Amidst violent gang activity in the cities of El Salvador, Jesus’ love is being poured out to 35,000 children through 164 Child Development Projects – the work of Compassion International.
A few days ago I returned from a week-long tour of several of these church-based projects. I was impressed, inspired and touched by God as I visited with children whose lives have been
transformed by this wonderful ministry.
On the first day, I visited a family made up of four kids, a mother and a grandmother. Sadly, the father disappeared after siring these kids, a very common story in this part of the
world. The mother told us “during the day my mother watches the kids while I go out to pick coffee in the fields”. A laborer can make about $4 per day by picking coffee
beans. The grandmother was expressing her gratitude through many tears as our team dropped off a large bundle of groceries.
One of the children in this family attends the Child Development Project at her local church, where she is fed, given medical treatment twice per year, and taught a wholistic curriculum in four
areas – spiritual (Bible Studies), physical development, emotional/social and cognitive. I was told by a few of the pastors that the kids enjoy being there so much that they don’t want to
go home after the program is finished for the day.
I was impressed by the micro-businesses that are being run by families helped by Compassion. In the national office for Compassion International, the overseer of training and education told
us that they have three goals for the children in regards to education: to be good students, hard workers and entrepreneurs. They aren’t just giving the people food, they are teaching
them to grow and raise their own food. One pastor said “we want the kids to be self sufficient by the time they reach 18 years old”. This is the kind of economic help that will be
passed on from one generation to the next.
One of their pilot projects is a family operated chicken farm. The main workers in this operation are a 13-year old girl and a 15 year old boy. They attended a training course for 9
Saturdays to learn the basics of chicken farming, and then were given a gift of $400 to start the farm. With this money, they built a pen for the chickens and bought their first batch of
chicks. Bringing two batches of chickens to market each month brings them a profit of about $200 US per month, which is significant income for their family.
Here are two other micro-businesses begun by families I visited. The first was a “pupuseria” – a small home-based restaurant that sells “pupusas” – a staple of the El Salvadoran diet which
is a thick tortilla with beans and cheese mixed in. The second was a woman who used a monetary gift to buy a freezer – the main equipment needed for buying frozen meat at wholesale prices
and selling it to people in her neighborhood.
There were several other skills being taught to children that gave them income – baking, raising corn, making piñatas, and making dolls out of corn husks. Compassion International is
raising the level of vision and putting tools into the hands of these people that will enable them to have a consistent income, lifting them out of the dust.
We heard stories from a few outstanding graduates of the program – David and Wendy, both around 18 years old. David was a gifted speaker, and moved us all to tears as he shared about the
life changing experience of being sponsored by someone in the U.S. that he had never met. David showed us a box of letters and pictures he had received from his sponsor over a ten-year
period. Receiving letters and prayer support from his sponsor, who he called “his angel”, was a huge highlight that helped him to persevere and have hope for the future.
When both David and Wendy received a monetary gift, they would use it to buy shoes, because their only other pair was falling apart. Wendy had just received a scholarship to attend a
respected worship training school.
The greatest highlight of the week was meeting my own sponsored children. I was smothered by hugs and kisses as I walked off the bus to meet our “El Salvadoran family”. We then spent
a really fun day together, visiting a kids’ museum in San Salvador.
My own children have been exchanging letters and pictures with our sponsored kids since last year. My own kids each have a special Compassion pen pal – specific kids in a Compassion
project. Their names are Ivan, Jose, Marlon, Marlon, Bayron and Kimberly. My 20-year old son, David was also on the trip. He has two sponsored kids – Damaris and Angel.
In El Salvador I saw a beautiful picture of the worldwide body of Christ working together to bring the kingdom of God to needy children. The love, letters and prayers of the 1st-world
church provides the resources for the wonderful Christian staff people in places such as El Salvador to pass on the gospel to thousands of children. We saw their passion for the Lord, their
affectionate love for the kids, and their faithfulness to equip the kids to live a healthy life.