Don’t Try This at Home!

When the manual says, “heater core replacement not recommended for the home mechanic,” it means it! 9 hours in, and haven’t even started putting it back together.

Video of Previous Post

I just found this video of the amazing story I described in my previous post. Trust me, you will want to watch it.

Impact

Last week was a great week. I spent most of it in Atlanta and was on the go the whole time I was there. Went to the U2/Muse concert with Melody, participated in a goal-setting group with some really sharp people, got to sit in on Northpoint Church’s monthly staff meeting, had dinner with my friend Kristi and several non-profit organization leaders, attended the Catalyst conference, hosted a luncheon for Backstage Leadership, and got to hang out with several other friends to wrap it all up.

Every event was great and I could share lots of things I learned and experienced from each of them. However, one thing that happened at Catalyst impacted me in a way that I will not soon forget. During one of the Friday sessions, we watched a short video about Compassion International, an organization that helps children in poor areas of the world. At the end of the video, the MC for the conference interviewed onstage a young Kenyan man who had been in the Compassion program. In a thick accent he shared the story of his life; how he had to scavenge for food as a child because his mother was sick, how his younger sister died from starvation, how he was rescued by Compassion, sheltered, clothed, fed, and educated. How he came to know Jesus. How he is currently in seminary in the US so that he can go back to Kenya as a pastor. What a powerful story. But the kicker was still to come..

The way Compassion is organized, it seeks to pair up every child that it helps with a sponsor. The sponsor funds that specific child’s basic physical and educational needs for around $35/month, and the sponsor and the child are encouraged to write back and forth.

Back to Catalyst. As the young Kenyan man finished sharing his story, the MC asked him if he had ever met his sponsor, which he hadn’t. The MC then told him that they had arranged for his sponsor to be there and for them to meet, right then. When the young American man walked out on stage and the 2 men embraced, the scripted program fell apart in the most beautiful powerful way. Although both men were visibly impacted, the Kenyan man was simply overcome with emotion, weeping loudly and bear-hugging his sponsor. For a long time. No words were needed. No questions were appropriate. Just the picture of 2 lives changed forever. There was not a dry eye in the room.

For the past few days I cannot get that scene out of my mind. Through sponsorship of a child for a few dollars a month, two people’s lives have been changed forever. Something about the simplicity and power of that cuts through all the busyness and often insignificance of the things I think about on a daily basis. I hope and pray that this story will stick with me, that it will affect the way that I think about how I spend not only my money but also my time. That I will devote my life to things that truly matter and not get caught up in all the rest.