A question typically asked by sponsors who are miles apart from their sponsored children is,

“What happens to sponsored children after they leave the program?”

Many sponsors have not personally seen or visited their sponsored children, and because of this may doubt if our program works at all.

Jonathan, a former sponsored child who is now taking care of more than 200 sponsored children as a child development center director, says,

“I have asked myself this same question.”

Our center directors are perhaps the best people to tell sponsors about the effectiveness of Compassion’s ministry. They are at the forefront of our partnership with the local church, and our center directors mingle with the children every day.

Center directors talk with doctors and dentists about the children’s health, check with school teachers to know how the children are doing in class, and meet with church leaders to be held accountable for the children’s spiritual growth.

When Jonathan tells sponsors how effective child sponsorship is, he presents his own life as an example.

“I grew up inside the church, literally.”

Jonathan is the son of a pastor and he knows what it’s like to have nothing. He also was not the nicest little kid.

“My hobby as a young boy was to bite other children. I made so many of my neighbors cry when we were little, and gave my cousins and grandmother a difficult time. Nobody would have thought that I would be in ministry today, and I owe the change in my life to my being a sponsored child.”

Although he grew up in Sunday school, Jonathan says he met the Lord when he was a teenager.

“It was at a Compassion youth camp that I attended. This is why I really am thankful for being a sponsored child, because if not, I may not have been saved.

“It’s difficult having grown up in the church because you can’t really say exactly when you have come to faith at all.”

Now 29 years old, Jonathan has been the center director at the Malabon Child Development Center for 8 years. He has seen sponsored children come and go.

“I am particularly blessed with [the] graduates because I can see that they continue to serve the Lord after having left the program.”

Among these graduates is Eliza, now 27 years old.

While growing up in the student center, Eliza says, she loved attending camps, going on educational field trips and eating.

At the age of 14, Eliza volunteered as an assistant teacher and began teaching younger sponsored children.

In college, Eliza became a student leader at Navotas Polytechnic College and was youth leader at church. She is grateful because the Complementary Interventions program paid half of her tuition fees.

Her parents, who raised seven children, could not have sent her to college. Her mother worked in a factory cleaning cans while her father was a driver for the same factory. In 2002, Eliza’s father died from too much alcohol.

Eliza graduated with a degree in education and was on the road to becoming a high school teacher. Today, however, she is a call center agent for one of the leading call center companies in the Philippines, and she is still serving the Lord as a Bible study leader.

Judy, Jonathan’s cousin, is a teller service assistant for the Bank of the Philippine Islands. She learned how to play the guitar at the child development center and she now plays guitar and keyboards at church.

Jonathan remembers another former sponsored child, Bezalyn, who grew up in very difficult circumstances. Jonathan describes her as someone who was sent to college by plastic water bottles.

Bezalyn’s mother worked at the city’s cockfighting arena and gathered discarded mineral water bottles after each event.

Today, Bezalyn is a nurse and has worked at the South Star Drugstore as assistant pharmacy assistant and cashier. She is now awaiting the results of her licensure exam for nurses. She was also the volunteer nurse at the center for a few years.

Bezalyn is thankful for her sponsor.

“I have grown in spirit. The main goal of the center is to bring children closer to God. I also grew physically because I learned about hygiene, self care and healthy habits.”

Jonathan’s eyes were beaming as he talked about Bezalyn, Judy  and Eliza and how he has seen them grow in the Lord.

But about 23-year-old Mark (not his real name), the center director is mum.

Mark has to keep his identity a secret because he is on a special assignment for the country’s national defense.

But Mark decided to be interviewed because he could not keep from expressing his gratitude for Compassion’s ministry:

“I would like to thank my sponsors for their help. I was used to a hard life, which is why I really appreciate their help.

“I grew up in a broken family and my sponsors became my family. The center is my family. I am also thankful that I have graduated from college and I now have a good job.”

Mark used his first salary to buy his mother an automatic sewing machine worth P8,000 (US $182) because his mother always loved to sew but never owned a machine.

