In Nicaragua more than 300 children have learned about the gospel from the Fuente de Vida Church, which runs the Amiguitos del Rey Child Development Center. Dozens of children and families have come to Christ and are an example that the real difference in their lives is their faith in Jesus.

For eight years the pastor, child development center staff, and church committee have worked with these children to help them grow. The results of the everyday effort of these people is rewarded when a child, parent or other relative comes to know God.

Fuente de Vida is very well-known in the Los Brasiles community, located 16.5 kilometers (10 miles) west of the center of Managua. The church has grown and the facilities have been improved to the point that they have a big new temple and the old one is used for classrooms. And, there are plans to buy new properties next to the church in order to continue growing.

Shisel, a Compassion-sponsored young girl is one of the children affirming her faith in God. At only 15 years old, she battles with the fact that her parents, her only brother, and some of her other relatives have different religious beliefs than she does. However, Shisel can tell there is a difference in her since she gave her life to the Lord four years ago. Her family, friends and development center staff confirm that too.

“Shisel is on her way to spiritual maturity. Learning God’s Word, taking time to pray and other spiritual activities at the center are helping her to grow. She’s always willing to open her heart to God. I think that’s good because most teenagers put up a wall when it’s time to be in God’s presence and don’t receive what He has for them,” expresses Alicia, Development Center Director.

“My decision to accept Christ came out of my heart. I used to say that if I wasn’t walking in God’s way I had no right to have eternal life. My aunts have also encouraged me to seek God. I made the decision during a devotional time, and I felt different,” says Shisel.

The activities and benefits at the center are helping Shisel as she’s growing closer to God. At 15, Shisel has benefited from Complementary Intervention Programs (CIV) like attending camp and computer, bakery and beauty classes. The camps for youth in Nicaragua have proven to be some of the most impacting events the development centers offer.

Shisel recalls her experience on the first night of the youth camp:

“In the camp I felt the Holy Spirit, we were all crying, we hugged each other praying and asking for forgiveness. I feel that night I reconciled with God.”

Many teenagers like Shisel felt an experience with the Lord those two days. Since then, the development center staff have seen more faithfulness and commitment from the teenagers in attending church and participating in various activities at the center.

“The games at camp were not simple games; all of them had a message. The one that impacted me most was when we had to crawl through wet dirt. We all were covered in mud and that’s how the devil wants to see us, full of sin,” Shisel shares in tears.

The child development center staff visited every school director to get the schools’ permission for all registered teenagers who were going to the camp. During those visits one of the school directors congratulated us for the work we do.

“I’m happy because the school is most interested in the transformation of the young people. I wish there was Compassion everywhere, it would be a blessing for us. Because of Compassion communication with schools is more open.”

Although we can provide many benefits for children living in poverty, their life really begins to change when the Holy Spirit starts to transform them and shows them the life He has for them.

“The Word of God is what provokes changes in the children. When the Word comes into the life of the children, they begin to understand God’s plan for their lives, they understand what God wants to do in them. It is also central because our work depends on the Word of God. The Bible says, ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain’ (Psalm 127:1, NIV). That’s why the gospel is central to the work every development center does,” shares Alicia.

Half of the children registered in the Amiguitos del Rey Development Center and their parents have accepted Jesus during these years of partnership with Compassion. Some of them go to different churches closer to their homes in the community and their faith has become stronger.

God works in ways we cannot understand to transform people’s lives and that is what’s happening to Shisel and many of the children at each development center. Little by little that faith is becoming unshakable and bringing fruit. People in the area who didn’t want to come to church are now attending regularly, and no one is forcing them to do it.

“I glorify God because of the work He does,” says Alicia. “Jesus is making the difference in their lives.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

For decades, Manabí Province in Ecuador has endured destructive weather extremes. It has suffered the strong impact of the “El Niño” phenomenon that floods huge areas and destroys crops and properties, and kills animals and sometimes even people. It has also endured droughts with similar disastrous consequences.

Of course, both extremes cause other serious problems like food scarcity, water pollution and health epidemics. It is easy to understand why the inhabitants of this province live in severely unsanitary conditions and why their quality of life is so poor.

Where Does Their Water Come From?

