Shelton Thompson is from Wheaton, Illinois. He first volunteered with Kids Alive in the Dominican Republic on a father/son service team in 2008 and for a summer internship in 2015. Shelton earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2017 and worked as an engineer after graduation, until he felt called to return to the Dominican Republic to serve full time as a missionary.

Having grown up the oldest of four boys, Shelton loves the role of big brother; interacting with kids—encouraging, teaching, playing, laughing—come naturally to him. During his prior trips with Kids Alive, the mission of rescuing at-risk children deeply resonated with Shelton. He learned so much through these cross-cultural experiences and saw God’s transformative love bring joy amid difficult circumstances.

As a service team host, Shelton is excited to equip teams both to serve those in need and to grow in their relationships with the Lord. As a sponsorship coordinator, he looks forward to helping children share their stories by facilitating communication between them and their sponsors.

Shelton desires to bring his boundless energy and enthusiasm to every task in order to serve at-risk children and the teams serving them—from grocery store and airport runs, to sponsorship paperwork and letter translations, to engineering and construction projects, to coaching and tutoring sessions. And of course, he’ll always be ready to play soccer or any other game with the kids in Constanza!