of the power of the air? Would I be a Daniel? (more…)