“The water we consume comes from different sources,” says Anet Delgado, Director of Estrella de Jacob Student Center in Manabí. “About 20 to 25 percent of the population consumes potable water – that only comes every other day. The rest of the people, who generally live in higher zones, don’t have pipes and consume water from tank trucks. Others take it out of wells.”

Other families fill containers with water from the river and use animals to transport it.

All the various origins of the vital liquid have one thing in common: None provide the people with safe water, and the province’s health statistics confirm this.

Eddy Delgado, administrator of the new water purifying plant, reports, “One of the most serious problems of the families in Manabí is parasites. That’s what we see all the time at public health centers. Another problem is the constant presence of skin allergies and infections caused by a kind of water that is not even good for taking a shower. How can it be good for human consumption?”

The high incidence of parasite-related diseases, gastrointestinal problems, skin allergies and infections, and cavities in children is the consequence of poor water quality. And this was the definitive reason that motivated Compassion, along with Camino de Santidad (Righteousness’ Path) Mission, one of the organization’s church partners, to do something about it.

Why Don’t We Build a Water Purifying Plant?

Pedro del Hierro, pastor of Camino de Santidad Church, has gained a significant amount of experience in his 22 years of ministry in Manabí. Such experience guaranteed the successful construction and operation of a water purifying plant in Montecristi Township.

“Some time ago we opened a little plant at El Florón. It was donated by people from the United States,” Pastor del Hierro recalls. “But its supply was just enough for El Florón community. Brother César Parra (Program Implementation Manager of Compassion – Ecuador) visited that little plant and suggested the idea of finding a donor to finance a new purifying plant here in Montecristi.”

Making this venture come true has benefited thousands of children and their families. The cost was more than U.S.$55,000, which was covered by Compassion and a local contribution from Camino de Santidad.

Thanks to the devoted work of Pastor del Hierro, along with groups of interest and influence like the Municipality of Manabí, the Rotary Club of Portoviejo city, and Leopoldo Izquieta Pérez National Institute for Hygiene and Medicine, all obstacles were surpassed in order to obtain high quality unprocessed water at a lower cost, receive all the necessary official permissions, and begin construction and operation of the water purifying plant.

This brand-new plant will supply, among other areas, the 21 Compassion-assisted centers in Manabí Province. These child development centers assist 6,394 boys, girls and adolescents. With the consumption of this water, the number of cases of parasites and cavities among children is expected to drop from 80 percent to 50 percent.

The Water Purifying Plant

The water purification process at this plant is meticulous and meets all quality standards. “This plant can offer excellent quality purified water. We’d like the health authorities to visit this plant just to see their faces of surprise,” says Alcides Castillo, quality control technician at the plant.

The 60,000 liters of safe, purified and fluoridated water the plant can produce will benefit two groups of people at a reasonable price: the 21 centers and, of course, the families of the sponsored children and the churches that these families attend. “Many families don’t have sponsored children but are part of our congregations, so we will help them, too. About 12,000 families attend the churches located all around Manabí Province,” says Eddy Delgado.

The Beneficiaries of this Venture

Eddy believes this venture benefits many people directly and indirectly. “The direct beneficiaries of the water from the purifying plant are the children and their families. From my point of view, the indirect beneficiary is the government because we are helping them to improve the health conditions of this entire community. We are helping to stop a problem that hasn’t been eradicated in Manabí in a very, very long time.”

“There’s no doubt that the plant will promote positive cultural changes because,” according to Ana Vinueza, Director of Antioquia Student Center, “the people are going to learn to consume safe water, to take better care of themselves, and to prevent various diseases.”

This safe water will cost a little bit more than they are used to paying to the tank trucks that provide them with risky potable water. “But no matter the cost, this water will keep these families from lots of illnesses. We have to educate them and make them understand the benefits,” says Pastor del Hierro.

Once the plant begins fully operating, the improvement in children’s health will be quickly noticeable. This can be nothing but a great reason to be thankful to all the people who made this significant improvement in the living conditions of hundreds of families from Manabí province.

“I think that we should congratulate them for their vision first,” says Eddy, “because improving the health of human beings is an excellent way to invest money.”