Mark attends a different church now, but he still visits Jonathan and his former student center.

Jonathan is thankful for his experience with the program and for the opportunity to now serve as center director.

“I can now see the fruit of producing Christian adults. It’s difficult to measure fame, wealth and power, but to me, genuine success is how you accomplish God’s plan in your life. I may not have a high-paying job, but you see children being released from poverty and to me that is very fulfilling.”

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

Does child sponsorship through Compassion really work? How does it make a difference in the life of a child? We’ll let the words of Juan David speak for themselves:

“Jesus Christ to me is like a father. I do not have a father so I see Jesus as my father.” — Juan, 8 years old

“What I like most about being sponsored…I feel happy knowing that I have a friendly hand, somebody who supports me.”  — Juan, 13 years old

“I thank the organization of Compassion so much because with your support I will be able to become a doctor.” — Juan, present day 

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

“Does Compassion’s ministry really work? Compassion knows how to share stories, but how do I know it’s actually making the difference they claim?”

Guess what? We’ve wondered the same thing. So 11 years ago we set out to get proof. We started a program called “It Works.” The idea behind this program was to provide undeniable evidence that Compassion is changing lives.

It Works documents the progress of children in Compassion’s programs. We choose our “case studies.” Then we interview, photograph and film the children and their families. Five to seven years later we return to see what God has done. Being 11 years into the program, we are now on our second round of return trips.

During last week’s chapel time we got to see this video and it was too exciting to keep to ourselves.

Meet Maila.

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

I’ve been planning a trip to Haiti for several months, and this small Caribbean country has gotten to me. I’ve studied up on the language — Bonswa! I’ve tried Haitian recipes and read stories of its people. I’ve even packed and repacked my suitcase, so excited am I to meet this culture face to face.

Well, all my bags are packed, but I’m not going anywhere. I was supposed to leave on April 12th, and I was hoping to pack you in my suitcase to experience Haiti with me through this blog, but the situation is too unstable to travel right now.

The Haitians are calling it Clorox and Battery Acid — a famine that leaves their mouths white and dry from hunger, like powdery Clorox, and leaves their intestines feeling like they are being slowly eaten by battery acid. Unlike many famines, though, there’s plenty of food on the store shelves in Haiti. The people just can’t afford it.

Because of inflated food prices over the past three months, the 80 percent of Haitians who live in extreme poverty are getting desperate. In January, it cost $2 for a bag of flour. Now it costs $3. It might not seem like a lot to us, but when you live on $1 a day, this 33 percent increase hurts. Thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in the past week protesting, some holding signs saying “We’re Hungry.” Most are peaceful, but some are getting violent, burning tires and breaking car windows.

The good news is that no Compassion project activities have been affected, although each family is affected by the rising prices as they struggle to feed all their little mouths.

Would you join me in praying for Haiti?

• Pray that the Haitian government can effectively address the situation.
• Pray for the survival of those who are starving.
• Pray for the safety and the health of all the Compassion-assisted children, their families, and Compassion staff.

The trip I was going to attend was called “It Works,” a 5-year interval trip, on which we follow-up on the stories of sponsored children to find out if, indeed, sponsorship works. I hope to still travel to this needy country that has wheedled its way into my heart. I hope to hear the story of Yvette, a former sponsored child who is now a doctor, and of Jean Robert who five years ago was studying accounting through Compassion’s Leadership Development Program, and, of course, I hope to still see the faces of the precious children, who in a glance, despite poverty and beyond reason, remind us of what joy is.

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

Even when I visited Haiti and brought him a soccer ball. No smile. He played soccer with me, ate lunch with me and never let go of the ball. But he never smiled.

It’s understandable. He lives in one of the most poverty-stricken places on earth. I’ve seen the devastation in that country, and I can’t imagine what he’s been through in his short life.

As I’m sure you can see, Youvens is a very sad, serious child.

This past January my friend Mark was going to Haiti and so I asked him to take a birthday present to Youvens.

A couple weeks later I got this photo.

That smile is all the proof I need that my sponsorship makes a difference.

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