Pastor Letter ~ Dominican Republic

Today we received five different pastor letters from Compassion Projects around the world. These letters represent Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Kenya, Nicaragua and Indonesia.

I love these letters as they give so much insight into the church where our sponsored child attends. There is also quite a bit of information about the community and area.

I'll be sharing all five letters eventually, but today I will start with a letter from Nelson Delgado - pastor of "Fuente de Paz" (Spring of Peace) Mennonite Evangelical Church in the Dominican Republic.

Dear Kevin and Jill,  

May the Almighty God fill you with his rich and abundant blessings!

My name is Nelsno Delgado. I'm the pastor of the "Fuente de Paz" (Spring of Peace) Mennonite Evangelical Church and the Integral Development Center, which your sponsored child Yoselin attends.  

This project is located in the souther region of our country, the Dominican Republic.

I'm deeply gratefuy for the support you offer Yoselin through this sponsorship.

Our community is surrounded by mountains, and it's very populated. We have a population of around 25,000 inhabitants. It's a very poor community, since there are not many sources of employment.

Many of the children don't live with their parents, since these ones emigrate to the big cities in order to look for jobs. Many children lack education and health because of their parents' irregularity; this is why we understand this project is a light of hope for our children. We are causing a great impact in our communities' lives in an integral way, helping them to know Jesus Christ through the word of God. We help them to have good health, spread knowledge and regulate their self-esteem.

This project has been of great blessing for the staff that collaborates at the center, reaching a great development level in this way.

We have been able to transform the life of most of the beneficiaries. Our vision regarding the participants is to keep on working in favor o them, to help them come out of their physical, spiritual, cognitive and socio-emotional poverty.

We wish to help our community to get out of their situation of poverty. We will keep on working in favor of our people for this, we will keep on struggling for a good education and to let them know Christ's message. We have trained around 200 people in different courses such as beauty, cookery, kitchen, candles and hairdressing, among others. 

We have received five visits of sponsors on the last year. We carried out two graduations in the Child Survival Program. New young people entered the Leadership Development Program and we have received around 150 letters from sponsors.

Please pray for our congregation so that the Lord gives us the necessary strength in order to keep on working in favor of our community.

I thank you in advance for continuing to be part of our ministry to Yoselin.

Yours, Pastor Nelson Delgado

I read this aloud to my girls and my oldest (age 8) said "It sounds like the church is doing really good things." I have to agree with her....it sounds like God is doing really good work through this church in this community. Join me in praying for them.

Making an Impact - Even When a Life is Cut Short

We received some pretty sad news this morning. A girl we sponsored through another organization (Community Hope School) was killed in a car accident earlier this month. Along with her mom. And her sister was seriously injured and in a coma.

Sadly, I can't seem to find a picture of this sweet, beautiful, Namibian girl.

I'm so thankful Cindy knew Christ as her Saviour. And I'm so thankful God brought her into our lives, even if it was briefly.

It made me think....our sponsorship and our correspondence is making an impact no matter how long these children are part of the program they are in. Even though my heart breaks at the loss of this dear girl, I'm thankful we had the opportunity to speak encouragement into her life. And quite possibly into her family's life.

Unfortunate things happen in life. Families move away from Compassion programs and the local church. Kids are pulled out of programs because the parents or relatives don't want association with Christianity. Older kids are required to quit school and work, thus forcing them to leave the Compassion program. Heartbreak.

And death happens, too. Disease and illness. Accidents. Natural disasters. Heartbreak.

But God can use us, no matter the length of time we have, to impact those brought into our lives. 

I thank God for ministries like Compassion....Community Hope School....World Vision....Children's Hope Chest....and all the other sponsorship organizations out there. I thank God that He uses sponsorship to impact lives all around the world.

Books by Tom Davis

Have you heard of Tom Davis, CEO of Children's Hope Chest? I don't know much about Children's Hope Chest other than it is a child-sponsorship organization. And I know that Tom Davis is a man of God with a heart for the fatherless. 

He's written several books and all the ones I've read are good and worth reading. The Compassion store sells his first book, Fields of the Fatherless. 

The two books I've enjoyed the most are his two novels - novels "on the edge of the world". Scared (pictured below) was the first one published. 

