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.

Marcos comes from a dysfunctional family. His father left them when Marcos was only 4 years old, so his childhood had traces of solitude, scarcity and the lack of the warmth of a real home.

“I didn’t know what a home was; my mom worked way too much so I never saw her … the truth is I was raised by several people; my grandma had me for a year, then my aunt maybe for another year, and I even spent another year at the house of some neighbor.”

It’s been 19 years since Allen and Marcos met for the first time; 19 years that brought love, comprehension and hope into Marcos’ life.

From Allen’s perspective, “I believe I have given hope to Marcos, and hopefully, I have also been the role model of a man who is constantly looking for God’s presence in his life.”

From Marcos’ point of view, “Allen has been a father, a counselor and a friend to me.”

The letters and frequent personal encounters have strengthened this relationship in a very significant way. Allen has served in Ecuador for 15 years now and his presence in Marcos’ life has helped Marcos to escape from wrong paths that may have led him to death:

“When I was 16 I was indirectly involved with gangs. I didn’t find my way … but thank God, Allen was there to give good advice to me … I got to talk to him and so my life took a different turn.”

Today, Marcos is a responsible grownup with a beautiful family: Tatiana, his wife, and their two children, Allan (4) and Marquitos (17 months).

Marcos is deeply grateful to Compassion and mostly to Allen.

“The project to me was like home. I used to enjoy being over there with my friends and our tutors … but without a doubt the best part of Compassion was meeting Allen. We have a close relationship until these days. Allen is like a father to me and now he has even turned into my children’s grandpa.”

But this is not all: Marcos works at a very important Ecuadorian iron company — IPAC. The Production Manager says about Marcos,

“He has learned and developed faster than many other employees here. Nowadays, Marcos is one of the operators of a new machine that is the first of its kind in Latin America. Thank God, Marcos is right where he is now because of his big effort and huge interest.”

Marcos’ life is the true evidence of the fruits of a man’s committed love. And certainly, Allen is an example of many other anonymous sponsors whose commitment to God has turned them into channels of blessing and transformation for thousands of boys, girls and young people all over the world.

This is how we have witnessed, once again, the fulfillment of the Scripture,

“’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” – Matthew 25:40 (NIV).

Allen states that his answer to that question may sound simple to many people, but to him it carries the weight of an unavoidable commandment:

“It is God who puts the desire of sponsoring children in people’s hearts, but there’s also the part of being in touch with the kid or kids you sponsor, and that’s exactly what the ministry of Compassion International puts special emphasis on.”

He knows that very well because he volunteered with the Advocates Network before traveling to Ecuador. He was in charge of attending prayer meetings, Bible studies, concerts, etc. to talk to people and present the ministry of Compassion to them.

When asked about the most important element to assure a successful relationship between sponsors and their sponsored children, Allen replies:

“First of all, it is prayer, and then it is seeing children in a different way and not just like simple numbers.

“When volunteering as an advocate and working with children’s packages, it’s very easy to start looking at them as mere statistics, as numbers, but God said to me: ‘Hey! These children have names; they are important to me.’”

Allen highlights the part of looking at each child as a person to commit to, instead of a number searching for a sponsor. Any person willing to sponsor a child needs to think more personally, “I’m going to be part of Juan, María, Alfonso or Mariuxi’s life. He/she is going to be very special to me.”

Regarding the prayer element, Allen believes a sponsor is a child’s prayer partner. He or she who sponsors a child must be committed to pray for that child.

Allen has talked to various sponsored children attending child development centers all over the country, so he knows they pray for their sponsors too. This is a reciprocal relationship.

“It’s not just about sending money every month; it’s about committing to them through prayers.”

According to Allen, a sponsor should know how his/her child is doing in the spiritual area: Has the child made a decision for Christ? If so, the sponsor should encourage the child to be baptized instead of leaving everything in the hands of tutors and project directors.

But he also clarifies: “We have to be very sensitive and never, ever force or push children to do that. Anyway, we must help them through prayers all the time.”

Communication is another important point to Allen.

Maybe not every single sponsor has the chance or even the interest in learning his/her sponsored child’s mother tongue, but in the case of Allen, speaking Spanish brought a special “sparkle” into his role as a sponsor; it made it more real.

In addition, when it comes to writing to a child, Allen suggests sponsors change their perspective into a child’s point of view.

“Normally, it is very easy for us to tell ‘I do this or I do that …’, but it is way better to take the child’s interests into account.

“Writing things like ‘This weekend my family and I went skiing’ to a child from Guayaquil is not really helpful, since that city is located in the coastal region of Ecuador and therefore that child has never seen snow in his or her entire life. They don’t even have big mountains around!

