Made some new life-time friends from Compassion International over dinner tonight in Brad and Nancy Schultz and “Raf” Rafunzel Fazon. Also at dinner tonight were Kirk and Vicky Leavy, Compassion Advocates on Oahu, and Suraj Upadhiah, a young man from Singapore currently studying law in New Zealand who at the age of 21 has already started a mission to work with the children of prostitutes in Calcutta, India. Dan and I had met Suraj this past summer in Singapore, and he came purposely at this time to Honolulu to meet Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission, whose work is dedicated to work through the justice system to free children and women stuck in illegal law practices and the sex trade.
Brad is a Compassions Advocates area director who gives direction to the committed volunteer corps for Compassion International [http://compassion.com] in five Western states including Hawaii. He went on a Compassion trip to Tanzania two years ago, and his life was never the same – leading him to leave his job in the computer industry a year ago to work full-time for Compassion.
Raf is a wonderful 21 year old college student from the Philippines who was raised in Compassion’s child advocacy program from the time she was five years old and is now in Compassion’s Leadership Development Program, which gives select Compassion youth the opportunity to attend college and participate in a leadership program. She is studying communications at a Philippine university on Mindanao, and she is here this week to share her testimony about Compassion at HIM’s Honolulu Conference next week (Mar 12-14 at the Hawaii Convention Center) as well as churches around the islands.
I cannot tell you how continually impressed I am with the quality of people at Compassion. They care about what they do: Release Children from Poverty in Jesus’ name.
I learned a most poignant and profound lesson tonight from Raf as we rode home in the car. She says that when Compassion released children from poverty it isn’t to release them from poverty into riches but into something more more safe: the knowledge and care of Jesus. And here is the most profound thing she said. She defines poverty as the fear of not having enough.
If that is the case, and I believe Raf speaks the truth, many of us are very poor indeed.
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