Testimonies From Churches


Brevard Community Church and Jewel


Brevard Community Church was sold on the Leadership Development Program (LDP). After seeing the program in action, Pastor Todd Alewine believed its students could have a tremendous Kingdom impact in their respective countries. However, the church leadership faced challenging decisions.

  • Problem: The church had outgrown its facility and needed additional space to meet needs as ambassadors for Christ in their community.
  • Solution: The congregation rallied, and their financial pledges completely covered the cost of a new building addition.
  • Opportunity: The church leadership wanted to meet the needs of the church while simultaneously addressing the needs of the poor of the world and those poor in spirit.

“We want to be outwardly focused—to recognize those suffering and without Christ around the world,” Todd says. “So we tithed on our congregation’s pledges. We gave ten percent of our pledges to local benevolent causes, to an organization that translated the Bible for an unreached people group, and to a student in Compassion’s Leadership Development Program.”

Meanwhile, college student Jewel Confidente Luis was beginning the Leadership Development Program in the Dominican Republic. Brevard Community Church chose to sponsor him. An appointed correspondent in the church writes to Jewel regularly so the church can be involved with his life, pray for him, be a source of guidance, and affirm his dreams and passion.

“Typically you think a college student in the Dominican Republic is so poor that he has nothing to give,” Todd comments. “But we realize that Jewel has a lot to give to us. We intentionally chose Jewel because our children’s ministry sponsors two ten-year-olds, Weldy and Anny, also from the Dominican Republic. We want our kids to catch the vision that these two children can grow up to be just like Jewel—Godly leaders in their families and communities, equipped as servant-leaders.”

Not only is the children’s ministry inspired by Jewel, so are the youth. During a short term mission trip to the Dominican Republic, the junior and senior high students met Jewel and were inspired by his vision to be used by the Lord. Jewel is a Godly role model to the students in Brevard.

In God’s perfect economy, He is raising up indigenous leaders like Jewel through the Leadership Development Program, and He is also using Jewel to shape leaders at Brevard Community Church.



Stonecreek Church is Raising Up a Leader

By Ken Murphy


When our leadership team believed God was asking our church to sponsor a student through Compassion's Leadership Development Program (LDP), we wanted our congregation to experience a taste of the individual impact that sponsorship can make in the life of an LDP student. We were committed to actively engaging our congregation in the sponsorship process, but our greatest challenge was how to connect a suburban professional in sprawling North Atlanta to a college student in the developing world. How can we communicate the personal impact of the Leadership Development Program in the life of the student and sponsor?

Our conclusion? Let's take them there. And that is exactly what we did.

Through interactive live video via Skype and the World Wide Web, Stonecreek Church was able to meet and interact with Chanel, a young college student in the Dominican Republic. As Chanel and I huddled in front of my computer screen we watched Stonecreek Church unite and demonstrate their collective support and belief that God created this young man as valuable and set apart to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. Little did Chanel know that the congregation he was sharing his story with would be his new sponsor.

At the close of our interview, hundreds of individuals in our auditorium stood in ovation to encourage this young leader, to commit to fully funding his education and to affirm his dreams. As Chanel and I watched from my computer screen, I was speechless to watch a man filled with indescribable joy for God's provision in his life. His first response: thanksgiving. He asked to pray for Stonecreek Church, and in his own language he asked God to provide for the church. We knew we had made a connection between student and sponsor.

That day at Stonecreek Church, we didn't merely learn about Compassion. We experienced compassion. And, perhaps, the greatest model was not our act of sponsorship. That day, the greatest model of compassion was Chanel.



Ken Murphy is lead pastor at Stonecreek Church, a non-denominational church in Milton, Georgia (north Atlanta) that exists to lead people to pursue life in Jesus as their greatest passion. Through their partnership with Compassion International, Stonecreek sponsors two LDP students in the Dominican Republic and has influenced individuals to sponsor 532 children through the Child Sponsorship Program.