Dario and Compassion International

We saw this verse in action tonight. Tonight at our English as a Second Language group we met Dario. Dario is a native Ecuadorian but speaks English fluently and works as a teacher like Pete and me. Dario is around our age and we hit it off with him right away because of his easy smile and friendly demeanor. Then we found out that we are neighbors! Dario lives with an American missionary couple right down the street from us. We decided to take a bus home together afterwards and that is when we got to hear Dario's story...

Dario is a real life Compassion International kid from the jungle village of Shell, Ecuador. He was supported by a family from Long Beach, CA until his family no longer needed the help. It was amazing to hear how much love he had for his Compassion family. He told us how he treasured the letters and pictures they sent him, and how he loved to send them his drawings and letters in return. Dario said that it was through his Compassion family that he first learned that love is an action not a word. It struck with him that some family who he had never even met would love him enough to support him to go to school and have clothes and food for his family. Dario's dad left his family when Dario was eight. His dad left behind five children and a wife. Dario said that he always knew that someone loved him because he had a Compassion International dad who always said he loved him and was proud of him.

When Dario turned 18, his mom told him that he had to leave the house and find work. She couldn't support him and his other brothers and sisters. So she gave him all the spare money she had and sent him on his way. He went to the bus station with one backpack, boarded the first bus that came, not knowing where it was going, and ended up in a town called Banos, which is a tourist city in Ecuador. He spoke only a little English but knew a tourist agent from his home town and was able to convince him to give him a job. While Dario was working in Banos, he worked to improve his English by listening to the English Christian radio station in Ecuador called HCJB. At HCJB, as a non-native English listener, you can request written copies of the programs given so that you can follow along, so Dario was one of the thousands of Ecuadorians who got regular emails of the programs from HCJB. He kept in regular contact with the HCJB correspondent named Karen.

After working in Banos for a while, Dario's boss suddenly left town. He owed Dario 2 months pay. Dario didn't know what to do so he decided to try his luck in Quito. He had no where to go once he arrived in Quito so he decided to go to the HCJB headquarters. At HCJB, Dario found Karen's office. He introduced himself to Karen and said this: "I've got nowhere to go but I want to get a job here. I can't pay you rent now, but if you let me stay in your house for 2 weeks and after the 2 weeks I don't have a job you can kick me out." Surprisingly, after speaking to her husband, Karen agreed. What started out as 2 weeks turned into 6 years. Karen and her husband Sam basically adopted Dario as one of their own. He still doesn't have to pay rent and they even paid for him to go to college. Now Dario works for an international volunteer organization called Youth World. He also still goes back to his home town to preach the gospel to the Shawiri Indians.

So the point of this story is that God uses people all the time. Dario wishes so badly that he could contact his Compassion family and to thank them for letting him become more than anyone ever thought he could. Now Dario gives back all the love that was given to him through his ministry outreach program.

Seriously this sounds like something out of Compassion International brochure but this is real life. It goes to show that you never know what kind of a difference you can make in someone's life.
Dario would love to contact the family in California that supported him through Compassion International to let them know how much they meant to him in working his way to a good life, but the branch here in Ecuador won't let him send them a letter. If anyone knows someone at Compassion International in the US who could help Dario contact the family, we'd love for you to contact us so we can help Dario contact the family.

Dario's coming over to our house for dinner tomorrow night. We're excited to have a new friend that we can learn so much from.

(Also we asked his permission to tell his story and he gave it to us gladly).

-Tesha