“We are talking about things that may seem important to us, but cannot actually be used to bond with our sponsored child. We should look for stuff that helps us to get closer to the child, so questions are more appropriate in these cases.

“Another good idea is to look for similarities and say things like: ‘In California our beaches are like this … how do beaches in your country look like?”

Even though Allen admits it’s not always easy, a sponsor should try to visit and meet the child in person. He recommends living the experience and being part of the child’s environment, center and home at least once. Personal contact is very important.

“If the sponsor desires he or she could always see that trip as ‘vacation with purpose.’ A sponsor’s visit can have a very strong impact, not only in the life of the directly involved child, but in the lives of the rest of children from the project and everyone working with them. It encourages them to know these contacts can be real.”

Allen’s trajectory as a sponsor is the evidence of a deep commitment to God at first, then to our ministry, and certainly to each boy and girl he has sponsored during the almost two decades he has been linked to Compassion.

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

Just as any other Sunday, there are people in the streets coming and going. Housewives with shopping bags going to the local outdoor market to buy the ingredients for lunch, families with their best garments coming from church, and kids going with balls to the park.

The air is filled with freshness and calm, and somehow the future seems brighter for many people going to the local church in the Majucla community.

In a neighborhood named Cuscatancingo, in a poor area of San Salvador, walls full of graffiti, stray dogs, and police and military forces are part of the normal landscape. There are also groups of teenagers with baggy pants and big shirts, some of them with tattoos. They are gang members just ‘chilling.’

In this neighborhood, there is a church named “Tabernaculo Biblico Bautista Majucla” or Baptist Biblical Tabernacle of Majucla. And on this day, at a little bit past 10 in the morning, there are over 100 people in the church.

There is a line outside of the church, and it is growing. The church is almost full. For anybody just passing by, this seems like the second service at the church, but it’s not. The message is a bit different because it is a monthly meeting that the center has with the parents of the children enrolled.

Brother Rodolfo, the pastor, isn’t sharing the message, but his wife Wendy, a respected woman in the community with vast experience in pedagogy, is.

The people attending these monthly meetings come from low-income families. Most of them do not have formal jobs. They survive making tortillas or selling vegetables at the local street market.

These meetings are an initiative in El Salvador called “school for parents,” and the initiative is being financed through a Complementary Interventions Fund (CIV).

CIV is a tool used to provide additional assistance to the families of the children registered in the Compassion programs.

“We come here to learn,” says Ana Luz, mother of Rosibel. “It is a blessing too, because my husband is not Christian, but he likes to come to the meeting.”

The purpose of a school for parents is to inform the parents what their children are learning, but also to have an opportunity to provide parents knowledge and tools that will help them in their role.

The Compassion centers have adopted this model and meet with the parents at least once every two months. In the case of Tabernaculo Biblico Bautista Majucla, they meet once a month.

The school for parents has been active since the beginning of the center, a little more than three years ago.

Just as in a school meeting, the parents get acquainted with the upcoming events at the center, they know when the next sponsor letter is due, and which children have received letters from their sponsors. There is also participation by either the pastor or a special guest, such as a medical doctor, a police officer, a firefighter, or a psychologist, who talks about a subject of interest for the parents.

The talks at the meetings touch issues from marital problems to good health practices for the family.

“We do not take our children with us for these meetings because they are a distraction, and some of the subjects are not appropriate for them,” says Ana Luz.

In fact, some of the subjects studied at these meetings teach the parents about the well-being, the trust, and the intimacy of couples.

“I believe that if the couple is ok, the children will also be ok,” says Sister Wendy, explaining that if the couple lives in an atmosphere of love and understanding, the children will also receive love.

There is also the spiritual component. The parents read the Bible, pray and sing hymns, and those seeds are starting to bear fruit.

“I was not Christian, and I did not want to know anything about church, but I liked to come to these meetings” says Dinora, mother of Laura.

Finally, the Bible studies given by the pastor at the school for parents penetrated Dinora’s heart, and she became a Christian.

“Since last December, I started attending church,” she adds.

The success of this program does not happen just because of the training and knowledge of the staff, but because of their love for the children and their families, and the commitment of the pastors and the church.

“We have spiritual help and material help,” says Sonia, mother of Edwin. “My children are learning about computers … [But also] I know that if one of them gets sick, I can come looking for the pastor and he will help me.”

This morning, Sister Wendy is talking about the psychological implications of a divorce in the lives of the children. After about 20 minutes she ends her talk with the words: “The best solution to face a divorce: to hold hard in the hands of the Lord.”