Stuart Daniels has hit bottom. Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, he is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression. Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: A make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country. It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for survival. What seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

You can download the first chapter HERE.

Here's the trailer for this book...



The next book in this series was Priceless.

Stuart Daniels’ next assignment carries him back overseas and into the heart of Russia. Once there, Daniels is persuaded by an old friend to help save two girls from a desperate situation. Soon he becomes a key player in a dangerous campaign to rescue helpless women trapped in the sex-slave trade. What Daniels encounters during his journey will shake his faith, test his courage, and even threaten his life.

 You can download the first chapter HERE. You can also read God's Gal's review of this book HERE.

And here's the trailer for this book...


Supposedly Tom will be writing another book in this series which will be set in Haiti after the earthquake. Even though these books are fictional accounts, they deal with real-life situations that some of our sponsored children face every day.

Have you read any good books lately?

One In Spirit

If you have been reading Compassion's blog for a while, you might recognize some of these devotionals written by Compassion employees and staff, representing 41 nations around the world.

These were published on a weekly basis during 2012 and you can find them all right HERE.

This is God

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows - this is God, whose dwelling is holy.

Psalm 68:5

What to Write ~ Write About Your Mom

With mother's day quickly approaching, I thought it might be fun to write a letter about our mothers. In the past when I have written bits of info about my parents, often my sponsored kids respond by asking to know more. So the topic for this round of letters is "all about my mom".

Here's a sample letter....

Dear.....

It is with great joy that I sit down to write another letter to you. How are you? I think about you every day, and when I do, I try to say a prayer for you.

May is an exciting month for our family. We have many birthdays to celebrate and it's also Mother's Day! In honor of Mother's Day, I thought I would take the opportunity to tell you all about my mom.

Her name is Diana Marie and I am named after her (my name is Jill Marie). She was the only child in her family and she has spent her entire life living in the state of Illinois. My mom worked as a nurse for many years. She also was a teacher of 3, 4 and 5 year olds for several years. 

My mom loves Jesus with her whole heart and has taught me to do the same. She loves to eat ice cream and go for walks. She is also a wonderful gardener and has gardens full of beautiful flowers. My mom has always been so supportive of me and what I do. When I first became a Compassion sponsor and advocate, my mom was one of the first people who listened to what I had to say and she quickly became a Compassion sponsor. She now sponsors seven different kids around the world. 


I am so thankful for my mom and cherish the time I get to spend with her. She lives in Illinois and I live in Oregon, so we don't see each other often. Whenever we are together, we like to go for long walks and also like to drink coffee together. She is a wonderful grandma to my two girls, also! Thankfully we are able to communicate regularly through the computer and phone.

I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about my mom. She knows about you and prays for you too. I would love for you to write back to me and tell me about your mom. I would love to know how I can pray for her. (Be sensitive - if your child does not live with his or her mom, leave this part out).

"Honor your father and mother" Exodus 6:2

Much love, Jill



As always, I would love to hear your thoughts! What have you written about lately?

A Dream So Big by Steve Peifer

In his new book, A Dream So Big Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger, Steve Peifer recounts how he and his family found themselves in Kenya for a year of mission work. In an effort to mourn and heal from the loss of their infant son, the Steve and Nancy Peifer and their two young sons went to Kenya. Steve never wanted to go to Africa. Nancy always wanted to go to Africa. Steve sensed God was telling him to "give his wife what she wanted". So off to Africa they went.

What started out as a year long assignment turned into a new life for the Peifer family. Steve had a vision of feeding school children lunch and what started out as one school getting lunch turned into thousands of kids getting a meal every day. Then God gave him another vision - to start computer labs at the schools. Steve and Nancy even adopted twins from Kenya - finalizing the adoption on the anniversary of their son Stephen's birth.

This is a story of how God used a terrible, painful situation and turned it into something greater - for his glory and his purpose. This is a story of a couple - of a family - who said "yes" to God. This is a story of Kenya - a country that is hurting and needs people to step in and feed their children.

I really enjoyed this book and would easily recommend it to anyone who has a heart for Africa and mission work. I did receive a free copy of this book from Booksneeze, in exchange for my honest review.