"Compassion Equals Involvement"

Last night at 7:30 I started to read "Fields of the Fatherless" by Tom Davis (get it if you don't have it). At 9:30 pm I had completed the book and had a renewed sense of commitment to keep on fighting for the fatherless. The fatherless are orphans yes, but also widows, single moms, the poor, starving, lonely, the sick, anyone waiting to know YOU care.

In his book, Davies quotes Henri Nouwen who said:

"The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean "to suffer with." Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak and with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human."

Simply put, you need to be involved to be compassionate. Watching the news at night and feeling a sense of sadness when you see babies in Africa starving does not equal compassion. We need to act. Action does not require only giving of your money. Step away from the fear associated with putting yourself "out there" and move to change lives!

Try as we may, we can't do it all but each one of us can make a small difference, one act at a time. God will richly bless your life when you start caring for the people He aches for and you will be filled with an infinite amount of joy!

Davis says "I believe when you strip Christianity down to its basics, this is what it means: to feed, to clothe, and treat the fatherless as members of one's own family." I completely agree.

Here is a reminder why we and everyone involved with our organization chooses to ACT:

"I hated my life since the 3rd grade when I was unmercifully beaten. I felt then that life is lost and death is looking for me. And my tears were telling me that life was nothing in comparison with death. I felt like a little cockroach, which (responds in) fear when seen. A bunch of American people came to our school. I thought these people wanted to laugh at us. But I was mistaken. They are people willing to give up the most precious gift a person can process, love. (Their) intentions to share seemed strange as they had their own kids. But these people have such big hearts to give that there is still enough room even for us little cockroaches. Then I began to feel myself not a cockroach anymore that deserved to be killed, but a littlehuman being. It is a wonderful feeling. Believe me." - Russian orphan, from "Fields of the Fatherless"