The staff plan the school for parents with love and enthusiasm, knowing that this will impact the lives of the children at a deep level.

Brother Nicolas, grandfather and caregiver of Brenda and Tatiana, shows his excitement for what he learned at the school for parents and for the efforts of the church to provide a good service, with integrity. “Whoever is not grateful with God for this blessing, and with the staff, is not being fair,” he says.

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

Fernanda, Israel and David are going to their house. From the bus stop, they spent half an hour climbing. Already at the peak of the hill they can see the city.

Here the houses have one floor and are made from cardboard and plastic pieces. A few are made from brick.

Fernanda and her children have been living in this neighborhood since 1999. Since a year ago, she has been living with Antonio, a man about 15 years older, who owns this house. Antonio is a home builder and the stepfather of Israel and David.

Israel jumps to the neighbor’s yard and begins to search through the cornfield for the best corncobs to make donuts (bunhuelos).

Bunhuelos are Colombian biscuits typical for the Christmas season. Israel brings back some corncobs to make the dough.

Everybody is helping in the kitchen, while Fernanda grinds the corn and makes the mixture with cheese, a bit of sugar and salt.

When the dough is ready, they go down the hill to the main street of the neighborhood “Paraiso.” They walk half an hour to where the family has the frying cart, where they are going to fry the donuts.

Fernanda pulls the frying cart from a bus garage and parks it at the front of a warehouse. This place is visited a lot, and more at Christmas time. Fernanda moves her hands in the dough, creating balls the size of golf balls for each donut.

After about two hours she finishes frying the donuts and sends these with David to the student center, approximately five blocks away.

A few minutes later Marien, the director of the child development center, came to them and asked if Israel was ready to buy his Christmas gift.

Israel jumps with happiness. He puts his hands on his face. Just in front of him is the store where the director buys the gifts for all the children of the student center.

There Israel receives a t-shirt, jeans and sport shoes that he does not want to remove ever. Israel says that the last time he received a new pair of sport shoes was two years ago because the last Christmas was a black pair of shoes just for the school classes.

The director of the program tells Israel that within a few hours he will receive his gift formally in the Christmas supper, and she returns to the student center.

Israel has five years at the Compassion program and David eight years. They have learned to be obedient to their mom and they will collaborate in everything with her.

His mother helps to cook and clean up in the student center when it is necessary. Fernanda also appreciates that in the student center she was taught to brush her hair and make their beds. She did not know how to do it before.

Israel knows by memory the name of his sponsors and even has Legos in the original packaging and some cars that they sent on his recent birthday and Christmas.

He has waited for this Christmas Eve as never before because he knows that the angel of God always brings him just what he needs.

The dreams of Israel are alive on each Christmas, and his great dream is to be a firefighter. Being next to his mother on the street, he has seen three fires, and he dreams to help their community in case of a fire.

Fifteen minutes later, Fernanda, Israel and David move toward the student center where a Christmas dinner is prepared.

In November, the center director made a list of things to do with her staff to prepare the presentations for the great night.The youngest children were dressed as angels and followed their tutor Yuli to sing Christmas carols in the opening service.

Then the children from six to nine years old with their tutor Tatiana presented the Christmas drama.

Later the children of 10 to 12 years sang more Christmas carols, dressed in costumes of the Middle East. The adolescents group prepared special songs to recall the birth of Jesus.

Finally, the pastor Elvia Parra offers a sermon of hope in Jesus’ name. With prayers for the blessing of their food, everyone knows that it is time to sit at the tables to enjoy chicken, rice, and as dessert cinnamon pudding and Fernanda’s bunhuelos.

All the student center team are serving the tables. The teachers are dressed in Christmas costumes. Fernanda is in the kitchen helping in the midst of all the bustle.

The main room is decorated with Christmas posters. Children are laughing and talking. One can feel the atmosphere of Christmas, the musicians do not stop singing, while children finish eating dessert.

After the children have finished eating, Marien the director shouts, “It is time to deliver these gifts!” and with one voice they make their “Yesss!” strong, confessing with authority that God is faithful again.

All children receive their gifts with a big smile and with a hug for their teachers. They have already spent two and a half hours since the beginning of the Christmas presentations.

Israel also receives his package, and he decides to go to the bathroom and puts the new sport shoes, pants and t-shirt on.

Afterwards, Fernanda, David and Israel help to clean up the main room and they are prepared to return to their job in the street where Antonio is waiting for them.

There Israel and David show to their stepfather Antonio what they got for this year. It is 9 p.m. and they will spend Christmas selling donuts.

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