Former professional soccer player Ashleigh Alcorn was ready for a new calling from God at the end of her career. And it involved some of the most precious people in the world.
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Alcorn played professionally in the United States and internationally for five years after a standout collegiate career at Coastal Carolina University, where she was named Big South Conference Player of the Year in 2007 and 2008 and later inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame. But today, her mission field looks different.
She now serves as Relationship Manager of Professional Athlete Partnerships at Compassion International, helping some of the world’s most elite athletes leverage their influence to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.
And for Alcorn, it’s more than a career pivot — it’s a God-written story.
“One of my favorite parts of the journey the Lord wrote in my life was using soccer for me to come to know Him,” Alcorn shares. She encountered Christ through teammates during her college years, discovering firsthand the powerful intersection of sports and ministry.
Years later, that understanding has come full circle.
Now six years into her role at Compassion, Alcorn describes the organization as “one of the most impactful ministries in the world.” Founded nearly 75 years ago, Compassion partners with local churches in 29 countries to serve more than 2.4 million children through holistic child development — meeting physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs.
The distinction? Everything is done through the indigenous local church.
“We empower that local church to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their own community,” Alcorn explains. “That impacts the whole child, the whole family and ultimately the entire community.”
In her role, Alcorn walks alongside professional athlete families across major U.S. sports leagues — both men’s and women’s — helping them discern how God is calling them to use their platform.
“I really think I have one of the best jobs in the world,” she says with a smile.
One unforgettable moment came during a trip with players from the Atlanta Falcons to the Dominican Republic, led by punter Bradley Pinion (see below).
Watching towering linemen kneel eye-to-eye with the children they sponsor left a lasting impression.
“The bigger the guys are, the harder they fall,” Alcorn says. “Seeing tears stream down their faces as they meet these children — it just hits different.”
She recently witnessed another powerful moment in El Salvador during a home visit with a sponsored child named Michael. His family of five lives in a home roughly the size of a small office. When Compassion delivered a simple gift of beans, pasta and cooking oil, Michael’s mother wept.
“She said, ‘I am overcome with gratitude,’” Alcorn recalls. “And I thought — it could have been my four-year-old daughter running around that house. The only difference is where our children were born.”
Compassion’s model extends far beyond sponsorship letters.
Children can remain in the program from early childhood through age 18 to 22, depending on the country. The ministry even begins in utero through its Compassion Survival program, providing prenatal care, nutrition and skilled birth attendants for vulnerable mothers.
Alcorn says that when one child is sponsored, the ripple effect often reaches siblings, parents and the broader community. Churches may implement clean water systems, job training programs or educational initiatives — raising entire neighborhoods out of generational poverty.
“It’s not just about one child,” she says. “It’s about empowering the church to be a light on a hill.”
Many of the athletes Alcorn works with give quietly, wrestling prayerfully with how to steward both their finances and their platform.
Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jacob Slavin and his wife, Kylie, are one such family. Slavin, also named to Team USA for the upcoming Olympics, has partnered with Compassion for years — sometimes publicly to inspire others, other times choosing anonymity in obedience to Matthew 6.
“There’s this beautiful tension,” Alcorn explains. “How do you use your platform to inspire generosity without letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing? They’re navigating that through prayer and discernment.”
For Alcorn, witnessing that spiritual maturity in young families is one of the greatest rewards of her work.
“Seeing 20-somethings with young babies make sacrificial decisions for people who can never repay them — I’ll never get tired of that,” she says. “It’s not about the dollar amount. It’s about the heart.”
At its core, Compassion’s work reflects the heart of God — caring for “the least of these,” equipping local churches and restoring dignity to families around the world.
If you’d like to learn more about sponsoring a child or supporting the ministry, visit Compassion.com or follow Compassion on social media to see stories of lives being transformed.
As Alcorn reminds listeners, generosity isn’t about pressure — it’s about obedience.
“Not where I tell you to give. Not where your neighbor tells you to give. But where the Lord has prompted your heart.”