Saturday, December 6, 2008

l.d.p. celebration!

last night we celebrated the graduation of 7 bright young leaders. these young people grew-up in compassion's sponsorship program and were the first one's to be chosen for compassion's l.d.p. they are going to into careers in engineering, banking, teaching, pastoring and more. one of them is already at moody bible institute getting his masters before he returns to the dominican republic to serve his community.

it was such a joy to be part of the festivities last night. not only were the graduating students there, but also their parents, pastors, mentors, project directors, and many of the compassion staff. also, all the current students were there, about 55, as well as the 30 new students, who have just entered the program and are studying in a l.d.p. academy too. a local congressman gave one of the addresses, as did kléber lora, the country director for compassion, and mike hinckfoot, a vice president of compassion. tony, the student who is at moody, even gave an address by conference. (it was supposed to be a video conference, but the internet failed us and we had to do it by phone.)

i didn't take as many pictures as i had hoped because i was running the computer for the projector. there was a reception afterwards which took until about 12am to break-up. i know there was food and drinks - i never got any, but it looked really good. the evening flew by so quickly and i was very busy talking to people and taking pictures and jumping in to translate where i could.

i am having trouble expressing just what an amazing event this was. to see these young people who have risen-up from poverty and have such an immense passion to serve their communities - what a blessing.

No comments: