Bauer Tales from the RV Trails: The Difference is Jesus

Today was such a full day I know I will forget details. We had an early start this morning of 7:45am departure off to the Compassion headquarters for the DR. Here, a staff of 50 coordinates the work of 43,000 sponsor children, the Child Survival Program, and the Community Intervention Program. The most interesting part of the tour was to see all of the sponsor letters come in and hear the process of translating and sending it to the child. The director of Compassion DR, Jose, has an incredible vision and such a humble heart. It was moving to see how respected he is and quietly works so hard in the background in each project.

Our afternoon was spent at a Compassion school in the city of Santo Domingo. We enjoyed a time of worship with about 100 kids aged 4-12 who had waited for 2 hours as we were running behind schedule. All the kids joined in the action song ‘Peace Like a River’ that Jon led.

Following the time of singing a 14 year old stood up to speak, Dani. What happened next moved all of us to tears. This young girl began preaching to these sponsor children and through a translator we were astounded with the challenge she gave to the kids. She spoke with such authority and passion and conviction, giving her life testimony of finding God – what a humbling experience to see a glimpse of a gift in someone that we all felt God will use as a significant tool to build up His kingdom in the coming days. Jon stood up and spoke words of encouragement to Dani that brought us all to tears.

We had the opportunity to close out the day with another home visit. A Compassion translator came with us and we followed 4 year old Kimberly (a sponsor child that attends the Compassion school) along with her 9 year old sister and 1 year old baby sister on her hip through a maze of poverty. As we left the crumbled concrete paths and they turned to garbage filled dirt corridors filled with garbage I wondered when we would arrive to what they call home. Once again I was broken inside as we came upon a small home built into the hillside with piled up garbage as their fence and a small wood fire to cook on outside. The walls and roof were built of rusted out corrugated steel pieces and only a dirt floor. Inside we met the mother, 8 months pregnant herself with her 4^th child. She came out wrapped in a dirty towel and we all crowded into her dark family room.

The electricity, consisting of one light bulb, works for only an hour or two if that per day. They do not have a bathroom and have to travel to the neighbours house to use one. Their source of water is outside the home beside their wood fire to cook their food on. The bedroom had a double mattress and single mattress with only one blanket on one bed for all 4 of them to sleep. The mother has lived in this home for 19 years and it was passed down to her from her mother who has now moved to a different area of the city.

Her husband rarely shows up and she has no source of income to support their family. Kimberly was just accepted into the Compassion program this week and today had been her first time at the school. Kimberly’s tutor explained to us that Compassion was working hard to enroll her other 2 children into the program as well as this family obviously needs all the help they can get. All of the family attends church and we had a time of prayer over the girls and their mother. I encouraged cuddling with her little baby and reminding myself to just once again embrace this moment.

Following our visit the tutor expressed how deeply grateful the mother was for our visit and the box of food we had donated on behalf of the local church for her family. Compassion has been praying for this family living in extreme poverty for several months and she called it a God-appointed moment that today was Kimberly’s visit day in the program and we visited their home on the same day. She believes this will bring renewal and restored joy to a seemingly desolate situation.

Just when I thought I could not process any more experiences in one day we travelled back to the hotel to prepare for our dinner with several LDP students. Prior to this trip I was not aware of the LDP program but now have captured the vision and this seems to complete the full circle of the Child Sponroship program in my eyes of what Compassion offers.

The LDP program, Leadership Development Program, takes in approximately 300 students at a time and essentially pays for the university expenses to allow a formerly sponsored child to become a professional. This application process is incredibly hard and only the most dedicated can actually be accepted into the program.

We heard the testimony of four current LDP students and not a dry eye remained in the room. Each student told a story of coming from extreme poverty and one young man, Tony, even told of wanting to take his own life in order to remove some of the burden off of his family to put food on the table. They each told of endless blessings coming from being sponsored through their childhood and letters from their sponsors changing their life for eternity. Tony spoke of receiving a letter from his sponsor in the US saying ‘how proud they are of him’. He explained how difficult this was for him to process and even understand but as their letters kept coming he began to fully understand the love of Jesus through their words of encouragement in his life. I asked Adam, another LDP student, what his hopes and aspirations are in life. He replied to finish school so he can make enough money to build a home for his mother.

Each student continually expressed gratitude and gave all the glory back to God. It was evident of their strong faith they now have because of Compassion and the Godly character they now possess. This powerful evening of testimony and worship conclude our brief trip with Compassion. Tomorrow we fly home back to our children (I miss them dearly!) and “comfortable” life in Canada. I thank God for giving me these moments over the past three days that I have fully embraced. May we use them and keep them in the forefront of our minds as we come back home to be the hands and the feet of these children who have no voice in this world. I know we cannot change this entire world but we can change the world for one child, one child at a time.