Inspired to Move by Kat of Inspired to Action
We're very excited to tell you about Shaun Groves' latest album, Third World Symphony. Shaun is passionate about social justice, promoting Compassion International in word and deed. The album is fan-funded and releases tomorrow, August 30th. (The Third World Symphony site will also go live then, and will contain lyrics, videos, stories, and other interactive elements.)
Shaun is known for his many trips to Compassion sites around the world. He takes bloggers along with him to spread the work of Compassion as far as he can. In May, he took a group to the Philippines, and one of those bloggers was Kat from Inspired to Action. She's here to share her story with you today!
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They were waving at me from the hotel lobby. Family I'd dreamed of meeting all my life. Aunts and Uncles who had known my mother and could tell me all about her. People who missed her just as much as I did.
I sat on the bus outside that Manila hotel waiting for Shaun to finish giving instructions for the evening. Except I'm not sure he actually finished. He may have just paused to think ... or breathe. All I know is that I bolted down the aisle, out of the bus, into the lobby and tried to hold back the tears while the hotel security guards checked my bags.
I failed miserably; the tears streamed. The guards, unnerved by my watery emotions, waved me on and I ran into the arms of my family, who had been waiting to meet me for 35 years.
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Going on the Compassion Bloggers trip to the Philippines wasn't like any other trip.
No, this one was different. I wasn't traveling across the world to write about people different than me. I was traveling across the world to write about people more like me than any I'd ever known.
My mom, who died when I was a baby, was from the Philippines. I'd never known her or her family. But that evening in May I was welcomed as their own. And in the following days at the Compassion centers, I played with and hugged children who looked just like me but lived very, very different lives. It inspired me. It broke me.
And yet...
Even with such a personal, heart felt experience, not long after I arrived home, the memories began to fade.
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I stepped off the plane from the Philippines to a summer in full throttle. We traveled, we summer camped, VBS'd, we swim lesson'd. If it could be done, it was on our calendar.
And I began to forget the unforgettable.
... what it was like in the tiny homes of those Filipino children .
... how it felt to walk through waste water and trash as children played around us.
What makes it so easy for us to forget?
Busyness.
This quote rang true for me. "If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy."
And was I ever busy.
But ... I'd seen the massive impact we have on our Compassion children. I'd seen tears in the eyes of children talking about their sponsors. I'd seen the hope in the eyes of parents.
So I decided to start a knock down, drag out, bare-knuckled brawl with busyness. With complacency.
I realized we can't always *feel* inspired to action, sometimes we need to fight for action. And if I came home with anything from my trip to the Philippines, it's that those precious children are worth our fight.
So I challenge you to take a swing at complacency and set aside 5 minutes right now to pray for one of these children. Who's ready for a throw down?
Kat and her husband Jimmy have three children ages 8, 6 and 3. She loves music, running, Jesus and Tex-Mex food. Not necessarily in that order. Kat started the site Inspired to Action to help moms raise children who will change the world by offering practical tips and advice.
