When you look back on your life, chances are you can name a few people who helped shape the person you’ve become. Parents, teachers, coaches – some leave marks that we wish we could forget, while others offer encouragement and care.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling with Compassion International to the Dominican Republic. While I was there, I met a man named Jonathan whose early years were shaped by pain - specifically, the absence of a loving father.

Jonathan’s father once told him,

You are the worst mistake I ever made.

That kind of wound cuts deep. Growing up in a single-parent home in a violent neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Jonathan started to believe that the only way to find security and identity was by joining a gang. In his eyes, gang members had the life he wanted: nice shoes, cool clothes, and, most of all, a place to belong.

By the time Jonathan began attending a Compassion center at age 7, he had already developed a reputation for fighting. He fought at school, in the neighborhood, and even with the other kids at the Compassion center. For five years, he kept up the same patterns. Then, when he was 12, something happened that changed everything.

He got into a fight and knocked another boy to the ground. The boy hit his head and fell into a coma.

For days, Jonathan was filled with dread. Would the boy survive? Would he go to jail?

Then, in the middle of that fear, a woman at the Compassion center sat with him and gently asked, “Jonathan, why do you fight? Don’t you know that we love you?”

That moment pierced something in him. He said it was like the light came on. He realized he didn’t have to keep walking the same destructive path.

By God’s grace, the boy survived. Jonathan didn’t go to jail and that moment became a turning point. He gave up fighting, gave his life to Jesus, and slowly started to believe that maybe his life could be different.

But Jonathan’s story doesn’t end there.

For 14 years, he was sponsored by a woman named Jayme who lives in Michigan. She wrote him letters, mostly just simple single-paragraph notes and he saved every single one.

Jayme's kindness and compassion in her letters helped fill a hole left by his father. In fact, not long after his father told him he was a mistake, Jonathan received a letter from Jayme. She had no idea what he was going through. It was just a simple Thanksgiving note with one line that changed his life:

I am thankful for you, Jonathan.

He felt seen, valued, and loved.

Through that letter (and many more!) God began to show Jonathan that the sense of belonging he longed for could be found in the body of Christ. God used these women to help rewrite what could have been a tragic ending to his story.

Today, Jonathan is a graduate of the Compassion program. He’s a husband, a father, and (miraculously!) he’s even reconciled with his own dad. He loves Jesus and now works for Compassion, helping to bring this life-changing hope to kids who are walking the same roads he once did.

In the Dominican Republic, I saw a lot of new stories being written. Young men learning barber skills so they can work and have an income, the young woman who lives in a remote village and is the first in her family to go to college, hungry children being fed, and families finding the hope of Jesus—all through Compassion's partnership with local churches and you.

Barber School at the Compassion Center

When you sponsor a child through Compassion, God can use you to help rewrite their story.

Your financial support provides not just meals and education, but a caring community through their local church, people who will show up and speak life over a child facing deep poverty. And when you write letters, even short ones, you’re offering the kind of encouragement that can break through hopelessness and shape a future.

One day, your Compassion child will look back and remember the people who helped guide them—and your name will be on that list.

Sponsor a Child Today!