Abelardo “Abel” Alvarez (’82) was 8 years old when he and his mother, Modesta, and two of his siblings found themselves in Mexico, “living under a tree,” as he describes it.

They immigrated to the United States in 1968 to seek a better life, moving in with family members in South Texas until his father could join them. Abel and his pregnant mother were picked up by a truck at 4:30 each morning so they could work as day-laborers in the fertile onion fields of the Valley, where thousands of migrant workers pick fruit and vegetables in a year-round climate where produce thrives, even if people do not.

He did not begin school until age 10, progressing through three grades in 1970, thanks to the determined kindness of his first-grade teacher. He graduated a year early from high school in Pharr, Texas.

Abel grew up Catholic but was baptized at a Spanish-speaking Church of Christ in McAllen at age 9. Abel soon began attending an English-speaking congregation across the street, where ACU alumnus Steve Barrett (M.A. ’88) confirmed Abel’s early desire to study toward a career in ministry.

“One summer during high school, my mother came with a group from our church to Bible Teachers Workshop at ACU,” Abel said. “She mailed me a postcard showing a wildcat statue in front of the Campus Center. She said they taught Bible and Greek there.

I will never forget her words: ‘This is a place you would like.’”

Even though Abel made good grades and was told in high school that he was extremely bright, he did not score well on his ACT. He convinced ACU’s admissions office of his intangible qualities, promised to work hard and hitched a ride with a friend to Abilene.

“I quickly learned there were several levels of other bright students at ACU, and I was not in the top one,” laughs Abel, the first of his eight siblings not only to attend formal school, but college.

He worked his way through Abilene Christian, taking campus jobs in buildings and grounds, repairing doors and windows, cutting grass and changing the oil of vehicles in the motor pool.

He earned a Bible scholarship to go along with “maxing out on every federal and state grant” offered because of his family’s low income.

He met fellow freshman Diane Palmer, a psychology major who grew up in a family of church planters in Southwest Ohio.

“I didn’t think I’d ever marry a minister, but I saw Abel’s love for God, and that was important to me,” said Diane.

Abel and Diane became good friends and dated over the next four years, graduating in May 1982 and marrying that August. He stayed in town to begin graduate work, earning a master’s in ministry and evangelism, and years later an M.Div. degree.

Abel’s first paying ministry job was at 16th and Vine Church of Christ as a part-time youth minister. The congregation was known for helping its neighbors, including an active bus ministry in which Abel served.

Today, Abel is the longtime minister of Harvey Drive Church of Christ in McAllen, where he serves a congregation of about 125 members. Abel said it is determined to be a bicultural community of believers.

His work and ministry have taken several forms: preacher, counselor, community outreach activist and ACU’s unofficial representative in McAllen. By combining these roles, he is able to “do something for the kids, make a difference in peoples’ lives and affect the way they see the world.”

“I’m offering them a family through ACU,” Abel said, “and by affecting some, it will affect siblings and others. A young person’s life can be radically transformed by an ACU education.”

When Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the iPad Mini on Oct. 23, 2012, in California, one of the slides in his multimedia presentation included a quote from MISD superintendent Dr. James Ponce.

MISD is fully immersed in TLC3 – Transforming Learning in the Classroom, Campus and Community. The bold program has put more than 27,000 mobile-learning devices in the hands of all students and teachers in the district, perhaps the largest deployment of iPads and iPod touches in any school system in the world.

Abel served as a fire-starter, urging MISD leaders to take a serious look at the innovative work ACU was doing with mobile-learning technology. He brought Ponce to Abilene for the university’s Connected Summit in February 2011, where he heard Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talk about the ways education must change to meet the learning needs of students.

Abel lobbied for MISD to use a fraction of its annual $200 million budget to invest in technology and the future of its students.

“I am a dreamer, and so is he,” Abel said. “I told Dr. Ponce, ‘For less than 2 percent of your annual budget, you can … change the future for our students, level the playing field and give them the best tools they can get.”

Special funding allowed the district initially to purchase iPad 2s for 140 teachers representing 14 of the district’s schools. ACU began training teachers and by February 2012, the first wave of iPads began to arrive.

Other than God, his church ministry and his family, Abel says ACU is the most important influence in his life. The university feels his influence not only in South Texas but on campus, where he is a member of the ACU Board of Trustees, bringing his insight and energy to every challenge and opportunity.

“He has this huge heart for people; he would do anything for anyone,” Diane said. “He puts everybody first and himself last, even to his own detriment.”