The changes brought about by the water purifying plant will definitely be positive for Pastor del Hierro. “There’s no doubt about it,” he says, “because we believe it’s more important to prevent now than to heal later.”

Anet Delgado doesn’t forget the sponsors and donors whose financial support made this venture possible. “We’re deeply grateful to them because it was God who put the desire of doing this within their hearts,” she explains, smiling broadly.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

I have been feeling challenged lately to get closer to the heart of Compassion, where we interact with sponsors, churches and children. I recently read a quote from a top executive of a large retail chain (I can’t remember which one — maybe Best Buy). He said, “I have never wasted a day visiting a store.”

Now, of course we don’t have stores but, I believe that sentiment is true for me — especially with visiting the field. I always learn something when I spend some unhurried and unplanned time in the field where I can really observe and learn and listen.

Heroes

It is especially valuable when our church partners are not aware of my position, and we can avoid a lot of the protocol and formalities. But those opportunities are rare and difficult to come by.

So, I planned a trip to do just that. I arranged a trip to Honduras where I spent six days at two different child development centers in the central zone of the country. I wasn’t sure how successful I could be as an “Undercover Boss,” but I’m very grateful to the Honduras Country Office who did a marvelous job of setting this trip up so that I could be a regular guy without any fanfare or protocol.

I slept on the floor of the center facilities and ate at the centers with food lovingly prepared by church staff. The purpose of my trip was to spend time “up close and personal” with our primary customers — the beneficiaries of our programs and our Implementing Church Partners (ICPs). I wanted to learn how they experience Compassion.

I also wanted to shadow a Partnership Facilitator (PF) for several days and gain a more intuitive and experiential understanding of how they fulfill their responsibilities and what their day to day life is like. And I wanted to be open to what God wanted me to see and hear and feel.

So, without trying to give you six days’ worth of journaling, I’ll highlight a few impressions, observations, realizations, affirmations and God-messages for you.

Lots Going On

There is so much going right with Compassion’s ministry.

OK, that may sound simplistic, but it is not. It was actually quite profound to see the number of things that are working as they are designed to work, and to observe numerous changes enacted over the last five years to create improvements that are now implemented and working!

Our ICP pastors and center staff are heroes.

We know this, but it is so inspiring to see time and again. These are passionately dedicated men and women who live day in and day out to help Compassion-supported children and their families and to reach out with God’s love to their communities. I met some incredible people of faith, people we can be proud to have wear the name “Christian” and the name “Compassion.”

I was able to spend a couple of hours walking through a very poor community with Pastor Guillermo late one afternoon. We saw the “underbelly” of the community as we visited homes of Compassion-assisted children and talked about the overwhelming social problems in the neighborhood, but I never once heard discouragement in his voice. Our ICPs are relying on God to provide for their immense needs and to sustain them with hope. And we play a part in that hope.

They are so thankful for our partnership (and here I don’t just mean money). Yes they need the money, but they really appreciate the support and guidance that our PFs and the local office provide. They appreciate the prayers of the sponsors and know that they are part of a global movement of God’s people.

Field-based Facilitation Works

Field-based facilitation is the best move we have made since going direct to the local church (instead of working through missions or denominations). This is work that is carried out by facilitators who live in the area of the centers instead of working out of the Field Offices.

OK, I probably can’t prove that statement, but that is how I feel. Honduras has gone 100 percent to field-based facilitation and they love it! The PF whom I shadowed was remarkable. Her name is Lastenia and she is the Compassion brand for the 13 centers/ICPs in her cluster, as well as for the other churches in the area and the local government.

Lastenia lives our brand fully and represents us wonderfully. We would be highly fortunate to have more PFs like her. She lives a few blocks from one of her churches, and her farthest centers are two hours away. Most are within one hour’s drive. She visits her best-functioning centers once every three months, her “needs improvement” centers every month, and her “needs significant improvement” centers every 15 days. (She took me to centers of all types, not just to her stellar centers.)

She is in constant contact by phone, text and e-mail with her centers (I saw this instantly for five days!), and is very much a part of their lives and community. She is seen as a friend, a mentor, an expert and yes, at times, a supervisor. Her focus is definitely on her ICPs. She connects with the Compassion Honduras office and is very much part of Compassion, but she is definitely a field person.

