Last fall, three seemingly average students matriculated in Moody Graduate School’s Spiritual Formation and Discipleship program. Like most Moody students they enjoyed coffee at JOE's and studied at Crowell Library. However, Richmond Wandera, Tony Morales and Michelle Tolentino are anything but average. All three students are former Compassion children who came to Christ through relationships with their sponsors and Compassion International’s discipleship programs. Compassion, which is currently led by Moody alumnus Dr. Wess Stafford, enabled Wandera, Morales and Tolentino to graduate from Compassion’s Leadership Development Program and now attend Moody. This three-part summer series, updated each month on Moody’s Web site, shares their stories and experiences at Moody, as well as future plans.
Michelle Tolentino – Manila, Philippines
“Ask, ‘How can you build them up in a way up that allows them to dream?’” is Michelle Tolentino’s advice to Compassion sponsors. Before her own Compassion experience, Tolentino had no aspirations of a life outside Baltao Santa Mesa, one of the roughest areas of the Philippine city of Manila. She spent her childhood living in a house with 17 relatives where she and her siblings shared a pack of instant noodles for their daily meal. Christ’s words, however, began to give her hope when, as a six-year-old, she went to church with her aunt.
At church, Tolentino specifically remembers finding “His words” a source of comfort. Through the church, she attended school where she excelled and even joined the drama team. She also built a relationship with her Compassion sponsor, Esther, and Esther’s two daughters and husband. 
They exchanged letters often and Tolentino learned a new skill–the ability to imagine life could be more. “Her words somehow healed me,” says Tolentino. “Because of them I began to dream.”
As Michelle grew, her aspirations were nurtured by the Compassion staff in the Philippines and her sponsor. She received honors from her elementary school and was able to go to high school. Following graduation, she continued in Compassion’s Leadership Development Program and earned a Communication Arts degree from the University of Santo Tomas, a prestigious university in the Philippines. She began to use her communications training and passion for drama as the youngest Marketing Head for Triumphant Peoples Evangelistic Theater Society (Trumpets). Started in 1989 by a group of artists, Trumpets is Asia’s first professional gospel theater group. Tolentino served with Trumpets for six years. The role taught her there is more to leadership than having a title.
“At the core of leadership is a spiritual aspect,” says Tolentino. “We cannot lead an organization or ministry, or change a nation, if we do not disciple the next generation.” So, she applied for the Wess Stafford–Moody Scholarship, where she would be able to study the intersection of spiritual formation and discipleship. Two weeks before the end of her second semester at Moody, she shared that the first year of her program has, “been the best of my life. My passion has more than doubled. My professors are living what they teach. They have helped me reconcile poverty and getting your dreams.”
In Spring 2009, Tolentino returned to the Philippines with Moody’s Practical Christian Ministries (PCM) department. Each spring PCM coordinates ministry trips for students to see the real-life and practical application of their classroom learning through missions. For the last few years, PCM has sent a team to work with Samaritana Ministries and do general outreach in Manila. Returning to her hometown solidified Tolentino’s desire to share Christ’s love in the midst of the city’s challenges: “My heart has never been so broken. I now believe there is a whole new level to what I can do to help.”
As Tolentino talks about expectations for her second year at Moody, she first recounts the experiences brought into her life by Christ alone: She was able to meet her sponsor, Esther, and learn that Esther faces a challenging illness, but despite circumstance supported Michelle faithfully; she discovered that she can support her own Compassion child in the Philippines, Andrew; through her PCM trip, she was able to share the gospel with the women of Manila and work with children in a Vacation Bible School class; she has the ability to share about the freedom and love she experiences in Christ, after being told how ugly she was as a child and that she would never know anything but despair.
This summer, Tolentino has been asked to speak at different conferences and Compassion events in Canada and the United States. “It is very humbling to be asked to speak. However, my story just shows how one can make a difference in the life of another.”