How One Girl Brings the Hope of Jesus to Her Community
The church-run Compassion center provides a safe place from the challenges related to poverty in Masbate City. In Rodelin’s community, families earns an average of $44 a month. Most people work as day laborers and struggle to afford enough food, clothes and education for their children. To help their families survive, many children quit school to work. The community also lacks clean water and proper bathrooms, which leads to various illnesses among children.
But from a narrow alley in this impoverished community come sounds of singing and laughter. Sitting outside on wooden benches in two neat rows is a group of children. They’ve come to listen to their teacher share a Bible lesson. It’s a tough task for any teacher to keep a group of 5- to 10-year-olds in line, but their teacher Rodelin, a 13-year-old with a sweet smile, does it with ease. When Rodelin picks up her Bible and begins sharing her favorite stories, her students can’t take their eyes off her.
Since she was 10, Rodelin has led a powerful Bible study group. She started teaching her friends the songs she learned at her Compassion center, and soon she was telling them Bible stories.
“Whatever I learned from the center I would teach my students,” she says. “I am happy to lead them in worship and give the message through stories. My focus is to lead kids to Christ.”
By age 11, Rodelin had helped 23 of her friends come to know Christ.
“She’s no ordinary girl,” says Rema Reyes, director of the Compassion center Rodelin attends. “She’s an agent of transformation.”
Rodelin’s father works as a driver, but his job doesn’t always bring enough money to support the family. But since Rodelin joined Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program in 2009, some of the financial burden has been lifted. Now Rodelin has books, supplies and uniforms to go to school. She also discovered how much Jesus loves her and gave her life to him. She wasn’t the only one.
“The most wonderful thing that happened to me was when both of my parents accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior,” says Rodelin. “Life has never been the same.”
Now she believes anything is possible — especially becoming a teacher when she grows up. Why is she so sure?
‘”For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’” she says, quoting Jeremiah 29:11. With a Bible in her hand, Rodelin is bringing hope to her community in Jesus’ name.