Lastenia’s closest contacts and friends are at the centers, not at the office. This is huge! She is closer to the center staff than to the office staff. Those are her colleagues and friends. This is an enormous paradigm shift and I can see that it bears amazing fruit.

Rapidly Becoming Outcome-driven

We are rapidly becoming an outcome-driven organization.

In Honduras, the center directors talk about outcomes. The PF talks about outcomes. Other field staff talk about outcomes. The Project Planning and Budgeting Form / Annual Opportunity Plan process focuses on outcomes.

One of the center directors we visited has started tracking his own milestones and indicators on an individual child basis because he wants and “needs” that information! In terms of the primary value of outcomes (clarifying intent), we have made enormous progress.

Using Local Resources Is a Must

Centers are leveraging local resources.

This PF has mobilized her centers to garner other resources outside of Compassion, and they are doing that quite successfully. The ones we visited had relationships with other international funders and were gaining significant advantage from partnerships with local governments. All of this strengthens the church and the center and provides additional opportunities for the children.

Leaping Into Technology

Honduras has taken leaps into technology at the center level.<

Part of the effectiveness of the Honduras model is the use of technology. Nearly all of their child development centers have Internet access. They do their planning and much of their work on computers. Honduras has contracted one cell phone plan for all the centers, staff and Leadership Development Program (LDP) students, so there is no extra cost for calls between those parties. This allows for free and direct communication. Center workers who had no previous experience with computers now take pride in their technological savvy.

Creatively Using CIVLatin America can make good use of Complementary Interventions (CIVs).

Our experience has showed a lower use of CIVs in Latin America. If this PF is the wave of the future, that will turn around quickly. The PF I shadowed is a CIV queen! She knows how to spot complementary needs and she knows how to make the system work. And she is relentless! I saw an HIV/AIDS peer activation project, income-generating projects, water projects, sanitation projects, computer labs, vocational training and more. All seemed very appropriately targeted to child development outcomes and were greatly appreciated by the center staff and pastors.

Desperately Poor Situations

We are working with children in desperately poor situations.

It had been seven years since I had been in Honduras. Development has clearly taken place in those years. Globalization of retail is everywhere. Infrastructure is improving. The use of technology is ubiquitous. (Everyone has a cell phone!)

At first glance, it may appear that we don’t need to be working in Honduras anymore. But just beyond the main paved roads lies the real Honduras where most people still live very difficult lives and many, many children are denied the basics that they need to develop healthily. We visited desperately poor homes and heard many a story of hopelessness and despair.

We met a 10-year-old boy forced to act as the head of household because his mother had died and his dad was an alcoholic who had taken in a 13-year-old girl as his new mistress. We met a family of 13 who live in one room, and visited three families that are sharing the same house. We heard of the immense pressure on teenagers to quit school and go to work, of young girls being given away at 13 or 14 years old to any men who are willing to feed them.

One of our hero child development center directors, Yanira, just registered 20 new children, and she is scared. These are the most “at-risk” kids they have registered yet (compared even to the ones I just spoke about!).

These are the children of gang members, murderers and prostitutes. These are the children of people who break in and steal from the center, who steal tilapia from their CIV-funded fish pond.

But Yanira is trusting God to guide them and protect them, and to transform not only the children but their entire families. We are meeting very real needs.

Children Need to be Known, Loved and Protected

Children need to be known, loved and protected.

Child abuse is a huge issue in this area of Honduras. Children fall victim to physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. The centers serve as safe havens. The center workers are lovers and protectors.

Scott Todd wrote in the introduction to our new Compassion publication, Shared Strength, that “Compassion is committed to the local church and maintains long-term partnerships with more than 5,000 indigenous churches in more than 25 countries for the shared mission of protecting and developing children.”

I like the way that is said, and it very aptly describes what I observed in the centers I visited. They are “protecting and developing children.” Pastor Guillermo (whom I mentioned above) has visited the homes of every sponsored child in his center. He knows them. He knows their families. He knows their struggles. This allows him and his team to be relevant to the needs of the children.

