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.

“Since we’ve been running the project, there’s not been any health problems reported,” says Ana Ivelisse, manager of the Healing Waters International project. “The National Ministry of Health comes and tests our water to certify it.”

Not only is the water from the church the purest, it is also the most economic.

For RD$10, half of what she paid for the truck-bought water that made her family sick, Milqueya can take her 5-gallon water bottle home, saving her family’s limited resources for other living expenses.

Proceeds from the water project go toward human and social development to serve and benefit the community through education, health and nutrition.

In the field of education, the Healing Waters International project provides 20 children from Barrio Mexico with a scholarship so they can study at the church’s school.

The project also pays for a watchman who protects the property and equipment of the Compassion-assisted child development center, and a housekeeper who cleans the center’s building.

The proceeds also support the church’s vocational school, which trains locals in a variety of jobs, including computers.

Motorcycles, carts and trolleys arrive each day, taking home 41,000 to 45,000 gallons of purified water each month. The church donates another 600 gallons to the community.

The highest water consumption in the year comes during the summer months when the temperature reaches around 34 degrees Celsius, and the children are home for school break.

The 600 gallons of water that the church donates to the community benefits many groups, including the Compassion-assisted children at Cedina Student Center, the students in the church’s school, the medical staff and patients at a local clinic, and some neighbors in times of special need.

When the community holds a sports event, the church is always willing to support it. Pastor Ventura Taylor says,

“We serve the water in small bottles and we donate it to them as a way of our church being committed with that activity, which has to do with the social and cultural development of the community.”

A label is put on the bottles specifying that it is purified water from Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church and Healing Waters International.

A recent major effort included donating purified water to the residents in Barrio Mexico during three days to commemorate the World Water Day and the Healing Waters International anniversary.

For the occasion, the local church had given special tickets to the customers, and on the first day of the celebration they picked tickets from a surprise box. The winning clients were given Healing Waters International promotional items like ball pens, key rings, caps, T-shirts and water bottles.

The water supply in the pipes in Barrio Mexico can be scarce at times.

“Many times the people don’t get water for even five days in a row,” sayss Ana Ivelisse. “We also give the people raw water so they can mop and clean their homes.

This concept of service derives from the way the church sees the people. Pastor Ventura Taylor and the church have a holistic concept of stewardship.

“The people using the purified water are not just in need. They are human beings with dignity, human beings in freedom, and human beings created in the image of God and after His likeness, whom we must value and respect.

“To us, the way we treat the people as users is the start of our own stewardship.”

For this reason, the church has chosen the most suitable staff from the congregation for the water jobs, people who can be the face of the project, upright and committed to their faith.

Pastor Ventura Taylor continues,

“They need to be people who can transmit the name of the Lord Jesus Christ through their living. And they will transmit it by thinking of the God of excellence and quality, who is the God whom we serve.”

As the church opens every morning, the staff has a short devotion with a reading from the Bible and a time of prayer, and invites any neighbor who has come for water to join in for a couple of minutes. Many people have come to know Jesus because of this courteous Christian attention.

As a community of faith, this church understands that the resources it has should be managed for the sake of the kingdom of God, and that it should be done with transparency.

Pastor Ventura Taylor testifies,

“Being accountable for the things we do has never been a bother to us. Instead, it is a satisfaction. We like to do our inventories, we like to do our audits, and we even like to have our yearly budget of how we are going to do things.”

Read about the Compassion and Healing Waters International partnership on the Healing Waters blog, Waterworks.

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The teachers are having a good time with each other, but after they finish their lunch, each of them go to their classrooms with excitement to prepare for the afternoon classes.

Seventeen people work at the development center. Most of them have been serving the children since the center started two years ago, and more are being added as more poor children are registered.

Each of these workers were carefully and prayerfully chosen by the pastor. Before selecting staff, he wrote a list of names to present to the church committee, which considered each one. The committee considers each person’s vision and commitment to working with poor children.

Each worker must have at least one year of high school and a good relationship with God because it is in their hands that the life of the children will rest while working at the development center.

These workers are ideally church members, but if the partner church is too small, then applicants from neighboring churches or from the same denomination can work at the student center. Each person is interviewed by the pastor and committee about their willingness to work at the center.

Child development workers are volunteers who receive an “offering” every month, not a salary. They have limited job opportunities and are at the center because they love God and love to work with poor children.

Reyna has been an active member of the Hermon Baptist Church for 13 years. Since the center started in November 2006, she has worked as a teacher and coordinator of the cognitive area. Reyna shares,

“I love the work of the Lord and when the pastor spoke to me about it, I accepted because I love children and because of the spiritual and emotional need they have.

“At the development center, children have a new opportunity for their life. They can be instructed in the Bible and they gain new friends.”

Ana is one of the youngest teachers. A smile bloomed as she shared about the reason why she is at the student center.

“It is a privilege to work here. Since I was little I wished to be a Sunday school teacher, but the Lord allowed me to begin working at the student center. Now, I also have a group in Sunday school.”

Ana has been a member of the church for three years and has worked for the student center for a year and a half. “Ana continues to grow spiritually, academically and she also has an excellent relationship with everybody at the development center,” says Pastor Pedro.

One of the difficulties, says the pastor, is the lack of teaching experience of workers at the student center.

“Some of the student center members are empirical, meaning that some of them did not finish their elementary or high school studies or do not have experience related to teaching but they have acquired experience through the practice. When implementing new things, training has been necessary, and that’s how we work.”

By now, most of the personnel have a high school level. In Nicaragua, out of 100 children who enter elementary school, only 29 of them finish. Only 11 complete high school. Six go to university and only two graduate.

In 2006, 830,000 children did not go to school (Special Ministry for Children and Adolescent, 2007) Even when education is free, the high unemployment rate affects parents and they don’t send their children to school.

Reyna shares that working with poor children is a high calling, “There was fear at the beginning because in our hands there is not just anything, but the life of the children.”

The pastor says of Reyna, “With her experience as a regular teacher, she has given a lot of new ideas for the work at the student center and has facilitated the teamwork.”

For Ana it was not easy to fill out the children’s file or to help them write letters. However, “I got help from the teachers. Some people believe this job is easy but it is not. However with God’s help, it can be done!” she says.

The Compassion Nicaragua office has a list of requirements for when the children write to the sponsors, so learning how to include all of those requirements takes the teachers some time.

The requirements include things such as making sure the letters answer the sponsors’ questions, making sure the letter has the date and sponsors’ name on it, and making sure the children have thanked their sponsors for any gifts received.

Getting home safely, and health and finances are some other struggles the workers face. “It is obvious these people have a commitment with God, with the church, with the development center. They are motivated, they are doing something all the time,” says Pastor Pedro.

“As a development center, we stay motivated by the harmony among the group. We also clear up doubts with confidence as soon as they arise, talk about differences. If something provokes incompatibility, we explain to them the reasons why those actions are being taken, that is all for the good of the work as a whole.

“We try to talk and encourage them all the time. Personal and group devotions, spiritual retreats are also done to keep the workers motivated. Once a year a special dinner and a small gift is presented to each development center member to let them know they have done well throughout the year.”

Reyna elaborates,

“We don’t waste time here. We get encouraged when we see the change in the children’s life and their families. Many parents have come to know the Lord and are now serving and attending church regularly.

“I thank so much the support and love God has put in the heart of people for the children in our country. Be sure we do our best. The children are being educated and reached for God. Keep on supporting the children of Nicaragua and all over the world.”

Ana agrees,

“I am thankful with God for this privilege of working with children. I want to thank also those who make possible this support for the children of the community.”

Pastor Pedro concludes,

“To the people that make this possible, we ask them to be patient. Not long ago we had the visit of a 45-year-old man from Bolivia, with a beautiful family and a successful ministry. This man was assisted by Compassion when he was a child, and when I heard him talking, I pictured our children in him, with a great preparation and success in life.

“We thank God and this ministry for considering Nicaragua for the work with children. We are very thankful for their disposition to give their time, finances, prayer and for giving all they can. Thank you.”

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After all, who was I? Some American who swooped in to pass around the good feelings before returning to vast shelters of wood, composite and stone? Someone who wanted to “do little good” and make himself feel better before returning to his consumer Christianity?

It’s possible all of this was on her face and in her four-year-old mind. Children are, after all, very perceptive.

But maybe I was projecting. Maybe my mind was simply painting my own guilt on her stoic face.

I stood in the courtyard playground of that child development center in Bonao, hours outside of Santo Domingo and less than a day after arriving in the Dominican Republic (DR), and the sun’s heat felt more like that given off by an interrogation lamp than life-giving warmth.

Why was I really here anyway?

I came to the DR to lead a men’s retreat with three others. Two other Compassion employees and one elder of a local church. Our host was an employee of the DR country office. The next day, we were to begin speaking at his church and leading what we hoped would be a revival for the men of Santo Domingo.

So I was there to speak. To challenge, encourage and uplift.

But even more, I discovered that I was there to listen. And to be challenged, encouraged and uplifted myself.

Our first day in the country was a Compassion day. A chance for three of us to see, for the first time, the results of the work of thousands around the globe working to further the cause of Christ.

It was a holiday in the Dominican Republic, so we didn’t receive the 300-child welcoming party I’d heard is often customary when visiting a Compassion child development center.

Instead, we were greeted by a handful of children. Several boys and, as I remember it, one little girl with a hard face, but who radiated sweetness nonetheless.

But from where? I wonder now what drew me so strongly to this sweet child, only present that day because her mother, Rosa, is their volunteer cook.

Perhaps it was the English.

Shortly after meeting Ana Maria, I knelt down to speak with her, with our friend and translator, David, at my right.

“Hello Ana. My name is Brandon.”

And before David could translate, she spoke.

“Hello,” she said, in English. There was a softness in her voice, one that smoothed her features and melted my heart.

“God bless you, Ana,” I said.

“God bless you,” she replied, again without waiting for David to translate. The center facilitator, who was sitting nearby, smiled.

“She wants to learn English.”

“That’s wonderful.” I looked back at Ana Maria and smiled at her.

She didn’t smile back, but the hardness I had seen at first was gone. Better yet, the image of hardness I projected on her face at the first was replaced with hope.

Cautious hope. And a desire to smile, but maybe not just yet.

Ana didn’t have a sponsor before that day. But by the time I left, she did.

I wonder sometimes if she remembers meeting me. If she recalls meeting an American man who would return home in days and slide unwittingly back into Western and indulgent living, but who now had a lifeline to need, reality and truth. A lifeline that somehow sustains both the giver and receiver.

I hope she does remember. Two years from now, my wife and I plan to return to the DR to visit Ana Maria and her mother. My wife will meet them for the first time, and I will see them once again. We’ll hug, pray, play and speak English and Spanish to each other.

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll smile.

Brandon Satrom is the Enterprise Applications Architect for Compassion. He works in IT evaluating both new and emerging technologies and helping Compassion IT make the best use of existing technologies.

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