Oscar Montero

Q: Tell us about your childhood. Why do you think the staff at your Compassion center believed you would benefit from the program?

A: My life was difficult from the day I was born. My mother was an alcoholic, and my grandparents had to take me away from her when I turned 1 year old. But at their house, I was mostly looked after by my uncles, and under their care serious things happened to me. I fell out of the bed many times, suffering head injuries. I also would be bitten by ants all over, and as my uncles did not feed me, I was hungry most of the time.

Then, when I was 6, I started working after school. I worked with my grandmother doing laundry at a local motel, carrying heavy buckets of water and baskets of wet bedsheets.

Q: How did your life change when you began going to the Compassion center?

A: Being registered at the center was a blessing. They helped me so much. They gave me a bed, and I didn’t have to sleep with my grandparents anymore. At the center, I started to receive what I never had at home: love.

But still, when I went home, I was lonely. I felt despised by the community. Neighbors used to tell me that I was going to end up as a drug addict, a thief. They threw stones and yelled at me. They made fun of me because my father wouldn’t acknowledge me and my mother had abandoned me.

Q: Tell us about your teen years.

A: Even though I was learning good things at the center, I soon gave in to the negative messages and influences of my home life. I started a gang at school, and we would steal things.

To me, stealing was like a joke. I had fun doing it. But one day, when we were robbing a farm, the owner saw us and began to shoot at us. One bullet passed near my right ear. The second one almost hit my leg and the third almost hit my arm. While I was running away, I saw my entire life flash across my mind. I was so scared. I was only 16 years old.

That experience woke me up. I began to attend church, and I invited the members of my gang to come too.

Q: What was that journey like, from gang to church? How did your friends and family react?

A: To accept Jesus in my heart was the hardest decision I ever had to make. I knew I had to leave behind who I was, especially my gang friends. That decision made me feel bad and hurt my heart. The first six months were very difficult. I had differences with my family every day, and my friends and neighbors criticized me all the time. I thought about turning back, but I could hear the sweet voice of God that used to tell me, “Don’t look back, because I love you, I am with you and everything’s going to be all right.”

Q: Where do you think you’d be if you’d not had Compassion in your life?

A: Compassion was the mediator between an evil world and having Jesus in my life. Compassion guided me and took me from the bad things I was doing, to the man I have become. All the good things I now know, the passion to serve the Lord and the love I have for people, I learned here at the center. If I had not been part of Compassion, my life would still be surrounded by chaos, and I might even be dead by now.

Q: Can you tell us what your life is like now?

A: I am still registered with Compassion, praise the Lord, and I volunteer as a tutor at my center. I am able to teach the children there all the things I have learned. God is doing great things in this center and I want to be part of this. I want to invest my life to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

What I missed at home, I found in the center. I found love, care and hugs. They taught me responsibility, humility and values.