Highly Vulnerable Children (HVC) Coming Just in Time

One ICP recently took a huge “step of faith” and started a “cottage” for abused and abandoned sponsored children. They were suddenly confronted with seven children who had no place to live for a variety of horrible reasons.

The church had access to a home, so they set up what we have called a “cottage” with a child development center tutor serving as the live-in house mother, but they had no idea how they were going to sustain it. They didn’t have the needed money, but they felt compelled to take the step of faith anyway, praying that God would provide for their needs along the way. They stepped into the Jordan and the waters had not yet parted.

It was a God moment for us to be able to share that as of the new fiscal year they would have access to financial support from the Highly Vulnerable Children’s fund to help support these desperately needy children! They were overjoyed! And I was overjoyed that God let me see this little glimpse of how the hard work of staff at the GMC and throughout Compassion is meeting real needs in a timely fashion. This was a God message to me: “Your labors are not in vain!”

Well, if you got all the way to the end of this “undercover report,” you get a gold star! I share these highlights with the hope of encouraging you that your labors are not in vain. Our work is bearing good fruit and much fruit.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

“Lord, if you allowed this to happen, it’s because you will give me something better.” These were the words that Rosalva expressed when she saw her home torn apart by an earthquake that hit the town of San Lorenzo, in the department of Ahuachapan, about 100 km west of the capital city San Salvador, in El Salvador.

Earlier that day, at about 1 in the morning, the town had felt a tremor. Then, at 11 a.m. of the same day, a 4.6 earthquake hit the area; this is like detonating 1,000 tons of TNT.

Rosalva worked as a baby sitter on the other side of the town, and as soon as she could, she ran home, only to see a big hole in the roof, since most of the tiles had fallen off because of the magnitude of the quake. The walls, made of adobe (a mix of clay and straw), had cracks all over, and the danger of them falling apart was evident.

Thanks to God, her family was okay, but the damages to the house were irreversible. “All four corners of my house were completely separated” says Rosalva, trying to describe how her home, a small, one-room house, had cracks so big that the corners were not together anymore.

Civil Protection, the government agency designated to evaluate damages in these situations, reported that 90 percent of the houses in the area suffered damages, and about 70 of the 200 houses of the town were declared uninhabitable.

Rosalva lived with her parents, her husband, her two children and her niece. Suddenly, all her family had to sleep in the street because the earth kept shaking, and being inside the house was too dangerous.

According to the Seismology Investigation Department of El Salvador, what occurred in the town of San Lorenzo was labeled a seismic cluster, which indicates a series of quakes centralized on an area. This particular seismic cluster lasted from December 19, 2006, until the middle of January 2007.

According to El Diario de Hoy, one of the main newspapers in El Salvador, in just three days, there were over 800 earth movements reported, even though the magnitude and frequency of those kept descending.

“I asked my pastor if I could go to the temporary shelter at the local school, and he said it was okay,” says Luz, Rosalva’s mother and caregiver of Yaquelin, Rosalva’s niece.

“So I took my children there [the shelter] and the earth kept moving, and so did they [the church staff]… my brothers and sisters did not stop, the Lord gave them the strength to keep moving” adds Luz, taking pride in being part of such a lovely church, where everybody takes care of each other in troubled times.

“The angel of the Lord stays close around those who fear Him, and He takes them out of trouble” says Luz, convinced that she trusts a powerful God.

In fact, she trusted God, as did her daughter Rosalva and her granddaughters, Yaquelin and Laura. God answered their needs, and the Church and Compassion were the tools to deliver His blessings.

“We contacted the director and told her to raise a census of all the families with children registered at the child development center who needed assistance” says Omar, Partnership Facilitator for Compassion El Salvador.

“Then, we proceeded to make a physical inspection of the damages, so we went to San Lorenzo and made home visits and took pictures to make a Complementary Intervention (CIV) request to help those families” he adds.

Complementary Interventions is a tool used to provide additional assistance to the families of the children registered in the Compassion programs, since the money received from sponsors are strictly designated to provide each child with the four main components of the program: spiritual development, health preventive and corrective measures, school reinforcement, and socio-emotional development.

Through CIV funding, the children and the church partners can receive additional help, such as construction of houses, which is the case for the Shaddai Student Center.

When the staff from Compassion went to San Lorenzo, they took a tour with Brother Omar, the pastor. Brother Omar did not have the usual look of a pastor, with a tie and suit. He had a sweaty T-shirt and a baseball cap, and his black shoes were not black anymore, they were a mix of mud brown and green. And it’s because the pastor along with the rest of the church members were already helping.

A proposal for disaster relief was sent, and two months later, it was approved and the child development center received a total of $27,245, to benefit 29 children and their families affected by the earthquake.

The proposal included a local contribution of $3,100, which was the cost of labor. The families of the children committed to work in the construction of the houses to save the $3,000 needed. Brother Omar kept the muddy shoes on, as well as all the student center staff, and helped the families to reconstruct their homes.

“Some months before we had the blessing from God to get a little piece of land” says Rosalva. But they did not have enough money to build a house and move out of her mother’s house. After the earthquake, Rosalva had the blessing of having her own house built on that land, and her mother Luz Maria also had her house rebuilt.

Since the local government promised to provide the affected families with aluminum sheets and plastic to build provisional shelters, the disaster relief from Compassion was used to build cement walls, and the materials provided by the government were used for roofs. The money was not enough to put in floors, so the houses had dust floors.

Laura and Yaquelin were two of the children who kept receiving blessings from the Lord, through their sponsors. Laura and Yaquelin received family gifts from their sponsors, which was enough to put tile floors to both houses. Laura also got a bed, and Yaquelin got a bike as well.

They are two of the 186 children assisted at the Shaddai Student Center.

Yaquelin and Laura have not forgotten the fear they felt, but now they are two happy cousins with big dreams in their hearts. Most likely, one of them runs to the other’s house and they go to the child development center together.

Laura’s mother, Rosalva, now works at the Compassion child development center, giving school reinforcement to the children, and helping them with their homework. A total a 31 children and their families were assisted. These families trusted God, stayed close to Him, and he took them out of trouble.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Today we begin a series of blog posts from staffers of Compassion Uganda who will give you an inside look into how Compassion’s ministry operates among the poorest of the poor.

What happens if a sponsored child needs an expensive operation? Or if his home is destroyed by a natural disaster? That’s where Compassion’s Complementary Intervention (CIV) program comes in.

CIV seeks to strengthen the ministry’s core programs by providing for needs that go above and beyond child sponsorship. CIV includes a number of ministry areas, including the AIDS Initiative, the Medical Fund, and Disaster Relief.

Jessica Masanganzira is the CIV Administrator for Uganda, and she is able to daily provide for the needs of children and church partners in this poverty-stricken country.

I have seen many successes in the CIV program in Uganda. The water program, for one, has helped many communities here, and it has contributed a lot towards improving the health of the children and immediate families.

In the Mulatsi Child Development Center, for example, an average of 32 children each month had diarrhea infections and abdominal pains due to the consumption of contaminated water. After installation of the borehole (a kind of well), medical expenses reduced by 23 percent, distances children traveled to fetch water reduced from 5 to 2 kilometers, and their classroom grades improved by 13 percent to date.

Another CIV project that has had great success in Uganda has been the nutrition training we have provided for children and caregivers. As a result of poverty and low levels of education, inadequate feeding, and lack of knowledge on children’s nutritional requirements, there is a high rate of malnutrition among newly registered children.

On average, 28 percent of children are reported malnourished and yet Compassion cannot continually provide nutritional support for all. Some families can barely afford a single meal a day and only get a reasonable meal only on center days at the project. This was hindering health, social and emotional development.The practical nutrition trainings and demonstration projects have led to improved health among children.

In one of the benefiting projects, Kisoro Child Development Center, malnutrition has dropped to 12 from 68 cases in a period of one year. Children and caregivers learned the nutrition requirements for children, trained in modern farming and animal-rearing methods, food preservation and storage to cater for dry seasons; horticulture and fruit growing, too, have been promoted at the projects and in children’s families.

I pray that CIV will continue to eliminate key child development barriers for the families in our programs. As we are educating and helping children and families, I believe we are changing our whole country. CIV works!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates